Paul Hastings Continues Corporate Additions with Restructuring and Bankruptcy Pair in Chicago

May 01, 2015

Chicago, IL -- Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that Restructuring and Bankruptcy partners Chris Dickerson and Matt Murphy have joined the firm’s Restructuring and Bankruptcy practice in Chicago.

“The restructuring market is poised to see a significant pickup in business opportunities in coming years,” said Luc Despins, chair of the Global Restructuring and Bankruptcy practice at Paul Hastings. “The addition of Chris and Matt comes at this pivotal time in the market and advances our strategy to build a strong restructuring and bankruptcy team,” he added.

“We’ve been focused on adding top talent across several growth areas and key markets as part of our efforts to continue to strengthen and expand the reach of our Corporate practice,” said Elizabeth Noe, chair of the Corporate practice at Paul Hastings. “Chris and Matt’s skills will deepen the bench of our Restructuring and Bankruptcy practice and contribute to our growth in several related key practices,” she added.

Chris Dickerson

Mr. Dickerson's practice includes the representation of a variety of clients in complex business reorganizations, debt restructurings and insolvency matters, including purchasers of and investors in distressed companies and lenders to and creditors of such companies. He has assisted numerous large corporations both inside and outside chapter 11, including Circuit City Stores, Inc.; CIT Group, Inc.; Refco, Inc.; US Airways, Inc.; Zenith Electronics and Reddy Ice, Inc.

Mr. Dickerson also has assisted numerous investors in and acquirers of distressed assets including in the Chapter 11 cases of Pacific Energy, Inc.; Propex, Inc.; PTC Alliance Corp, and QualTeq, Inc. He also often assists secured lenders and providers of debtor-in-possession financing, such as Citibank, N.A. as debtor-in-possession lender to Solutia Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. as debtor-in-possession lender to Kaiser Aluminum Corporation and BNP Paribas as debtor-in-possession lender to Propex, Inc., and in a number of other out-of-court lending transactions.

Matt Murphy

Matt Murphy advises a variety of clients in complex business reorganizations, debt restructurings and troubled company M&A. Mr. Murphy has counseled clients, both public and private, through out-of-court and chapter 11 restructuring initiatives, the purchase of or investment in, distressed companies, the sale of distressed assets and post-petition lending strategies. He advised ALCO Stores, Inc., in its organized wind-down and sale of assets; Velti, Inc., during its chapter 11 and the sale of its US and UK assets and Education Holdings 1, Inc., in its prepackaged chapter 11 proceedings.

Both Mr. Dickerson and Mr. Murphy were previously partners with DLA Piper, where Mr. Dickerson served as Vice Chair of the Restructuring Practice group.

The arrival of this restructuring duo follows several Corporate additions including Global Project Finance chair Robert Kartheiser and Latin America and Project Finance partner Cathleen McLaughlin from Allen & Overy; David Shine, who joined the firm from Fried Frank, as chair of the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions practice in New York; and Samuel Waxman, who was previously an M&A partner and co-chair of Shearman & Sterling’s Intellectual Property Transactions practice and joined Paul Hastings as a partner in New York.

Paul Hastings is a leading global law firm with a strong presence throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Through a collaborative approach, entrepreneurial spirit, and commitment to client service, the professionals of Paul Hastings deliver innovative solutions to many of the world’s top financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies.