Practice Areas & Industries: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Cadwalader's restructuring attorneys have the "ability to pull together diverse groups and personalities" to achieve results.
- Chambers Global 2007

Cadwalader's Financial Restructuring Department is a premier restructuring, bankruptcy, insolvency and workout group, distinguished by our broad experience, the diverse nature of our clients, our significant global expertise and our expert attorneys.  Our practitioners, many of whom are internationally recognized leaders in their field, bring clients the business acumen and in-depth legal knowledge necessary to successfully navigate complex restructurings and reorganizations.  The department has a preeminent full-service restructuring group with dedicated experience and professionals in both the United States and the United Kingdom, allowing our attorneys to quickly respond to cross-border restructurings.  Our restructuring and insolvency experts in the U.S. and U.K. have been at the forefront of some of the most complex, recent international insolvencies, and we routinely advise clients with interests in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. By using a multidisciplinary approach, our clients benefit from Cadwalader's strong experience in debtor financial restructuring and bankruptcy, corporate transactions, finance, real estate, capital markets, litigation, and tax structuring.

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Most recently, Cadwalader has been representing Lyondell Chemical Company as debtor's counsel, recently securing interim approval of a debtor-in-possession financing package that ranks among the largest and most complex DIP financings in history.  In the past few months, Cadwalader has also been active in real estate workouts and restructurings in numerous real estate markets. The Financial Restructuring Department, in conjunction with Cadwalader's premier Real Estate Finance Practice, advised Barclay's Capital, the agent for the first lien facility and DIP financing in LandSource Communities Development LLC;  several major investment banks with respect to their real estate investments in various residential property developments; and JPMorgan Chase Bank, as administrative agent in the Centro Properties restructuring.  In addition, Cadwalader represented the senior mezzanine lender to Macklowe Properties Inc. in connection with a restructuring of mortgage indebtedness on four major New York City real estate properties.  Cadwalader restructuring attorneys also represented The Royal Bank of Scotland in the refinancing and restructuring of their GMAC and ResCap debt resulting in a new $13 billion dollar GMAC facility.

Our clients include many of the largest financial institutions in the world, including commercial and investment banks, investment management firms, mutual funds, insurance companies, and pension funds.  We also represent many Fortune 500 companies and other leading public and private corporations and  business entities.  Our practice includes the representation of companies, bondholders, creditors' committees, borrowers, asset purchasers, and other entities involved in financial restructuring transactions or reorganization cases.

On behalf of our diverse client base, we are involved in all facets of bankruptcy, complex reorganizations, insolvencies, restructurings, and workouts in a wide range of industries:

• aerospace and air transportation     
• commodities
• electronics
• energy
• financial products and services
• gaming and resorts
• healthcare
• insurance
• manufacturing
• media
• military and defense
• oil and gas
• rail
• real estate
• retail
• shipping
• steel
• telecommunications
• utilities  

Our attorneys have broad experience and capabilities in both the transactional and litigation aspects of the practice and work closely with clients in developing bankruptcy-sensitive products and structuring corporate, commercial, and securities transactions to preserve and enhance value.  The department's broad transactional experience ranges from negotiating company reorganizations and restructurings, sales of equity securities, new credit facilities, and the purchase or sale of going-concern businesses and assets.  Our attorneys are adept at handling the intricacies involved with international chapter 11 bankruptcies and restructurings, chapter 15 (former Section 304) proceedings brought in the United States on behalf of foreign representatives, and related matters.  The department also is involved in the acquisition, sale and financing of troubled companies, their business lines and assets.  Through extensive experience in representing both debtors and creditors, our attorneys are able to readily assess the multiple perspectives underlying a complex restructuring.  We take pride in our ability to quickly and efficiently negotiate solutions, redocument matters, resolve disputes, and respond to emergencies.

Department Co-Chairs Deryck A. Palmer and John Rapisardi and partners in the Financial Restructuring Department, Ingrid Bagby, George A. Davis, Peter Dodson, Mark C. Ellenberg, Christopher R. Mirick, Gregory M. Petrick, and Andrew M. Troop are well regarded in the field.  They are actively involved in teaching, lecturing and writing on a wide variety of topics relating to bankruptcy and restructuring.  Many have authored internationally-recognized treatises, articles, and other materials relating to creditors' and debtors' rights, both within and outside of the United States. The firm was most recently honored by M&A Advisor  as Law Firm of the Year: Reorganization and Bankruptcy Practice in recognition of the 65- lawyer team's record of achievements in 2007 as well as Chapter 11 Reorganization of the Year and Consumer Products & Services Turnaround Deal of the Year for work as lead debtor's counsel on the Northwest Airlines Corporation chapter 11 proceedings.  The department represents debtors, creditors, lenders, and investors in complex domestic and international business reorganizations, debt restructurings, and distressed mergers and acquisitions in a wide array of industries, including healthcare, automotive, telecommunications, airline, energy, financial, retail, and manufacturing.

As appropriate, the firm combines the talents of our financial restructuring attorneys with those of our corporate, litigation, project finance, real estate, and tax attorneys to staff major matters, to provide an interdisciplinary approach to problems, and to enhance results.