Restructuring and Finance

Wachtell Lipton’s unique, integrated restructuring and finance practice combines deep expertise in both disciplines. The result is unmatched experience in acquisition financing, capital structure design, liability management, distressed mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and workouts, and insolvency litigation.

“The team takes a fresh look at all the key terms rather than rely on industry norms. Willing to push the envelope for the benefit of the client.” – The Legal 500

Restructuring

Premier Insolvency Practice

We are regularly involved in the most high-profile insolvency matters in the United States and around the world. We represent major creditors and debtors in chapter 11 cases and out-of-court restructurings, and we have an extensive record representing major parties in litigation relating to bankruptcy cases and other debt-related issues.

Recent substantial restructuring engagements can be found here.

Distressed Mergers and Acquisitions

We advise clients on acquisitions and divestitures of businesses in financial distress and other strategic transactions involving debtor-creditor issues, bringing to bear the full expertise of both our restructuring and our preeminent mergers and acquisitions practices. We regularly represent buyers in “section 363” bankruptcy sales, as well as debt investors in change-of-control transactions both in chapter 11 and out of court.

We wrote the book on Distressed M&A.

Leaders in Liability Management

Our firm has advised companies, financial sponsors and investors in connection with many of the most high-profile liability management transactions in recent years, including Envision, Travelport and Mitel.

Finance

Market-Leading Acquisition Finance Practice

We routinely lead many of the largest and most complicated financing transactions in the United States and around the world. We work closely with the leading Wachtell Lipton M&A team on transformative transactions for corporate borrowers and sponsors, in particular financing for mergers, acquisitions, LBOs, divestitures and spin-offs, however accomplished.

We are experts in syndicated lending, direct lending, and capital markets transactions, whether investment grade, high-yield or distressed. The breadth and depth of our market exposure ensures that our clients see and receive the best available market terms.

Recent substantial financing engagements can be found here.

Publications

Corporate Bankruptcy & Restructuring: 2022-2023, in The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Restructuring & Insolvency, Global Legal Group Ltd., Seventeenth ed. 2023.
Private Equity—2023 Outlook, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, March 22, 2023.
Financing Year in Review: The Tide Turns, in The Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Forum, January 24, 2023.
Cross-Border M&A – 2023 Checklist for Successful Acquisitions in the United States, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, January 7, 2023.
Developing Trends in Private Equity Financing, in Financier Worldwide, September 2022.
Corporate Bankruptcy and Restructuring: 2021-2022, in Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, February 15, 2022.
Financing Year in Review: A Robust Recovery, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, January 13, 2022.
Recent Trends in U.S. Corporate Bankruptcy and Restructuring, in The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Restructuring & Insolvency, 2021.
Private Equity – Year in Review and 2021 Outlook, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, February 6, 2021.
Financing Year in Review: From Crisis to Comeback, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, January 19, 2021.
Private Equity – Year in Review and 2020 Outlook, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, February 8, 2020.
Acquisition Financing Year in Review: The Decade of Debt, in Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, January 17, 2020.
Debt Default Activism: After Windstream, the Winds of Change, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, June 18, 2019.
Distressed Mergers and Acquisitions, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, May 23, 2019.
Corporate Bankruptcy and Restructuring: 2018-2019, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, February 17, 2019.
Default Activism in the Debt Markets, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, December 4, 2018.
Cross Border M&A – 2019 Checklist for Successful Acquisitions in the United States, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, January 30, 2019.
2018 Private Equity Year In Review, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, January 17, 2019.
American College of Bankruptcy Best Practices Report: Formation, Function & Obligations of Equity Committees in Chapter 11, 2011, Committee Report.
Vote Designation in the Aftermath of “DBSD”, in Best of ABI 2011: The Year in Business Bankruptcy (American Bankruptcy Institute).
Bidding Procedures – Stalking Horse Protections and Collusion, 39th Annual Lawrence P. King and Charles Seligson Workshop on Bankruptcy and Business Reorganization, September 18-19, 2013 pg. 299.
TalkingPoint: Trends In US Bankruptcy, in FinancierWorldwide.com, December 2013.
Sectors showing structural weakness in 2015, in Financier Worldwide Magazine, March 2015.
Fiduciary Duties in Chapter 11, in American Bankruptcy Institute’s 17th Annual New York City Conference, May 14, 2015.
Co-author, The Chapter 11 Plan, in Collier Bankruptcy Practice Guide (LexisNexis, 2016).
Financing the Deal, in REITs: Mergers and Acquisitions (Update Author of Chapter 9), Law Journal Seminars Press, 2018.
Acquisition Financing: A Banner Year Behind, and New Opportunities in the Year Ahead, in Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, January 17, 2018.
Leveraged Acquisitions: A New Post-Credit Crisis Structure, in Deal Lawyers, July/August 2010.
Settlement of Avoidance Actions in Bankruptcy, in 39th Annual Lawrence P. King and Charles Seligson Workshop on Bankruptcy and Business Reorganization, September 18-19, 2013 pg. 283.
Acquisition Financing: the Year Behind and the Year Ahead, in Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, January 18, 2017.
The Rise of the Net-Short Debt Activist, in CFO, August 6, 2018.
Recent Developments in Bankruptcy Code Section 363 Sales, in The Review of Banking and Financial Services Vol. 26 No. 8, August 2010.
Cross-Border M&A — 2018 Checklist for Successful Acquisitions in the United States, in Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, January 10, 2018.
Mergers and Acquisitions — 2018 – With a Brief Look Back, in Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, January 29, 2018.
Dealmaking in a Distressed Environment, in The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, April 17, 2013.
Corporate Bankruptcy and Restructuring 2016/2017, in Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Financial Markets, January 20, 2017.
Acquisition Financing Year in Review – From Break-Neck to Brakes-On, in Columbia Law School’s Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets, January 14, 2019.
Post-Confirmation Entities Created Under Restructuring Plans, The “In Pari Delicto” Doctrine & The American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, in 41st Annual Lawrence P. King and Charles Seligson Workshop on Bankruptcy & Business Reorganization, September 16-17, 2015.