International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has approximately 1,100 attorneys in 15 offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Headquartered in New York City, it maintains offices in Beijing, Boston, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Miami, Munich, Paris, Princeton, Shanghai, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC.

Weil’s elite status among international law firms owes greatly to the extraordinary balance it maintains, both in its geographic reach as well as its diversity of practice areas. The firm’s client roster includes leading companies in a broad range of industries on a global basis. This diversity of legal disciplines and geographies leads to a highly collaborative firm culture where client relationships span several offices and practice groups, enabling the firm’s lawyers to develop and perfect specialties to address and resolve complex legal problems from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective. The firm’s global crisis management and restructuring work serves as an excellent illustration of Weil’s ability to help clients face the most complex, high-profile challenges in a changing marketplace. The firm’s work in this area covers novel legal challenges brought about by the changing financial paradigm and includes cross-border and multijurisdictional insolvency issues in connection with global banking and manufacturing concerns; assisting private equity sponsors and hedge funds in managing and/or restructuring portfolio companies; distressed investing; a cutting-edge, industry-leading practice in unwinding derivative transactions on behalf of bankrupt entities; and negotiating with government and regulatory authorities on behalf of troubled companies. Weil’s approach to these challenges is framed by interdisciplinary teams customized to address each client’s particular issues, drawn from nationally and globally recognized practices in Bankruptcy/Restructuring, Securities Litigation, Corporate Governance, Structured Finance, M&A/Private Equity, Banking & Finance, and SEC Regulatory and Compliance, and intimate knowledge of, and ongoing involvement with, the financial instruments at issue, including asset-backed securities (ABS), collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), credit default swaps (CDSs), structured investment vehicles (SIVs), and collateralized loan obligations (CLOs).

Restructuring Department

Referred to by The American Lawyer as the gold standard of the bankruptcy bar, Weil’s Restructuring Department is considered a leader in the world and maintains a significant presence in the firm’s U.S. and European offices. The firm’s lawyers counsel a uniquely wide range of constituencies, including debtors, creditors, equity holders, committees, and potential purchasers of troubled companies or their assets. In addition to its preeminent position assisting troubled companies, Weil’s restructuring lawyers have advised several nations seeking to develop sophisticated laws governing insolvency and restructuring.

In 2019, Weil was involved in 7 of the largest bankruptcies filed in the U.S. and continues to lead with an exemplary track record in 2020. Weil is currently representing CBL & Associates Properties, one of the largest mall owners in the United States, with their restructuring in excess of $4.3 billion of obligations – CBL is the second largest REIT to file a chapter 11 in history. Weil also represented J.Crew (Chinos Holding, Inc.) in its chapter 11 filing which had over $2 billion in funded debt at the time of commencing the cases and represented the first retail entity to file during the Pandemic. Most recently, through unprecedented circumstances, Weil successfully completed its representation of EP Energy Corporation, an oil & gas company with almost $5 billion in prepetition funded debt which was days from finalizing confirmation. Then, the world changed dramatically, with several oil price reductions and the spread of Covid-19 crashing the financial markets. However, through Weil’s guidance, the company successfully developed a new chapter 11 plan, significantly deleveraged the Company’s balance sheet by $4.4 billion, and preserved more than 450 jobs.

Another example of Weil’s innovation is exhibited in our representation of Skillsoft Corporation’s prepackaged chapter 11 cases, pursuant to which Skillsoft successfully reduced its funded indebtedness by approximately $1.5 million. Weil strategically structured Skillsoft’s chapter 11 plan in a manner that enabled reorganized Skillsoft to seamlessly pursue a “back to back” transaction with Churchill Capital Corp II (“Churchill II”), a special purpose acquisition company, in a transaction valued at over $1.3 billion. The merger with Churchill II was announced on October 13, 2020, with the merger expected to close in January 2021. Also, Weil represents PG&E Corporation and its affiliates in their chapter 11 bankruptcy filing – the sixth largest bankruptcy filing in history and the largest filing of 2019 as well as Speedcast International Limited, the world’s largest international remote communications and information technology services provider, in the first fully virtual global chapter 11 proceedings as a result of the Pandemic.

Weil has also represented debtors in some of the largest global insolvencies, including: Speedcast International Limited, syncreon Group Holdings B.V., CHC Group, Ltd.; China Fishery Group Limited; Claire’s Stores; Edcon; Fieldwood Energy; Takata Corporation; Ukraine’s $18 billion Sovereign Restructuring; Waypoint Leasing Holdings; and Westinghouse Electric Company.

Business Finance & Restructuring Department’s Awards & Accolades

• Named Top Firm for Restructuring and Insolvency - Global Restructuring Review 2019
• “Bankruptcy Team of the Year” – Chambers USA 2018
• “Restructuring Deal of the Year” for Westinghouse Electric Company - M&A Advisor 11th Annual International M&A Awards 2019