Contact:
Creighton Condon (+ 1 212 848 7628)
Lisa Conte, media queries (+ 1 212 848 7857)

New York, 7 May 2003 — The global law firm of Shearman & Sterling has announced the formation of its Sports Group. The practice, which has been a growing area for the firm over the past several years, is distinguished by its worldwide network of fully integrated offices and practice areas in key financial centers worldwide. The Sports Group is uniquely qualified in its ability to address M&A, tax, regulatory, compensation, bank and structured finance, litigation, real estate, intellectual property and project development & finance issues within the same team.

Recent transactions have included representation of:

• John W. Henry and New England Sports Ventures in their historic acquisition of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park and New England Sports Network;
• WestLB in financing for the reconstruction of England's Wembley Stadium (a transaction for which Legal Business magazine named Shearman & Sterling's London team its Project Finance/PFI Team of the Year); and
• Eaton Vance Corp. in the sale of American Golf Corporation and National Golf Properties, Inc. to an investment group led by Goldman Sachs & Co.

Shearman & Sterling's Sports Group is led by Creighton Condon, a veteran of several high-profile sports transactions. In addition to the Boston Red Sox transaction, Mr. Condon's sports-related representations include Viacom Inc. in the sale of the Madison Square Garden Corporation (including the MSG Network and the New York Knicks and Rangers) to ITT Corporation and Cablevision Systems Corporation, and John W. Henry in his acquisition and subsequent disposition of the Florida Marlins and the sale of his interest in the New York Yankees. Mr. Condon's activities in connection with the Boston Red Sox acquisition were highlighted in a recent cover story in The American Lawyer.

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Founded in 1873, Shearman & Sterling has more than 1,000 lawyers in 18 cities throughout the world: Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Mannheim, Menlo Park, Munich, New York, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto and Washington, D.C.