August 2009
Hughes Hubbard's Bankruptcy Practice Continues Expansion, Adding Veteran Corporate Reorganization Partner
Kathryn Coleman, whose 25 years’ experience includes the seminal Scotia Pacific Chapter 11, will boost the firm’s corporate reorganization practice.
Kathryn
Coleman
Hughes Hubbard announced that Kathryn Coleman has joined the firm as a partner in its New York office. She joins the firm from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP where she practiced for more than 20 years, leading the San Francisco office from 2000-2005 and serving most recently as a partner in the New York office.
Also joining Hughes Hubbard is Gibson Dunn counsel Eric Fromme, an accomplished federal-court litigator and corporate reorganization lawyer.
The two are the latest additions to Hughes Hubbard’s growing bankruptcy and corporate reorganization practice, which has doubled within the last year to 25 experienced insolvency lawyers. In October, the firm acquired the New York bankruptcy, creditors rights and finance firm Luskin, Stern & Eisler.
Ms. Coleman has extensive experience representing Chapter 11 debtors in possession, creditors’ committees, secured lenders groups, acquirers of distressed assets in and out of bankruptcy court, and equity stakeholders in connection with troubled investments and portfolio companies. She is particularly known for her work as lead counsel to Scotia Pacific in its highly contentious chapter 11 case, which was one of the first cases to be directly certified to the Circuit Court of Appeals from the Bankruptcy Court and set a number of important precedents.
Ms. Coleman was recently named one of the 100 “Most Influential Women in Business” by the San Francisco Business Times and is ranked by Best Lawyers in America as a leading bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights lawyer.
Richard Stern, co-chair of Hughes Hubbard’s corporate reorganization and bankruptcy practice, said, “We have known Katie for many years and are very pleased she has chosen to join us. She is a terrific lawyer and there’s no doubt that having her here will help us serve our clients’ needs as corporate reorganizations grow more and more complex.” Ken Lefkowitz, co-chair of the firm’s corporate practice group, added, “We are very excited to have another experienced bankruptcy transactional lawyer who will augment our active mergers and acquisitions practice.”
Hughes Hubbard’s corporate reorganization and bankruptcy lawyers have played a leading role in some of the most widely publicized insolvency cases in the past twenty years. The firm is currently representing James Giddens, the co-chair of the practice, as Trustee of Lehman Brothers, Inc., and is also playing major roles in numerous high-profile chapter 11 cases and out-of-court workouts.
Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, an international law firm based in New York, is ranked #1 in New York and #2 nationally on The American Lawyer’s A-List of the “top firms among the nation’s legal elite.” The American Lawyer also ranked the firm #4 in “Top Growth Firms” among the nation’s 200 largest firms over the last 10 years.