Cleary Gottlieb has won Law360’s Bankruptcy Practice Group of the Year award for its work helping clients navigate high-profile bankruptcies and restructurings in 2019.
The firm’s bankruptcy team was recognized among the leading groups for its work representing ESL Investments in the Sears’s Chapter 11 auction, closing on a $5.2 billion going-concern sale for 425 Sears and Kmart retail locations. Cleary partner Lisa Schweitzer said, “The Sears case highlights the soup to nuts issues we deal with. There were a lot of complexities and turns.”
Law360 also noted Cleary’s leading role in the complex restructuring of the largest U.S. utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, and the innovative $400 million out-of-court restructuring of Crossmark Holdings Inc. “We identified what the holdout creditors needed and we made it happen,” said Cleary partner Sean O’Neal about Crossmark.
In international restructurings, the firm was noted as advising on the successful restructuring of company Oi SA, which was the largest restructuring in Brazilian history. Cleary also acted as counsel to Punjab National Bank in the bankruptcy proceedings of two companies in the international jewelry empire of Indian billionaire Nirav Modi.
This award is one of three Law360 Practice Group of the Year awards that the firm has received for 2019. To read Law360’s full profile on Cleary’s bankruptcy group, click here.