Simpson Thacher & Bartlett might not have the corporate restructuring cachet of a Kirkland & Ellis or Weil, Gotshal & Manges, but every now and then the firm branches out from its traditional role representing bondholders and other secured lenders in bankruptcy proceedings and picks up a debtor-side assignment. That happened this week.

When American Safety Razors, one of the world’s largest makers of shaving razors and blades, filed for bankruptcy this week and announced it might sell itself to lenders, the company hired Simpson as its bankruptcy counsel. The firm’s long-standing private equity connections helped Simpson land the work.

“We have a very large borrower-side practice in private equity portfolio companies, and this was brought to us earlier in the restructuring process as exactly that,” says Simpson bankruptcy partner Mark Thompson of ASR, owned by firm client Lion Capital, a London-based PE shop that acquired the company for $658 million in cash in June 2006. “We indicated that we would be able to do the bankruptcy work, so we spoke to the board. And the board was comfortable with that.”

A debtors-side assignment is not an isolated incident for Simpson, Thompson says, noting that the firm has represented bus manufacturer Motor Coach Industries and memory chip maker Qimonda North America in Chapter 11 proceedings in Delaware in the past two years.

“It’s totally by coincidence, but every year we’ve had a bankruptcy case on the debtors-side in Delaware,” he says. “I understand that our market share is not like a Weil or a Kirkland, but this is not an unprecedented step. It’s been something we’ve been doing on a regular basis now.”

Andrew Kassner, the managing partner of Drinker Biddle & Reath and the chair of the firm’s corporate restructuring practice, is serving as local counsel to ASR along with restructuring partner Howard Cohen.

Thompson says the firm is close to ASR’s headquarters in Cedar Knolls, N.J., and has represented the company in the past. While Drinker Biddle has yet to file documents with the bankruptcy court revealing how much ASR has paid the firm, Simpson has.

According to the firm’s application for employment to the bankruptcy court, Simpson has received $2.15 million for prepetition services to ASR. The firm was also paid a little more than $2 million in the form of a retainer in the 90 days prior to ASR’s Chapter 11 filing. Simpson partners are billing between $915 and $980 per hour, senior counsel at $795, counsel at $775, and associates at hourly rates ranging from $410 to $730.

Thompson ($980 per hour), litigation partner Linda Martin ($950), corporate partners Andrew Smith ($950) and Brian Steinhardt ($915), executive compensation and employee benefits chair Alvin Brown ($1,000), special corporate counsel Michael Isby ($795), bankruptcy counsel Morris Massel ($775), and employee benefits counsel Jamin Koslowe ($775) and Susan Kaufman ($775), and 11 Simpson associates make up the team from the firm representing ASR.

Here are other recent bankruptcy filings of note (when available, hourly billing rates are detailed in parentheses):

SOMMET GROUP

Once the sponsor behind the 20,000-seat arena serving as home to the NHL’s Nashville Predators, Sommet Group has seen its fortunes take a turn for the worse in recent months.

The Predators sued Sommet for nonpayment on the arena naming rights contract last November. The Franklin, Tenn.-based outsourcer of business services then had its headquarters raided by the FBI earlier this month as part of a federal investigation into the payroll and insurance company. On Tuesday, a group of Sommet creditors sought to push the company into Chapter 7 as a means of collecting on their debts.

K&L Gates bankruptcy partner Sven Nylen in Chicago and Frost Brown Todd bankruptcy partners Edward King and Robert Guy, Jr., in Nashville are representing creditors seeking to have Sommet forced into liquidating its assets.

GLOBAL CAPACITY GROUP

Chicago-based telecommunications and logistics firm Global Capacity Group filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on July 23, Reuters reports, announcing it hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 proceedings before the end of this year.

Douglas Draper, a name partner at Louisiana firm Heller, Draper, Hayden, Patrick & Horn, is advising Global Capacity in its Chapter 11 case. Francis Monaco, Jr., a bankruptcy partner with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in Wilmington, is serving as local counsel to the debtor. Neither firm has filed billing statements with the bankruptcy court.

Chicago firm Shefsky & Froelich appears on a list of Global Capacity’s largest creditors as being owed $746,618.54.

NEXITY FINANCIAL

Birmingham-based Nexity Financial, the holding company that operates online retail banker Nexity Bank, filed for bankruptcy on July 22 in Delaware under a prenegotiated deal with bondholders that includes the sale of $175 million in stock, Reuters reports.

Mark Collins, the chair of the bankruptcy and corporate restructuring group at Richards, Layton & Finger in Delaware, is serving as lead debtor’s counsel along with partner Michael Merchant and associate Drew Sloan. The firm has not yet filed billing information with the bankruptcy court.

Alabama firm Balch & Bingham and New Orleans firm Jones Walker appear in a matrix of Nexity Financial creditors filed with the bankruptcy court. Bloomberg reports that Nexity Bank is operating under a cease and desist order issued by regulators and hasn’t filed quarterly reports with the SEC since September 2008.

COZUMEL CARIBE

Mexican tourism services provider Cozumel Caribe filed for Chapter 15 protection in Manhattan on July 20, citing a drastic drop in the number of tourists visiting the Hotel Park Royal Cozumel from which it operates.

Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman bankruptcy partner Jeffrey Gleit is advising Cozumel Caribe in its Chapter 15 case. The firm has not yet filed billing information with the bankruptcy court.

Bloomberg reports that Cozumel Caribe has debts in access of $100 million, compared with assets of $10 million. Gossler is providing local restructuring and audit services to the debtor in Mexican bankruptcy proceedings.

This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily.