Smith, Gambrell & Russell advised longtime client Place Properties LP on its participation in the development of two new apartment complexes for college students in Ohio and Texas.

The Place/BV Student Housing Fund LLC developed two properties, one near the University of Texas at San Antonio and the second near Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio. Both properties are expected to open in about a year. The Place/BV Student Housing is a joint venture between Place Properties and Blue Vista Capital Management of Chicago.

Partner Mac Young and associate Jon Gallant were lead counsel on both developments, Young said. They worked with Place Properties Senior Counsel Jennifer Hill. Young and Gallant also advised Atlanta-based Place Properties on the formation of The Place/BV Student Housing joint venture.

Morris, Manning & Martin partner Sandy Smith along with three colleagues advised Caraustar Industries Inc. on the sale of its 50 percent stake in Premier Boxboard LLC to Temple-Inland Inc., Smith said.

Caraustar sold the asset for $62 million and said it will use the proceeds to pay off debt. Caraustar formed the Premier Boxboard joint venture with Temple-Inland in 1999 to manufacture gypsum wallboard facing paper, a product used in the construction industry. Caraustar contributed $50 million to the joint venture at its founding. Premier Boxboard operates a gypsum mill in Newport, Indiana.

Caraustar’s sale of its interest in Premier Boxboard comes as part of the Austell-based company’s attempt to whittle down its assets to pay down debt. Caraustar in recent years has already sold its interest in another joint venture with Temple-Inland, called Standard Gypsum, as well as a corrugated box plant, a coated recycled paperboard mill and other assets. In July, Caraustar closed a paperboard mill in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Morris Manning’s Smith worked with Wilma E. Beaty, general counsel of Caraustar, on the Premier Boxboard deal. Morris Manning partner Bernard Coleman and associates Travis Townsend and Natasha Bell also worked on the transaction. Temple-Inland, of Austin, Texas, leaned on in-house counsel.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough partner William Gaines and associate Keri Chayavadhanangkur were counsel to Global Payments Inc. on negotiating a 5-year, $200 million credit agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Bank of America and Regions Bank.

Global Payments, of Atlanta, said it will use the loan proceeds “to pay for a portion of the $439 million purchase price for its 51% ownership in the recently announced limited liability partnership with HSBC Bank,” according to a regulatory filing. Global Payments announced on June 30 that it formed a joint venture with HSBC Bank PLC to provide payment card processing services in the United Kingdom. Global Payments paid HSBC $439 million in cash to acquire a 51 percent ownership in the joint venture. As part of the deal, Global Payments and HSBC also formed a 10-year marketing alliance. King & Spalding partner Mark Thompson in London advised Global Payments on the HSBC joint venture. Global Payments’ general counsel is Suellyn P. Tornay.

Here is an update on a joint venture I wrote about earlier this month for the Daily Report. …

The ink was barely dry on this deal when the lawsuits started flying.

King & Spalding client Sprint Nextel Corp. announced on May 7 that it had formed a $14.5 billion joint venture with Clearwire Corp. to combine their wireless broadband businesses. More than two dozen King & Spalding lawyers in Atlanta and New York worked on the deal, led by Atlanta partner Michael J. Egan III. [Daily Report story, May 8, 2008].

The same day, Sprint Nextel also filed a complaint for declaratory judgement in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking a ruling that the Clearwire joint venture did not violate any of its existing agreements with iPCS Inc., an Illinois-based wireless affiliate of Sprint. Five days later, iPCS sued Sprint Nextel in Cook County, Ill. Circuit Court, seeking a permanent injunction against Sprint Nextel to block its formation of the joint venture.

IPCS argues in the Cook County case that it signed agreements in 1999 giving it exclusive rights to market Sprint products in its territory. The Sprint-Clearwire joint venture, which will deploy a nationwide mobile WiMAX network, violates iPCS’s 1999 exclusivity agreements with Sprint, iPCS said.

Sprint Nextel argued in the Delaware case that it “has the right to operate wireless networks outside the 1.9 GHz spectrum range in” iPCS’s service area. The Sprint Nextel-Clearwire WiMAX joint venture will operate on the 2.5 GHz spectrum range, according to the complaint. To support its position, Sprint Nextel cited a 2006 Delaware Chancery Court ruling, Horizon Personal Communications v. Sprint Corp., C.A. No. 1518-N.

Four Atlanta-based King & Spalding lawyers are working as of counsel to Sprint Nextel on the Delaware litigation: partner Daniel J. King [see photo, right], senior attorney Amy Yervanian, and associates Michael J. Cates and Shelby S. Guilbert Jr. Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell in Wilmington, Del. is lead counsel to Sprint Nextel on that matter. Mayer Brown partners John M. Touhy and Michael K. Forde in Chicago are is representing iPCS. Touhy and Forde have advised iPCS on previous claims by iPCS that Sprint Nextel has breached management agreements with the company.

OK, deal lawyers, here is your chance to weigh in. Knowing that the WiMAX joint venture would likely be litigated by iPCS, would you have advised Sprint Nextel to go ahead pursue this deal with Clearwire anyway? Click on the "Add a Comment" link below and fire away.