Kirkland NY restructuring Forum

[Anonymous User]

Want to do BK. I know Weil and K&E dominate national debtor side restructuring work. Does the K&E NY office have as high level work as the main Chicago office? Can't find via search. Thanks guys.

[azntwice]

I would say that K&E NY office does even higher level work than Chicago for several reasons. Many of the major restructurings are done in NY due to the fact that Chicago had some really bad legal precedent set a couple years back. Some of K&E's partners regularly fly into New York to handle restructuring matters there.

[Anonymous User]

Should be considered one team. Sprayregen and other heavy hitters are regularly in the NYC office. That aside, lots of huge BKs run locally, with several local huge rainmakers (Rick cieri, Paul basta, Jon henes). Can't remember the last one run out or Chicago recently, even.

[Anonymous User]

There very few big cases that go in Chicago bankruptcy courts. If you want to do BK, even if you had a Chicago Kirkland offer, you should go with NY.

[Anonymous User]

There very few big cases that go in Chicago bankruptcy courts. If you want to do BK, even if you had a Chicago Kirkland offer, you should go with NY.

Is this true? My impression was that Kirkland-Chicago was definitely more prestigious (and I know they're absolutely more selective than) Kirkland-NY. It seems like at my school, a lot of median (or below) to top-third students get Kirkland-NY while Kirkland-Chicago is typically made up more of the >top-quarter types. I've even known people to join Kirkland-NY just for the potential of eventually switching to the Chicago office.

[Anonymous User]

There very few big cases that go in Chicago bankruptcy courts. If you want to do BK, even if you had a Chicago Kirkland offer, you should go with NY.

Is this true? My impression was that Kirkland-Chicago was definitely more prestigious (and I know they're absolutely more selective than) Kirkland-NY. It seems like at my school, a lot of median (or below) to top-third students get Kirkland-NY while Kirkland-Chicago is typically made up more of the >top-quarter types. I've even known people to join Kirkland-NY just for the potential of eventually switching to the Chicago office.

KE Chicago is more selective, but I know that NYC is where you file BK, not Chicago. That seems to me that it would give the NY BK group an advantage over the Chicago BK group, even if overall chicago KE is more selective than NY KE.

[Anonymous User]

There very few big cases that go in Chicago bankruptcy courts. If you want to do BK, even if you had a Chicago Kirkland offer, you should go with NY.

Is this true? My impression was that Kirkland-Chicago was definitely more prestigious (and I know they're absolutely more selective than) Kirkland-NY. It seems like at my school, a lot of median (or below) to top-third students get Kirkland-NY while Kirkland-Chicago is typically made up more of the >top-quarter types. I've even known people to join Kirkland-NY just for the potential of eventually switching to the Chicago office.

KE Chicago is more selective, but I know that NYC is where you file BK, not Chicago. That seems to me that it would give the NY BK group an advantage over the Chicago BK group, even if overall chicago KE is more selective than NY KE.

But it's not like the Chicago BK group can't work on something just because it was filed in NYC or Delaware....

[Anonymous User]

The "NYC office > Chicago office" stuff in this thread is weird and untrue--the Chicago-based folks work on the cases that are filed in NYC/DA that are big enough to be any different than the mid-market Chicago filings--but you sure wouldn't be at a DISadvantage in NYC.

Some gumbling lately that it might be easier to make partner if you're based in NYC, because it's easier to play a part in building a book if you're based out there, but that's a really minor consideration.

Given the disparity in "real pay" between the NYC and Chicago offices, though, I don't see why someone who is indiffierent between NYC and Chicago would go with NYC.

[Anonymous User]

A lot of misdirection in this thread that ill clear up.

1) The Chicago office is more selective and prestigious than the New York office. But, so what? We are talking about the strengths of BK groups, and the prestige of an office or selectivity has little bearing on that, if any. And by the way, for summer classes in New York, at least for the past four to five years, I've never seen anyone transfer to Chicagp. I've seen people transfer to NYC, from NYC to SF and DC, but not to Chicago.

Not that it's hard to do. But the idea that people apply to New York just to backdoor in Chicago is silly. If anything, I prefer the NYC office. Don't know why. The relative youth of the partners and the lower selectivity tends to make the place slightly more chill.

2) the bankruptcy practice should absolutely not be viewed as a New York vs. Chicago thing. It's a firmwide practice that involves both offices. If you're concerned about local prowess, look at chambers, which has K&E ny BK at band 1.

Rick Cieri is either the head or cohead of BK. can't remember. He's also based in New York and a member of the firmwide management committee.

But again, I see so much cross office collaboration it makes no sense to pit the offices against one another.

And that aside, the A&P bk, sbarro, Barney's, hawker Beechcraft and other bks were either run out of NYC or involved a substantial number of NYC attorneys (and even involved a ton of ny attys not in bk, including litigators and transactional attorneys).

[Anonymous User]

How about Kirkland's San Fran office? How does it compare?

[IAFG]

But it's not like the Chicago BK group can't work on something just because it was filed in NYC or Delaware....

Right. KE doesn't have a DE office at all, but do you think that means they don't work on BKs filed there?

[Anonymous User]

How about Kirkland's San Fran office? How does it compare?

Much more of a PE focused office than anything else.