Kris Hansen Named a 2025 ‘Dealmaker of the Year’ by The American Lawyer
March 19, 2025
Kris Hansen, co-chair of the Financial Restructuring practice, has been named a 2025 “Dealmaker of the Year” by The American Lawyer.
Kris was honored for his work representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the $18.6 billion Chapter 11 bankruptcy of shared workspace provider WeWork Inc. and over 500 of its affiliates.
“We identified, almost immediately, a bunch of significant issues with WeWork,” Kris recalled. “For most large-scale, complex bankruptcy cases, we describe them as three-dimensional chess. There are so many parties interested that you’re not only looking on your board, you have to look below, above, behind it.”
Ultimately, Kris’s leadership of the committee netted unsecured creditors a recovery nearly on par with that of secured, prioritized creditors, in a deal that allowed WeWork to continue operating.
“There’s another old saying, that a great settlement means that none of the parties to it are really happy, because everybody had to give something up to arrive there for this greater goal,” Kris said. “But when you’re talking about salvaging value for people in multi-dimensional situations, it is really about harnessing the strength of the group to get to a result that is as beneficial as it can be for everybody.”
Click here to read the full profile.
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