A team of lawyers from Morris, Manning & Martin is advising HK Motors in its deal to launch a hybrid car manufacturing plant in Baldwin County, Ala.

The would-be carmaker most recently inked a $500 million development agreement with Italdesign Giugiaro to design and engineer a fleet of hybrid cars that Pasadena, Calif.-based HK Motors plans to begin producing in 2013 at a yet-to-be built plant in Bay Minette, Ala.

HK Motors has said it plans to make an initial $1.5 billion investment in the plant that will eventually make low-emission vehicles including sedans, SUVs, vans and taxis with hybrid engines that run on compressed natural gas, electricity and gasoline. The total planned investment is $4.3 billion

Morris Manning partners Tim Xia, Sandra S. Gardiner and F. Lawrence Street advised HK Motors on the development agreement with Turin, Italy-based Italdesign, which also has collaborated with companies such as BMW and Lamborghini. The firm also advised HK Motors on its organizational structure, production agreements, financing, employment issues, intellectual property, technology transfer and local government incentives.

Xia, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on the deal.

HK Motors, according to press reports, has creative funding plans for its venture, which include raising money via the EB-5 visa program, which offers U.S. citizenship to Chinese who invest at least $500,000 in the project. The company has said it intends to meet this year's goal of raising $1.3 billion via a Hong Kong stock filing submitted by Far East Golden Resources, a company controlled by HK Motors' founder and CEO, Benjamin Yeung.

Yeung is the former chairman and CEO of Chinese automaker Brilliance Group.

When Pasadena, Calif.-based environmentally friendly car company Hybrid Kinetic Motors wanted to build an automotive plant in Baldwin County, Ala., attorneys from Morris, Manning & Martin were in on the deal.

The plant, slated to begin production in 2013 with an initial investment of $1.5 billion, according to information from the law firm, will focus on production of low-emission vehicles with hybrid engines that use compressed natural gas, electricity and gasoline.

Morris Manning lawyers advised HK Motors in connection with organizational structure, contract and financing issues, intellectual property and technology transfer deals, local government incentives and employment issues.

Attorneys who worked on the deal are Tim Tingkang Xia, David Calhoun, Sandra Gardiner, Jason D’Cruz, Thomas Gryboski, Stephanie Simon, Kevin Wright, Bill Holley, Chris Glass and Daniel Sineway.

Morris, Manning & Martin lawyers recently helped Santa Ana, Calif.-based client Grubb & Ellis launch two real estate investment trusts valued at more than $4 billion.

Partners Lauren Burnham Prevost and Heath D. Linsky represented the company when the SEC in late August declared the registration statement effective for a $3.3 billion initial public offering by Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II. The REIT’s proceeds are slated for investment in, primarily, medical office buildings and other healthcare-related facilities.

In July, the Morris Manning lawyers helped Grubb & Ellis launch a $1 billion apartment REIT, according to information in the REIT’s registration statement.

Morris, Manning & Martin attorneys Edward D. Hirsch, William Winter and Christopher S. Maxwell, helped software provider O4 Corp. in its deal to land $15 million in Series A financing.

The lender is ABS Capital Partners, with offices in Baltimore, Boston and San Francisco. ABS was represented by Michael Silver and Mahvesh Qureshi, both with Hogan & Hartson’s Washington office.

O4, whose North American headquarters are in Atlanta, makes software that helps consumer product suppliers automate their field sales, marketing and merchandising and to direct store delivery operations via a mobile software system that links head-office management with representatives in the field.

Yes, Virginia, there is a living, breathing private equity and venture capital law practice—even in these miserly economic times.

So says the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst’s latest ranking of law firms based on the number of deals closed in 2008. Six of the players on that 72-firm list have Atlanta offices: DLA Piper is the most highly ranked local, taking second place on the nationwide list, just behind Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

The other Atlanta-connected firms and rankings are Jones Day (16); Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker (18); Duane Morris (44); Morris, Manning & Martin (tied with Ice Miller at 49) and Greenberg Traurig (51).

According to information from DLA Piper, Atlanta attorneys worked on venture capital deals valued at $290.2 million in 2008.

“Atlanta’s got a lot of … emerging growth companies, but not a lot of private equity in the city,” said Jeffrey M. Leavitt, a partner in DLA Piper’s office here. “I think one of the reasons we ranked so high is we can leverage the contacts of our other offices around the country.”

DLA Piper did not disclose its largest deal because, according to Leavitt, the client occupies a competitive technology space and wanted to keep the transaction quiet. He said that one of the marquee deals for the Atlanta office involved $55 million in Series B financing for Suniva, a solar-power chip company.

Leavitt said the Atlanta office’s client base in the venture capital/private equity arena is about 85 percent technology and 15 percent life sciences companies. He said he anticipates a jump in life sciences work, given the state’s active outreach to that sector via organizations such as the new Global Center for Medical Innovation and the Georgia Research Alliance.

According to the Dow Jones ranking, DLA Piper negotiated and closed a total of 894 private equity and venture capital deals in 2008.

Jones Day, which closed 174 private equity and venture capital deals last year, listed its largest deal as advising Ospraie Management LLC in its $2.8 billion acquisition of ConAgra Trade Group, a subsidiary of ConAgra Foods.

The largest deal of the 153 that Paul Hastings handled involved its representation of Madison Dearborn Partners in a now-terminated $42 billion acquisition of BCE Inc. with Providence Equity and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. A firm spokeswoman said that 66 Atlanta lawyers worked on those deals.

Duane Morris, with a total of 53 deals, represented Atlantic Industrial Inc. and private equity firm Sterling Capital Partners when Atlantic was acquired for more than $250 million.

Morris Manning, with 47 deals, represented a transportation-focused business services company in a $27 million expansion round with multiple investors. Greenberg Traurig, with 46 deals, did not disclose its largest deal.