S P E C IA L R E P O R T

Retailers defy trend toward fewer filings Bankruptcy cases rose for the industry last year while falling elsewhere. Expect the same in 2014 by jamie mason

law firms , volume

Business bankruptcy filings in fiscal year 2013, ended Sept. 30, were down 17% from fiscal 2012, according to the Administrative Office for the U.S. Courts. But restructuring professionals still found plenty of work in the retail industry and will likely discover even more in fiscal 2014, as antiquated shopkeepers try to figure out how to deal with fierce competition from online merchants. “There has been an increase in retail bankruptcy filings in 2013 and it’s going to be even more this year,” said Peter N. Schaeffer, a principal at crisis management firm GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC, which finished second among crisis management firms by number (124 active cases) and 10th by volume ($6.2 billion in assets) in the Deal Pipeline Bankruptcy League Tables for the fourth quarter. According to The Deal Pipeline, 16 retailer bankruptcies were filed in the U.S. by companies with at least $50 million in liabilities in 2013, double the number the year before. “If you go back to the 2007 and 2008 recession, a lot of retailers got their balance sheets in order, paid down debt, restructured, lightened their inventory and got in a good position to weather the storm,” said Schaeffer. “But you can’t expense yourself to success. You can’t just cut inventory and succeed. At some point, you have to invest back into the business.” Investment banker J. Scott Victor at SSG Capital Advisors LLC agreed that more retailers will be reorganizing in 2014, even though he doesn’t see any dramatic changes with the still-vibrant credit markets and a stable consumer economy. “Bankruptcy filings are down overall and there is plenty of financing available across all industries, even distressed ones,” said Victor, who tied for fourth place among investment bankers by number of active cases with five. “The issue with retail, though, is that, unfortunately, specialty retail has been in longterm systemic decline.” His SSG Capital colleague, Michael Goodman, asserted that the most obvious reason behind this situation is that “the Internet is taking their business away, and that is going to continue year after year.”

CONTINUED > close

print

back

Rank

( $ bill .)

Law firm

No. of active cases

Avg. assets

Assets

1

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

73

$14.7

$1,074.1

2

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

78

13.2

1,030.8

3

White & Case LLP

61

16.8

1,025.2

4

Vedder Price PC

66

15.3

1,008.8

5

Saul Ewing LLP

95

10.6

1,002.7

6

Duane Morris LLP

159

6.3

1,001.3

7

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

94

10.5

987.1

8

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

90

10.9

982.9

9

Cooley LLP

74

13.1

970.7

10

Latham & Watkins LLP

87

10.7

930.3

l aw y e r s , vo lu m e Rank

Lawyer

( $ b i l l .) Law firm

No. of active cases

Avg. assets

Assets

1

Schein, Michael

Vedder Price PC

32

$30.1

$962.4

2

Lauria, Thomas

White & Case LLP

23

36.2

832.7

3

Milmoe, J. Gregory

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

12

69.1

829.7

4

Rosner, Douglas

Goulston & Storrs PC

22

36.7

808.4

5

Hahn, Richard

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

13

61.7

802.1

6

Gottfried, Andrew

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

8

99.9

799.1

7

Lipke, Douglas

Vedder Price PC

24

33.1

795.1

8

Davidson, Scott

King & Spalding LLP

8

98.5

787.9

9

Mayer, Thomas

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

13

60.3

784.4

10

Golden, Daniel

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

13

59.3

770.8

< Index >

cover

search

view

2

BANKRUPTCY LEAGUE TABLES investment banks , volume

< PREVIOUS

Rank

MANY RETAILERS have been making headlines lately because of their financial troubles, including women’s apparel retailer Coldwater Creek Inc., department store operator J.C. Penney Co., electronics retailer RadioShack Corp., specialty retailer Brookstone Co., apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and plus-size women’s retailer New Ashley Stewart Inc., just to name a few. So far, they’ve staved off bankruptcy and are trying to restructure outside of court. In 2013, however, companies such as hardware retailers Orchard Supply Hardware Stores Corp., Handy Hardware Wholesale Inc. and hospital uniform purveyor Life Uniform Holding Corp. all filed for bankruptcy protection. In the fourth quarter, discount department store chain Loehmann’s Holdings Inc. and golf retailer Edwin Watts Golf Shops LLC, among others, joined the list. Jay Indyke, the head of restructuring at Cooley LLP (116 cases, ranking it 13th among law firms; $970.7 billion in assets, ranking it ninth by volume), said a plethora of retailers have a significant level of debt that greatly exceeds the value of their assets. He noted that lenders have been willing to forbear, extend and restructure outside of court, but such efforts haven’t necessarily led to long-term fixes because they are more financial restructurings than strategic ones. “Coldwater Creek, Brookstone and Ashley Stewart could be the next three bankruptcies from the rumors that I have heard,” GlassRatner Schaeffer posited. “They all have antiquated concepts.” Many retailers are clinging to old business models and aren’t appealing to the millennials. “There is currently a cleansing of

CONTINUED >

Bank

( $bill.)

No. of active cases

Avg. assets

Assets

1

Blackstone Group LP

26

$27.7

$720.6

2

Miller Buckfire & Co. LLC

6

109.0

653.9

3

Houlihan Lokey Inc.

21

2.8

58.2

4

Jefferies LLC

9

5.1

45.9

5

Lazard

13

3.2

41.7

6

Moelis & Co. LLC

12

2.7

32.6

7

UBS

3

10.8

32.3

8

Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc.

1

30.1

30.1

9

Solic Capital Advisors LLC

14

2.1

28.8

12

2.3

27.3

10 Duff & Phelps Securities LLC

crisis management firms , volume Rank

Firm

( $bill.)

No. of active cases

Avg. assets

Assets

1

FTI Consulting Inc.

105

$8.6

$906.0

2

Goldin Associates LLC

17

42.2

717.9

3

Capstone Advisory Group LLC

19

6.2

116.9

4

Protiviti Inc.

19

2.4

46.5

5

Alvarez & Marsal LLC

38

0.9

33.6

6

Huron Consulting Group Inc.

11

1.2

13.6

7

Conway MacKenzie Inc.

18

0.7

13.3

8

AlixPartners LLP

16

0.8

12.9

9

Gavin/Solmonese LLC

32

0.2

6.4

10

GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC

17

0.4

6.2

noninvestment banks , volume

( $bill.)

Rank

Firm *

No. of active cases

Avg. assets

Assets

1

BMC Group Inc.

83

$8.9

$737.7

2

Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions LLC

114

3.5

400.5

3

Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC

133

2.2

297.5

4

Garden City Group Inc.

111

2.5

273.0

5

Rust Consulting/Omni Bankruptcy

23

2.0

46.2

6

KPMG

9

4.9

43.7

7

J.H. Cohn LLP

10

3.9

39.4

8

Ernst & Young

18

2.0

36.2

9

Kekst and Co.

9

3.3

29.4

Rubenstein Associates Inc.

1

15.7

15.7

Sard Verbinnen & Co.

1

15.7

15.7

10

*Ernst & Young includes Ernst & Young Inc. and Ernst & Young LLP; KPMG includes KPMG Corporate Recovery, KPMG Inc. and KPMG LLP.

close

print

back

< Index >

cover

search

view

3

BANKRUPTCY LEAGUE TABLES < PREVIOUS bad operators going on, a correction in retailers who don’t deserve to be in business anymore,” he added. Another major issue plaguing retailers is expensive leases and stores with too much square footage. Such excesses led to the downfall of Fortunoff Holdings LLC in 2009 and, more recently, supermarket chain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Inc., which blamed its Sept. 30 Chapter 11 filing on pricey leases. Schaeffer predicts that J.C. Penney can make it through 2014, but 2015 could be a whole different story if the retailer doesn’t achieve increases in comparable-store sales above 2%. He said he believes that RadioShack would do much better as part of Best Buy Co. or another retailer as a store-within-a-store, giving up on have freestanding outlets of its own. “If they don’t come up with something quick, they will be in big trouble,” he said. ONE SILVER LINING could be book retailer Barnes & Noble Inc. There has been a stabilization in the industry with one-third of books being electronic and the remainder being hard- and softcover books, Schaeffer said. Still, Barnes & Noble has to come up with a model that will allow it to be price-competitive. “Their stores are still too big and their prices are too high,” Schaeffer explained. In their quest to survive in a world where the Internet continues to change the way that people shop, “retail collateral is still gold,” according to SSG Capital’s Goodman, referring to the merchandise in the stores. “Liquidators have mastered the art of going-out-business sales, so it is easy for lenders to recover fully what they advanced against the inventory collateral,” Goodman said.

close

print

back

“Even if the business is struggling or losing money, the company can continue to attract financing to these zombie chains because of the liquid nature of their collateral,” he said. Debtor counsel to sports bar chain Fox & Hound, Michael Fox, chairman of restructuring at New York law firm Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP (ranked 73rd with 17 active cases and 193rd in volume, with $8 billion in assets), points out that sometimes retailers are worth more dead than alive if they own real estate or have valuable leases from 20 years ago that are priced below market prices and would be considered assets instead of liabilities. Goodman said that while he’s seeing much more restructuring transactions across all industries being effectuated outside of court because of the costs of bankruptcy, a retailer still generally needs to reinvent itself in court and use the federal bankruptcy code to deal with its leases. HISTORICALLY, RETAILERS would file for bankruptcy right after Christmas when they were flush with cash to fund their bankruptcy stays instead of using an expensive debtor-in-possession loan. No more. “Most retailers are in denial and they wait too long and often don’t have the flexibility to wait to file because once they have no money left to buy inventory, they have no choice,” Schaeffer said. “Once vendors stop shipping, the company is going to file and rumors are enough to get vendors to stop shipping goods to retailers.” Within the retail sector, appliance and furniture retailing are rebounding most. “We are starting to see a strength coming from home improvement stores,” he said. Moderate bricks-and-mortar women’s apparel is struggling

< Index >

CONTINUED >

cover

search

view

4

BANKRUPTCY LEAGUE TABLES investment bankers , volume

< PREVIOUS

Rank

the most, however. And that’s a major problem for the entire retail industry. “Women’s apparel is the biggest driver of retail sales,” Schaeffer said. “There is no question that consumers are buying much more on the Internet and not going into stores. Besides all of the competition on the Internet, there has also been price deflation in women’s apparel, so retailers have to sell more units to do the same amount of business.” Cooley’s Indyke (34 cases, ranked 33rd among lawyers; $137.4 billion assets, ranked 94th by volume) pointed to restaurants as a subsector that is struggling more than others because demographics in certain areas of the economy haven’t improved to the same levels as in others. Also, people in certain income brackets can no longer afford to eat out. Restaurant operators Sbarro Inc., Ruby Tuesday Inc., Quiznos and Logan’s Roadhouse Inc. have all been struggling. Fox & Hound filed for Chapter 11 on Dec. 15 and Wendy’s franchisee Wen-Kev Management Inc. sought bankruptcy protection on Dec. 4. Schaeffer said he believes that it’s not the retail or restaurant industry that is in trouble, but individual concepts. “Restaurants are always going bankrupt,” he asserted. “It’s part of their churn. If they don’t have enough money to renovate their restaurants and change concepts, they lose customers. It’s really the moderately priced mass-market restaurants that are struggling because those customers are getting hit the most in this economy.” The fact that retail has hit a rough patch lately means that other companies could start facing issues, as well. “Retail is a leading indicator of distress,” Schaeffer said. “They go into distress before everyone else and they come out before everyone else. Everything else follows. If the guy that makes the clothing goes under, ultimately it hits the cotton grower. Next year will be a hard year for major suppliers to large retailers, apparel companies and food distributors as a result of this year’s potential bankruptcy onslaught.” n

Banker

print

back

No. of active cases

Avg. assets

Assets

$133.4

$667.2

1

Coleman, Timothy

Blackstone Group LP

5

2

Szlezinger, Leon

Jefferies LLC

4

9.8

39.0

3

Solimene, Mick

Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc.

1

30.1

30.1

4

Casas, Edward

Solic Capital Advisors LLC

9

3.2

28.5

5

Luria, Neil

Solic Capital Advisors LLC

8

3.6

28.4

6

Strom, Steve

Jefferies LLC

2

12.5

24.9

7

Huffard, Flip

Blackstone Group LP

5

3.6

18.2

8

Murphy, Brendan

Duff & Phelps Securities LLC

5

3.5

17.7

9

Hilty, David

Houlihan Lokey Inc.

4

4.2

16.8

Greene, S.; Puntus, M.

Centerview Partners LLC

1

15.7

15.7

Niemann, M.; Siegert, E.; Snellenbarger, R.

Houlihan Lokey Inc.

1

15.7

15.7

Pfeiffer, Allen

Duff & Phelps Securities LLC

1

15.7

15.7

Tuliano, Ralph

Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc.

1

15.7

15.7

No. of active cases

Avg. assets

Assets

10

crisis managers , volume Rank

Professional

( $bill.)

Firm

1

Tully, Conor

FTI Consulting Inc.

12

$63.8

$766.0

2

Pauker, David

Goldin Associates LLC

12

57.4

688.8

3

Preston, Seymour

Goldin Associates LLC

9

75.1

675.5

4

Star, Samuel

FTI Consulting Inc.

12

56.2

674.7

5

Eisenband, Michael

FTI Consulting Inc.

11

13.1

144.2

6

Nolan, Bill

FTI Consulting Inc.

6

13.8

83.0

7

Joffe, Steven

FTI Consulting Inc.

7

9.6

66.9

8

Kearns, Christopher

Capstone Advisory Group LLC

4

11.2

44.8

9

Chadwick, Peter

Capstone Advisory Group LLC

3

14.4

43.1

FTI Consulting Inc.

9

4.7

41.9

10 Greenspan, Ronald

noninvestment bankers , volume Rank

Professional

Firm

( $bill.)

Avg. No. of active cases assets

Assets

1

Feil, Tinamarie

BMC Group Inc.

71

$10.3

$729.0

2

Mendizabal, Lorenzo

Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions LLC

113

3.5

400.4

3

Kass, Albert

Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC

126

2.0

248.2

4

Stein, Jeffrey

Garden City Group Inc.

83

2.7

225.5

5

Zucker, Clifford

J.H. Cohn LLP

3

8.9

26.7

6

Fielding, Jeremy

Kekst and Co.

6

3.9

23.4

7

Johnson, Craig

Garden City Group Inc.

3

7.6

22.8

8

Beekenkamp, B.; McDonald, M.

Ernst & Young Inc.

1

21.2

21.2

9

DesChenes, Denise

Sard Verbinnen & Co.

1

15.7

15.7

Kresler, T.; Stockham, A.

Rubenstein Associates Inc.

1

15.7

15.7

1

10.3

10.3

10 Kenski, Andrea

close

( $bill.)

Bank

< Index >

Franco Public Relations Group

cover

search

view

5

BANKRUPTCY

For Kurtzman Carson, the end of an era The claims firm is still going strong, but its namesake founders left to pursue other ventures turing lawyer who was recruited For more than eight years, to KCC by Carson five years ago, claims agent Kurtzman Carsaid the claims agent field has son Consultants LLC has held changed drastically since then. a prominent spot among nonNow there is an increasing eminvestment banks in the Deal phasis on digital technologies Pipeline’s Bankruptcy League among all involved parties. Tables, but the firm will go forKass also underscored a sigward without its two namesake nificant push for shorter and founders. cheaper bankruptcy procedures, It took Eric Kurtzman and which have made prepackaged Jonathan Carson 12 years to bankruptcies and asset sales build the business, but in Auconducted under Section 363(k) gust, they officially ended their of the Bankruptcy Code grow in tenures at KCC to move on to popularity. other things. Then there’s KCC itself. In “We’re really proud of what 2009, Kurtzman and Carson orwe built at KCC,” chestrated the sale said Carson, 41, a of their company Seemingly eager to once again scratch the entrepreneurial Los Angeles resident to Computershare itch that launched KCC, Kurtzman and Carson co-founded who serves on variLtd., an Australian Skywell, technology company developing technology to ous boards and, with stock share agent Kurtzman, is an inand shareholder extract drinking water from the air. vestor in Skywell, a servicer looking to fresh water technolbroaden its scope ogy company. “Eric and I have gotten a lot need of it.” in bankruptcy administration, for what of satisfaction from this entrepreneurial KCC was thus begun. turned out to be $152 million, including a venture.” “When you’re a lawyer, you’re taught $106 million cash portion and a $45.6 mil“Already a long time ago, KCC became to be risk-averse, and we did something lion three-year earnout. more than the Jonathan-and-Eric black that’s opposite of that,” Carson said, exCarson said that he and Kurtzman both box,” according to Kurtzman, 43, who lives plaining his sojourn from being at an es- agreed early on that once their firm had in Las Vegas and has also transitioned into tablished law firm to entering an entre- gained traction, the only natural step to investing in startup companies and serv- preneurial venture. grow further would be through a strategic ing on various corporate boards. “Even Over the next eight years, the startup partnership. though our names were on the door, it had grew into a key player in the claims and With the acquisition, the two agreed to evolved to become something far greater noticing industry, generating more than stay for the next three years, after which than the two of us had envisioned.” $100 million in annual revenue and em- they remained as advisers until August. In 2001 Kurtzman, then a corporate ploying more than 300 people. Ernst Seemingly eager to once again scratch restructuring attorney with Pachulski & Young LLP recognized the founders the entrepreneurial itch that launched Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP in Los An- as the Entrepreneurs of the Year in the KCC, they co-founded Skywell, a Santa geles, found himself serving as debtor greater Los Angeles area in 2008. Monica, Calif.-based technology company co-counsel on the Chapter 11 case of Sa“It was the first company to go after whose product extracts drinking water bratek Corp. with Carson, who at the former lawyers,” said Albert Kass, ex- from the air. They are also investors in time worked for Kirkland & Ellis LLP ecutive vice president and head of KCC’s several other startups, including Roozt. in Chicago. Seeing the case’s claims agent corporate restructuring group. “We go com, an e-commerce platform for socially “far under-deliver,” as Carson put it, was out and hire the folks who do this work conscious brands. an eye-opener for both men, who then themselves. I found that business model Neither man said he has any plan to saw the opportunity of bringing “better interesting.” return to corporate restructuring anytime technology to a space that was badly in Kass, a former Kirkland & Ellis restruc- soon. n by Anders Melin

close

print

back

< Index >

cover

search

view

6

BANKRUPTCY LEAGUE TABLES

lawyers , number Rank

law firms , number Rank

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

No. of Cases

Law firm White & Case LLP Duane Morris LLP Ballard Spahr LLP Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP Latham & Watkins LLP Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP Saul Ewing LLP Reed Smith LLP DLA Piper King & Spalding LLP Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP Cooley LLP Richards, Layton & Finger PA Vedder Price PC Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Greenberg Traurig LLP Goulston & Storrs PC Kirkland & Ellis LLP Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard PA Chadbourne & Parke LLP Kaye Scholer LLP Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP Holland & Knight LLP Buddy D. Ford PA

25

Ciardi Ciardi & Astin PC Rattet Pasternak LLP

26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

Lowenstein Sandler LLP Kelley Drye & Warren LLP Morrison & Foerster LLP Nixon Peabody LLP Kutner Miller Brinen PC Alston & Bird LLP Latham Shuker Eden & Beaudine LLP Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP Sidley Austin LLP Dechert LLP Law Offices of Eric A. Liepins PC Jones Day

34

Polsinelli Shughart PC Stubbs & Perdue PA

35

Trenk, DiPasquale, Webster, Della Fera & Sodono PC

Wolff, Hill, McFarlin & Herron PA Bingham McCutchen LLP

36

Foley & Lardner LLP Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

1,168 278 252 178 170 148 142 135 134 133 127 126 116 110 110 106 95 91 89 86 82 78 73 72 71 71 70 70 70 69 65 65 64 62 61 60 60 59 58 58 56 56 56 55 55 54 54 54

Percent U.S. (%)

7% 100 100 99 90 100 99 99 99 98 100 100 100 99 99 100 99 99 100 100 95 100 96 99 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 98 100 97 100 96 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Percent nonU.S. (%)

93% 0 0 1 10 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 5 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Includes all debtor, creditor and other assignments within active bankruptcy cases. All assignments active as of Dec. 31, 2013.

close

print

back

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19

20 21 22 23 24

25

26 27 28 29

30

Lawyer

No. of active assignments

Law firm

Schulte-Kaubrügger, Christoph

White & Case LLP

302

Pollack, David

Ballard Spahr LLP

Bähr, Biner

White & Case LLP

Huben, Brian

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Branch, Dustin

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Undritz, Sven-Holger

White & Case LLP

Carr, James

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

Leanse, Thomas

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Schmudde, Bettina

White & Case LLP

Minuti, Mark

Saul Ewing LLP

Daluz, Tobey M.

Ballard Spahr LLP

Hackländer, Philipp

White & Case LLP

Ford, Esq., Buddy

Buddy D. Ford PA

Herman, Neil E.

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Meyers, Jeffrey

Ballard Spahr LLP

Collins, Mark

Richards, Layton & Finger PA

Summers, Matthew

Ballard Spahr LLP

Liepins, Eric A.

Law Offices of Eric A. Liepins PC

Stubbs, Jr., Trawick

Stubbs & Perdue PA

Kleinschmidt, Andreas

White & Case LLP

Jones, Laura

Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP

Schein, Michael

Vedder Price PC

Nestor, Michael

Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP

Seife, Howard

Chadbourne & Parke LLP

Gibbs, Charles

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Ciardi, Albert

Ciardi Ciardi & Astin PC

Lipke, Douglas

Vedder Price PC

Pasternak, Jonathan

Rattet Pasternak LLP

Bellavia, Leonard

Bellavia Gentile & Associates LLP

Brady, Robert

Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP

Genova, Thomas

Genova & Malin

Gottlieb, Lawrence

Cooley LLP

Reed, Margery

Duane Morris LLP

Oliner, Ron

Duane Morris LLP

Frankel, Mark A.

Backenroth Frankel & Krinsky LLP

Marr, Paul R.

Paul Reece Marr PC

Goe, Robert

Goe & Forsythe LLP

Weiner, Bruce

Rosenberg Musso & Weiner LLP

Lindauer, Joyce

Law Offices of Joyce Lindauer

Harris, Stephen

Belding, Harris & Petroni Ltd.

Geno, Craig M.

Harris Jernigan & Geno PLLC

Rosner, Douglas

Goulston & Storrs PC

Shuker, R. Scott

Latham Shuker Eden & Beaudine LLP

Sparks, Eric

Eric Slocum Sparks PC

Gilhuly, Peter

Latham & Watkins LLP

Kutner, Lee M.

Kutner Miller Brinen PC

Neumann, Timothy P.

Broege, Neumann, Fischer & Shaver LLC

Rosen, Kenneth

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

300 248 237 208 171 136 114 104 91 91 84 68 63 62 59 59 58 56 55 55 55 55 51 50 48 47 47 47 46 45 45 42 42 42 41 41 40 40 40 39 38 38 38 37 37 37 37

Includes all debtor, creditor and other assignments within active bankruptcy cases. All cases active as of De. 31, 2013.

< Index >

cover

search

view

7

BANKRUPTCY LEAGUE TABLES investment banks, number Rank

1

Firm Blackstone Group LP

No. of active cases

Percent U.S.

Percent non-U.S.

29

90%

10%

2

Houlihan Lokey Inc.

24

88

12

3

Solic Capital Advisors LLC

17

100

0

4

Duff & Phelps Securities LLC

16

100

0

5

Carl Marks Securities LLC

15

100

0

6

Lazard

14

86

14

7

Moelis & Co. LLC

13

85

15

8

Rothschild

12

75

25

9

Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc.

11

100

0

10

Jefferies LLC

9

100

0

crisis management firms, number Rank

Firm

No. of active cases

Percent U.S.

Percent non-U.S.

investment bankers, number Rank

1 2

3

4

Professional

Firm

No. of active assignments

Casas, E.; Luria, N.

Solic Capital Advisors LLC

9

Wu, Christopher

Carl Marks Securities LLC

9

Genereux, Michael

Blackstone Group LP

8

Huber, Jack

Solic Capital Advisors LLC

8

Murphy, B.; Williams, B.

Duff & Phelps Securities LLC

6

Hardie, William

Houlihan Lokey Inc.

6

Kaufman, Peter

Gordian Group LLC

6

Coleman, T.; Huffard, F.

Blackstone Group LP

5

Cullen, Brian

Duff & Phelps Securities LLC

5

Owsley, Henry

Gordian Group LLC

5

Kurtz, David

Lazard

5

Victor, J. Scott

SSG Capital Advisors LLC

5

crisis managers, number Rank

Professional

Firm

No. of active assignments

1

FTI Consulting Inc.

255

44%

56%

GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC

1

Fok, Vincent

FTI Consulting Inc.

52

2

124

100

0

2

Arboit, Bruno

FTI Consulting Inc.

44

3

Alvarez & Marsal LLC

49

65

35

3

Gavin, Edward

Gavin/Solmonese LLC

41

4

Gavin/Solmonese LLC

47

100

0

4

Glass, Ronald

GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC

35

5

Smith, Margaret

GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC

32

6

Kofman, Robert

Duff & Phelps Canada Restructuring Inc.

22

7

Atkinson, Michael

Protiviti Inc.

16

GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC

14

8

Brown, Adam Greenspan, R.; Simms, S.

FTI Consulting Inc.

14

Pauker, David

Goldin Associates LLC

14

Star, S.; Tucker, M.

FTI Consulting Inc.

13

Weitz, Wayne

Gavin/Solmonese LLC

13

DuFrayne, Michael

Executive Sounding Board Associates Inc.

12

Pugh, Sarah

Gavin/Solmonese LLC

12

Sieradzki, David

Duff & Phelps Canada Restructuring Inc.

12

5

Protiviti Inc.

29

100

0

6

Duff & Phelps Canada Restructuring Inc.

28

4

96

7

Development Specialists Inc.

23

100

0

8

Goldin Associates LLC

22

100

0

9

Capstone Advisory Group LLC

21

100

0

10 Conway MacKenzie Inc.

21

95

5

AlixPartners LLP

18

100

0

18

100

0

18

100

0

Executive Sounding Board Associates

11 Inc.

Focus Management Group USA Inc.

noninvestment banks, number Rank

Firm *

No. of active cases

Percent U.S.

Percent non-U.S.

1

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

1,604

1%

99%

2

BDO Consulting

580

2

98

3

Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC

150

100

0

4

Duff & Phelps Ltd.

139

3

97

5

Garden City Group Inc.

136

99

1

6

Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions LLC

132

100

0

7

BMC Group Inc.

120

100

0

8

EisnerAmper LLP

118

100

0

9

KPMG

51

10

90

10

PricewaterhouseCoopers

37

22

78

*Deloitte includes Deloitte & Touche Inc., Deloitte & Touche LLP, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, Deloitte Tax LLP and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; KPMG includes KPMG Corporate Recovery, KPMG Inc. and KPMG LLP.

close

print

back

9

10

noninvestment bankers, number Rank

Professional

Firm

No. of active assignments

1

Levin, Henry David

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

188

2

Kass, Albert

Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC

143

3

Mendizabal, Lorenzo

Epiq Bankruptcy Solutions LLC

131

4

Lombe, David

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

119

Cussen, Neil

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

104

5

Feil, Tinamarie

BMC Group Inc.

104

6

Stein, Jeffrey S.

Garden City Group Inc.

96

7

Vance, David

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

92

8

Wallace-Smith, Simon

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

86

9

Greig, John

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

71

10

Helsingeng, Anne

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

51

search

view

< Index >

cover