NEW YORK and DALLAS, April 23 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network — Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that it has appointed Jonathan Landers and Michael Rosenthal as Co-Chairs of the firm’s Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice Group.
“Jon and Michael are both highly regarded bankruptcy attorneys, and we are
pleased to have them lead our Business Restructuring and Reorganization
Group,” said Ken Doran, Managing Partner of Gibson Dunn. “We have a
nationally recognized restructuring group, with more than 40 lawyers, and I am
confident that under Jon and Michael’s leadership, the group will continue to
grow and thrive.”
About Jonathan M. Landers
Landers has extensive experience in bankruptcy, insolvency, restructuring,
financing transactions, purchase/sale of assets and bankruptcy and insolvency
litigation matters, representing debtors, lenders and lending syndicates,
large creditors, litigation defendants and asset sellers and purchasers. He
is one of only 65 members of the prestigious National Bankruptcy Conference, a
member of the American College of Bankruptcy (founding class), and has been
recognized in The Best Lawyers in America and the Guide to the World’s Leading
Insolvency Lawyers.
Significant matters includes serving as lead counsel for debtors The
Finova Group, Odyssey Group (North Face and Head Sportswear), Divi Hotels and
S.S. Retail Stores in their chapter 11 cases; lead counsel for secured lenders
in the Insilco and Concap I, II, IV, and V (involving real estate loans
aggregating $500+M) bankruptcy cases; represented Merrill Lynch in the Enron
and Adelphia bankruptcies, Wells Fargo Bank in the Placid and Penrod
bankruptcies, and Dial Corporation in the Greyhound and Bergner bankruptcies;
represented asset purchasers in the U.S. Aggregates, Greate Bay Casinos,
Liquor Barn, Sonic Telecommunications, Grand Palais Riverboat and Rivermeadows
(Crescent H Ranch) bankruptcies; and was lead counsel for lending groups in
numerous workout and restructuring transactions, including Wells Fargo Bank,
Bank of Montreal, Bracton Corporation (successor to Crocker National Bank) and
Citibank in connection with the liquidation and bankruptcy of a major U.S. law
firm.
Landers graduated from Colgate University, where he was elected to Phi
Beta Kappa, and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an
editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is the co-author of three books and more
than 25 published articles, and he is a frequent speaker at CLE and bar
programs.
About Michael A. Rosenthal
Rosenthal has extensive experience in bankruptcy, reorganization, debt
restructuring and distressed asset acquisition matters. This is his second
term as Co-Chair of the Business Restructuring and Reorganization Group,
having served in the same capacity from 1995 through 2001. With a particular
expertise in the representation of chapter 11 debtors and acquirors of
distressed businesses and assets, he has represented companies in a variety of
business sectors, including energy, retail, manufacturing, real estate,
engineering, construction, media, telecommunications and banking.
His significant debtor representations include First RepublicBank
Corporation, Resorts International, Financial News Network, Money’s Mushrooms
and American Pad & Paper Company. His significant acquiror representations
include NRG Energy in its acquisition of Cajun Electric Power Cooperative,
Tenet Healthcare in its acquisition of the hospital assets of Allegheny Health
& Research Foundation and The Shaw Group in its acquisition of the assets of
the IT Group. In addition to debtors and acquirors, Rosenthal has represented
creditors’ committees, secured and unsecured creditors, bondholders and
trustees, including the principal unsecured creditors’ committee in the case
of jewelry retailer Zale Corporation, and one of United Airlines largest
unsecured creditors, its former East Coast regional carrier, Independence
Airlines. He also has substantial experience in out-of-court restructurings,
including the restructuring of one of the largest commercial and industrial
real estate portfolios in the United States, and pre-packaged chapter 11
cases.
Rosenthal is one of the country’s leading experts on section 524(g) of the
Bankruptcy Code and other restructuring issues related to companies with
asbestos and other mass tort liability. He represented Asbestos Claims
Management Corporation in its recent pre-negotiated chapter 11 reorganization
case, which resulted in the establishment and funding of a $500 million
section 524(g) trust to pay asbestos victims exposed to National Gypsum
products. He also leads the firm’s representation of several asbestos trusts,
including the NGC Bodily Injury Trust and the DII Industries, LLC Asbestos PI
Trust, the asbestos trust that was established in the DII Industries case to
resolve the asbestos liabilities of Halliburton and its affiliates. The DII
Trust, with assets of approximately $2.5 billion, is presently one of the
largest asbestos trusts in the U.S. Rosenthal also presently represents
Cooper Industries, Inc., in connection with asbestos issues related to the
chapter 11 case of Federal Mogul, Inc.. He has been heavily involved in
recent federal legislative efforts relative to asbestos reform.
Rosenthal received his law degree in 1979 from the University of Chicago
and his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude in 1976 from the University of
Virginia. He is a member of the ABI and the Business Bankruptcy Committee of
the American Bar Association, and has lectured and published at the national
and local level on matters involving bankruptcy and creditors’ rights.
About Gibson Dunn’s Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice
Gibson Dunn’s Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice is a
nationally recognized restructuring group, with extensive experience in both
domestic and multinational insolvencies. The firm’s 40+ restructuring and
reorganization lawyers regularly represent and counsel, among others, chapter
11 debtors, companies seeking to restructure their obligations out of court or
addressing other balance sheet-related issues and companies evaluating the
benefits and disadvantages of a chapter 11 filing.
Members of the Practice Group are members of the American College of
Bankruptcy Lawyers and the National Bankruptcy Conference and have been listed
in the bankruptcy law section of The Best Lawyers in America and The Guide to
the World’s Leading Insolvency Lawyers. Gibson Dunn was ranked sixth among
the Top Bankruptcy Law Firms of 2003 in terms of bankruptcy filings, based on
a survey conducted by The American Lawyer and was identified as the No. 1
Bankruptcy Acquirer Law Firm by The Deal’s Bankruptcy Insider, based on active
cases as of August 2004.
About the Firm
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is a leading international law firm.
Consistently ranking among the world’s top law firms in industry surveys and
major publications, Gibson Dunn is distinctively positioned in today’s global
marketplace with more than 800 lawyers and 13 offices, including Los Angeles,
New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Palo Alto, London, Paris, Munich,
Brussels, Orange County, Century City, Dallas and Denver.
