ShaiWaisman
Partner
Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Named a "Rising Star" by Institutional Investor News in 2008 and an "Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyer" by Turnarounds & Workouts in 2006, Mr. Waisman's practice incorporates crisis management, complex multi-national restructurings and acquiring troubled companies.
Robert Stark
Partner
Brown Rudnick
Mr. Stark focuses his practice on complex corporate restructuring, including in-court Chapter 11 cases and out-of-court workouts. He has extensive experience representing official and unofficial creditor/equity committees, debtors/borrowers, institutional investors, indenture trustees, and other significant parties-in-interest in large corporate insolvency matters.
AdamShiff
Partner
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
Adam Shiff's practice focuses on all aspects of bankruptcy and restructuring, including representing debtors, formal and informal committees of creditors and equity securities holders, trustees, investors and purchasers of distressed businesses. Adam is ranked in Chambers USA, 2005 and 2006, as one of the "Up-and-Coming Individuals" in the United States in Bankruptcy/Restructuring. Adam has also been recognized in New York Super Lawyers 2008.
Mr. Shiff received undergraduate degrees from The Wharton School and The College of Arts and Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was the Managing Editor of the The Tax Lawyer.
JeffreySaferstein
Partner
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
A partner and deputy chair of the Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization Department, Jeffrey D. Saferstein practices exclusively in the areas of corporate restructurings and workouts, bankruptcy and specialized financings. He has been involved in major domestic and international restructurings and bankruptcies, including Adelphia Communications, Atkins Nutritionals, United Pan-Europe Communications, Loehmann's, The Penn Traffic Company, Maxwell Communication Corporation, Drexel Burham Lambert, Canadian Airlines and Asia Global Crossing. He has also recently been involved in several restructurings of Structured Investment Vehicles and in a workout of one of the monoline insurers.
LisaLaukitis
Partner
Kirkland & Ellis
Lisa G. Laukitis is an attorney in Kirkland & Ellis' Restructuring Group. She focuses on representation of corporate debtors and secured and unsecured creditors in both transactional and litigation-related engagements. Ms. Laukitis has experience in a number of industries including energy, telecommunications, cable, retail, shipping, manufacturing and automotive.
On the transactional side, Ms. Laukitis has a broad range of experience, including advising clients with respect to distressed mergers and acquisitions, negotiating out of court workouts, and negotiating asset-based lending agreements, structuring out of court workouts, drafting and implementing Chapter 11 plans of reorganization, and negotiating cash collateral stipulations and debtor in possession financing agreements with senior lenders. Additionally, Ms. Laukitis has represented several private equity clients in their attempts to purchase distressed companies and related assets out of Chapter 11 proceedings.
Ms. Laukitis' related litigation experience includes numerous contested matters involving preference actions, fraudulent transfers, executory contract rejection and assumption disputes, claims objections, and various disputes with creditors' and bondholders' committees.
KristopherHansen
partner
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
Kris Hansen is the co-chair of Stroock's Financial Restructuring Group and manages the department on a day-to-day basis. Mr. Hansen¿s practice covers the broad spectrum of corporate, litigation and core bankruptcy matters necessary for the representation of equity, creditor, debtor, distressed investor and distressed merger and acquisition clients in the restructuring arena. In addition to his representation of debtors, official and unofficial committees of creditors, and secured lenders in workout and debtor-in-possession lending situations, Mr. Hansen typically represents individual investors in the structuring and execution of distressed investment strategies. Through his finance background and significant case experience, Mr. Hansen is known for understanding his clients' investment strategies and recovery analyses and creating unique, aggressive, efficient and cost-effective solutions to complex issues.
Honorable Arthur Gonzalez
United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York
Arthur J. Gonzalez is a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York. At the time of his appointment in 1995, he was United States Trustee for New York, Connecticut, and Vermont.
Judge Gonzalez earned his B.S. degree from Fordham University in 1969; an M.S. degree from Brooklyn College in 1974; his J.D. degree from Fordham Law School in 1982; and an LL.M.degree from NYU Law School in 1990.
From 1969 until 1982 Judge Gonzalez was a public school teacher in the City of New York. From 1982 until 1988 he was a staff attorney with the Manhattan District Counsel's Office of the IRS. From 1988 until 1991 he was in private law practice in New York as an associate, first at the firm Pollner, Mezan, Stolzberg & Glass, and then at Gaston & Snow. From 1991 until 1993 Judge Gonzalez was an Assistant United States Trustee for the Southern District of New York; and from 1993 until his judicial appointment in 1995 he was United States Trustee for New York Connecticut and Vermont.