What firms are building out their debtor-side restructuring practices? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Obviously K&E/Weil have been historically dominant for debtors. I've heard noise about Ropes/GDC/S&C/a few V20s building out debtor-focused practices, but it's unclear where that's real and where it's a passion project of a couple existing partners. I'm a junior at one of the first two, and partnership doesn't seem likely if I stay so I'm looking to lateral (in the next few years) to a growing group that has a higher long-term chance for partnership. Anyone have a good sense of the trends? Don't want to ask around the office and give the vibe that I'm trying to jump ship.

[Anonymous User]

S&C has FTX, which should count for something

[Sackboy]

S&C has FTX, which should count for something

Probably shouldn't count for anything. GC was a former S&C lawyer who hooked them up with S&C. It's a one-off, nothing more.

Thanks for your anonymous contribution.

[Anonymous User]

Obviously K&E/Weil have been historically dominant for debtors. I've heard noise about Ropes/GDC/S&C/a few V20s building out debtor-focused practices, but it's unclear where that's real and where it's a passion project of a couple existing partners. I'm a junior at one of the first two, and partnership doesn't seem likely if I stay so I'm looking to lateral (in the next few years) to a growing group that has a higher long-term chance for partnership. Anyone have a good sense of the trends? Don't want to ask around the office and give the vibe that I'm trying to jump ship.

Ropes is lean but have a group of almost exclusively Kirkland alums in Chicago doing debtor work. White and Case is looking to build out their debtor practice for sure - they told me as much when I interviewed there

[Anonymous User]

Latham has built a large practice over the last several years. Ropes is building and brought over a partner from Weil last year. I have had multiple recruiters calling me about GDC per week for the last year but unclear how much of that is actually debtor work. Paul Hastings recently brought over Stroocks entire restructuring group but again not sure how much debtor work that is. S&C restructuring isn’t a major player.

[Anonymous User]

Look at firms with strong private equity and/or tech or life sciences practices if you want to get your foot in the door early somewhere.

Ropes, Latham, and Sidley have already taken a lot of KE associates and likely aren’t looking for more.

[Anonymous User]

Is debtor work seen as more appealing than creditor work?

[Anonymous User]

Is debtor work seen as more appealing than creditor work?

No it has its ups and downs. It’s typically better for junior lawyers because there’s simply more to do. Creditor side work is often smaller teams and more concentrated toward senior lawyers.

[Anonymous User]

Latham has built a large practice over the last several years. Ropes is building and brought over a partner from Weil last year. I have had multiple recruiters calling me about GDC per week for the last year but unclear how much of that is actually debtor work. Paul Hastings recently brought over Stroocks entire restructuring group but again not sure how much debtor work that is. S&C restructuring isn’t a major player.

Can confirm this. Latham has come up as a third competitor in the leading debtor shops world behind K&E and Weil.

Ropes is up & coming and leveraging a lot of its sponsors relationship. Ryan Dahl is a greatly respected lawyer from K&E and Weil (and incredibly funny and great to work with).

GDC is killing the market share this year; Scott Greenberg is dominating the 1L space and become a true competitor against Damian Schaible at Davis Polk. They have a small debtor deal every once in a while through their legacy rx partners before Scott came over, although I won't be surprised if Scott will try to expand into the debtor space now that they've built a great reputation for GDC.

The reality is EVERYBODY is always trying to build a debtor practice because it's so much more lucrative than creditor mandates. Most firms have been trying this for years or even decades without much success. Creditor shops will win a headline debtor mandate every once in a while (Purdue Pharma for DPW, Revlon for Paul Weiss), but most of the debtors deals go to K&E / Weil, than trickle down to the others due to conflict (3M to White & Case)/ limited bandwidth at K&E or Weil / Some kind of relationship (FTX to S&C). Skadden used to have a debtor shop reputation but not as much now (they won Endo though).