Law360 Profiles Akin Gump’s Financial Restructuring Practice as a Practice Group of the Year

Akin Gump’s financial restructuring practice has been profiled by Law360 in conjunction with its selection as one of the publication’s 2019 Bankruptcy Groups of the Year. It is the second consecutive year that the firm has been honored in this category. (Click here to read about last year’s selection.)

In recognizing Akin Gump, Law360 writes that the firm “fought voraciously over the last year for its clients, winning the right for unsecured noteholders in the bankruptcy case of California utility PG&E to file its own competing Chapter 11 plan and enabling unsecured creditors of retail giant Sears to pursue valuable causes of action against the company’s former owner.”

In the PG&E matter, Law360 notes, Akin Gump—with a cross-practice team—convinced the judge overseeing the case “to terminate the debtor’s exclusive right to file a Chapter 11 plan proposal.”

Financial restructuring partner Ira Dizengoff said what the firm did was “somewhat unprecedented in bankruptcy circles by forging a consensus and a deal with another stakeholder in the case to convince the judge to terminate exclusivity.”

Fellow partner Abid Qureshi added that the firm was uniquely positioned to accomplish the work, given its deep roster of lawyers with far-ranging experience in different areas of law is something not offered by many firms.

“I don’t think that there are many firms in the marketplace that could do what we have done in PG&E,” said Qureshi.

With regard to the Sears bankruptcy, Law360 cites Akin Gump’s “dogged pursuit of a recovery” on behalf of the official committee of unsecured creditors. Dizengoff stated that the Akin Gump team “made sure that after the liquidation of the stores and the sale transactions that there was enough value remaining with the causes of action and a way to pursue them in a meaningful way.”

Financial restructuring partner Philip Dublin added that the creditors faced many challenges while working toward a recovery. Among them, was the lack of liquidity in the bankruptcy estate after the Chapter 11 sale of the Sears assets to former CEO Eddie Lampert and his fund. Without cash, Dublin pointed out, the ability to confirm a Chapter 11 plan of liquidation and to fund the litigation trust was severely hampered.

Other Akin Gump matters highlighted by Law360 include securing positive outcomes for the debtors in the Chapter 11 cases of Payless Holdings and FirstEnergy Solutions Corp., which both secured their plans’ confirmation in October 2019, as well as the ongoing representation of unsecured creditors in the Purdue Pharma’s Chapter 11 case.