New Corporate Bankruptcies Leave Big Law Firms Holding the Bag
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is taking the lead on a pair of new bankruptcies in New York and Delaware that count more than dozen law firm creditors.
November 27, 2018 at 06:27 PM
3 minute read
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is advising on a pair of new bankruptcies that have left several Big Law firms in the red, with their debtor clients owing nearly $1 million in outstanding legal fees.
On Sunday, Waypoint Leasing Holdings Ltd., a helicopter leasing company backed by investment firms for George Soros and Michael Dell, filed for bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York.
In its Chapter 11 filing, Waypoint listed assets and liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion. Leading the Limerick, Ireland-based company on its bankruptcy filing is Weil's Gary Holtzer, co-chair of the firm's business finance and restructuring department and a managing committee member.
Business finance and restructuring partners Robert Lemons and Kelly DiBlasi and counsel Matthew Goren are also advising on the matter.
Waypoint, which services offshore oil drillers, has been hit hard in the oil downturn that began several years ago, which forced the industry to cut costs and tamped down demand for helicopter services. Through its bankruptcy filing, Waypoint is expecting to sell itself to a new owner via recent sales efforts that have garnered bids from several parties.
Waypoint owes nearly half a million dollars to a dozen law firms, according court filings. The largest creditor among them is Dentons, which is owed $246,173 by the company. Dentons' Singapore affiliate Dentons Rodyk & Davidson is also separately owed $4,348.
Waypoint also owes $47,544 to Memphis-based Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, whose partner Robert D. Van de Vuurst has served as outside general counsel to the helicopter leasing company since 2013. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which represented the helicopter company in the 2016 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of helicopter operator CHC Group Ltd., is still owed $4,625.
Weil is also advising the nation's largest private minority-owned Spanish language television and radio broadcaster, LBI Media Inc., in a Chapter 11 case filed Nov. 21 in Delaware. The Burbank, California-based media company, which lists liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion, blamed its bankruptcy filing on a heavy debt load coupled with competition from digital media platforms.
Among the 30 unsecured creditors listed in its filings, Latham & Watkins is owed $301,652 by the broadcaster, while Los Angeles-based Irell & Manella is owed $49,437.
Leading Weil's bankruptcy team on the matter is Ray Schrock, a co-chair of its business finance and restructuring department who joined the New York-based firm in 2014 from Kirkland & Ellis. Business finance and restructuring partner Garrett Fail is also advising, as well as David Lender, co-chair of Weil's global litigation department, and litigation partner Theodore Tsekerides.
In addition to Weil, the broadcaster also turned to Delaware-based Richards, Layton & Finger as counsel in its filing, led by bankruptcy and corporate restructuring co-chair Daniel DeFranceschi.
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