The Churning Morass of Bankruptcy Laterals

The Paul Brown Coaching Forest

As we were writing the piece the other day about Cravath’s first dip in the debtor’s- counsel pool, we mentioned that Richard Levin’s move from Skadden to Cravath was in the midst of a flurry of bankruptcy laterals.

That post was already chock-full-o’-asides, so we had to edit out some of the bankruptcy hopping we tracked down along the way.

Rather than throw away that research, after the jump, we scratch the surface of some of the higher-profile moves in that field in the past couple of years.

This is what the Times wrote:

Mr. Levin’s move reflects the fact that bankruptcy lawyers have become a hot commodity at many large firms. The game of trading in “lateral partners” has gained steam: Harvey R. Miller, perhaps the most outsize personality in the field, made headlines when he returned to his home at the New York firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges from the investment house Greenhill & Company, in March.

A day after Mr. Miller returned, four prominent Weil restructuring partners moved to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. The New York office of O’Melveny & Myers hired five partners from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan this spring. And Steven Wilamowsky, a Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner, was persuaded to join Bingham McCutcheon’s [sic] restructuring group at the beginning of this year.

That last paragraph seems pretty innocuous, but look at just a few of the moves that spawned from there.

The four who left Weil for Cadwalader were Deryck Palmer, John Rapisardi, George Davis, and Andrew Troop. They’re all still there, and Palmer and Rapisardi are co-chairs of the group.

The group O’Melveny lured away from Stroock was Michael Sage, Gerald Bender, Doron Lipshitz, and Patricia M. Perez, then Shannon Lowry Nagle joined a little while later. Sage (who lateralled in to Stroock from Dewey & LeBoeuf in 2002) joined Dechert earlier this year.

Those Stroock departures led the firm to bring Andy deNatale back from White & Case, where he had been since 1991.

Almost a year ago, Cadwalader, which had been rounding up bankruptcy lawyers for years, lost Bruce Zirinsky, John Bae, and Nate Haynes to Greenberg Traurig. Zirinsky was part of one of the original biggest bankruptcy moves, Dennis Block’s exile from Weil Gotshal to Cadwalader in the first place back in 1999.

Recently, Kirkland London bankruptcy partner Lyndon Norley followed in the footsteps of Zirinsky et al. and went to Greenberg Traurig. He wasn’t the only K&E partner to leave this year, the firm also lost/dropped its west-coast restructuring team, led by Rick Wynne, to Jones Day back in May.

No foray into bankruptcy lawyers would be complete without at least a glimpse into the tree of bankruptcy lawyers Miller has propagated:

Prior to that, he [Tom Lauria] was at Weil Gotshal in Dallas and Miami. Is there anyone who didn’t train at the knee of Harvey Miller? This guy is the Paul Brown of bankruptcy lawyers.  Imagine if he had gone to Wachtell.

Off the top of our heads, the following bankruptcy lawyers have all done stints at Weil Gotshal and gone on to lead other firms’ practices:

• Deryck Palmer and John Rapisardi of Cadwalader;
• Bruce Zirinsky of Greenberg Traurig;
• Corinne Ball of Jones Day;
• Marty Bienenstock of Dewey Ballantine (who should be played by Brent Mussburger in any TV movie); and
• Lauria of White & Case.

And you thought the carousel of GCs at Apple was confusing!

Related posts:

1. Big Moves in Bankruptcy
2. Lauria Losing Sleep, Comes from Cradle of Bankruptcy
3. Bankruptcy League Table Out – Weil Not #1
4. How Much BigLaw Does a GM Bankruptcy Take?
5. Weil OWNS Bankruptcy