For two years, Dole Food has relied on Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to defend it against lawsuits brought by Nicaraguan farm workers alleging they were exposed to a harmful pesticide used to boost banana production. Now the fresh-produce company is turning to the firm for help on its planned initial public offering.

Dole filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday for an initial public offering that will include both newly issued shares and shares sold by its sole stockholder. Dole is closely held by billionaire David Murdock, who took the company private in 2003. The price range has yet to be set, but the company plans to raise $500 million to pay down debt, among other things.

Jonathan Layne, cochair of Gibson Dunn’s mergers and acquisitions group, is leading a team of four partners and four associates working on the IPO. Layne declined to comment and a firm spokesperson declined to go into detail about the law firm’s relationship with Dole.

It is the second major Rio Tinto transaction for S&C's London law office in the last few weeks. Last month, the firm advised Rio Tinto in the $1.2 billion sale of its Alcan Packaging Food Americas unit to the Wisconsin-based packager Bemis Company, Inc. according to our prior reports. (Baker & McKenzie advised Bemis in that deal).

Rio Tinto has sold several assets in an attempt to pay down $20 billion in debt, much of it incurred when Rio purchased all of Alcan for $38 billion in 2007, according to The New York Times. Rio has sold about $6.6 billion of assets in the last 18 months, not including the preliminary agreement with Amcor announced today.

Seven of Manhattan's elite law firms took the rare step of signing on to a single letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission to voice their opinion on how the agency should implement a proposal to allow shareholders to nominate company directors.

Lawyers involved in drafting the letter, submitted Monday, acknowledge it was rare for one letter to come from all the firms, which included Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Sullivan & Cromwell and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

At least four of the firms also sent separate letters addressing concerns with the policy direction the SEC is taking.

The other firms to sign the joint letter were Davis Polk & Wardwell; Latham & Watkins; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey has resigned from DLA Piper because of controversy over his association with a group opposing health reform.

Armey says he is resigning because of critics who wrongly linked his work at the nonprofit group FreedomWorks to his work at DLA Piper, the National Law Journal reports. The backlash was harming pharmaceutical and health care companies that had paid DLA Piper for lobbying work.

"Quite frankly, even with me being relatively quiet sitting in Texas, the firm and a few of the clients were taking a load of guff," Armey told the National Law Journal. "I could see that this fight was bringing innocent people in harm's way."

Armey spoke to the NLJ as he was about to become more outspoken; he had scheduled a speech opposing health reform for the next day. "What was going to happen when I show up in Atlanta tomorrow?" he wondered.