The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Angela Libby advises debtors, creditors, banks, hedge funds, lenders, asset purchasers, and other strategic parties in a wide range of corporate restructuring matters. These include prepackaged and traditional bankruptcies, out-of-court workouts, debtor-in-possession (DIP) and exit financing transactions, asset sales, bankruptcy litigation, cross-border insolvencies, and liability management transactions.
Angela is recognized in Chambers USA and IFLR1000 for her restructuring work. In 2025, she was named to Bloomberg Law’s They’ve Got Next: The 40 Under 40 list. The Deal listed Angela among its 2023 Top Women in Dealmaking for restructuring. Global Restructuring Review named her to the 40 Under 40 list in 2022, and Law360 named her a Rising Star in energy in 2021. The American Bankruptcy Institute named her among the 40 Under 40 Emerging Leaders in Insolvency in 2019.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
My practice focuses on guiding clients through complex corporate distress and strategic transformation, addressing the full range of challenges companies and investors face when navigating financial uncertainty. Restructuring work is often done out of court and can range from relatively straightforward amendments to financing documents, full debt-for-equity exchanges, and distressed sales and/or change-of-control transactions. Increasingly, a key element of my work is liability management, an area where Davis Polk has played an integral role in shaping some of the most innovative transactions in the market. I also advise on in-court restructurings, which can take the form of prepackaged or prearranged cases, where the key stakeholders reach agreement on the terms of a plan prior to filing or more traditional Chapter 11 bankruptcies. For both types of transactions, advising on various financing structures, including DIP and exit financings, is a key function. The restructuring team partners work extremely closely with other corporate teams to create and implement solutions, offering bespoke strategies that not only address immediate challenges but also set clients on a path for long-term success. Ultimately, my practice is about helping clients assess all strategic options, balance competing interests, and navigate high-stakes situations to achieve sustainable outcomes.
What types of clients do you represent?
I represent a variety of clients, ranging from companies in financial distress to the creditors and investors who are crucial to these transactions. My work spans both sides of the table: I have advised debtors such as Purdue Pharma and American Rock Salt, helping them navigate complex financial restructurings, and I represent creditors, banks, hedge funds, lenders, asset purchasers, and other strategic investors. My engagements with lender groups and ad hoc committees have included major restructuring matters for companies such as MSG Networks and SVB Financial Group. These clients rely on me to craft strategies that protect and maximize their interests.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
I advise clients on a broad range of complex restructuring matters, from traditional Chapter 11 filings and out-of-court workouts to high-stakes asset sales, DIP financing, bankruptcy litigation, and liability management transactions. A significant part of my recent work has been focused on liability management, where I have led cutting-edge, out-of-court recapitalization efforts for companies such as Incora, Graftech, and Alkegen, helping them restructure their liabilities without the need for formal bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, I advise creditor groups, particularly fulcrum security holders, in high-profile bankruptcies, assisting in shaping the path forward for reorganized companies. I also work on international restructurings, in which practitioners are required to develop techniques for navigating the increasingly complex world of cross-border insolvencies as corporate insolvency laws evolve to prioritize corporate rescue over liquidation.
How did you choose this practice area?
I chose restructuring because it allows me to combine legal analysis, strategic thinking, and practical problem-solving in service of clients who are facing some of their most challenging situations. I was drawn to the fact that a successful outcome can take many forms. Sometimes success is a trial court victory, and just as often, it is a quick settlement that avoids the cost, risk, and uncertainty of litigation. The opportunity to help clients assess this full range of potential outcomes and guide them toward the solution that best aligns with their goals is what led me to this practice and what continues to motivate me today.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
My favorite part of my practice is that there is no typical day. On any given day, I may have one matter that is an out-of-court new money financing to a distressed company, another matter that is a sale transaction, and a third matter that is almost entirely focused on litigation strategies and risks. Also, the scope of issues that can come up in any single restructuring mandate can run the gamut from finance to M&A, litigation, tax, and executive compensation.
Therefore, I spend a good part of every day working with the team (which always includes not only restructuring lawyers but also lawyers in other practices across Davis Polk) to issue-spot and then analyze complex issues, respond to client questions, and develop recommendations and potential solutions for the client.
I also spend a lot of time on calls with clients. My matters typically involve multiple client stakeholders. For example, I might represent a board of directors with multiple directors who may have differing views or an ad hoc group of lenders who are working together as a group to protect their investment, with each having their own investment strategy. I work with these client groups to develop strategy and build consensus around next steps and negotiating positions. I also spend significant time coordinating with co-advisors, including investment bankers and financial advisors. Because restructuring trans-actions involve a heavy crossover of business and legal issues, the practice is unique in how closely the business-side and legal-side advisors work together. We truly work hand in hand to deliver joint advice to the client.
Finally, after we’ve developed our strategy and built requisite consensus, I get to advocate for our clients to those on the other side of the negotiating table.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
The early years of practice are all about learning—about your area of law, about your clients’ industries, and about how to navigate both the law firm environment and the broader legal industry. My advice? Stay curious, be humble, and take every opportunity to work with senior lawyers who bring different strengths and perspectives. You’ll learn a lot from their diverse approaches and styles.
One of the most important skills you’ll develop is the ability to listen—to your clients and your adversaries. Listening carefully is key to understanding differing viewpoints and finding common ground. The more you practice this, the better you’ll be at advising your clients, building trust, and helping them navigate complex situations to reach a solution. Keep an open mind and embrace every chance to learn from those around you.
What misconceptions exist about your practice area?
The biggest misconception about restructuring is that it is a specialty area. It’s actually the last bastion of a generalist practice! While it is generally true that we only get called in when there is some level of financial distress (or structuring for potential financial distress), the actual substance of the work cuts across corporate practices and involves litigation. For the in-house legal departments looking to hire associates out of a law firm, I’d recommend considering lawyers with a restructuring background. They’ll be well-suited to jump into the more general nature of a lot of in-house practices and will be used to stretching beyond one particular type of corporate expertise.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
Junior associates are core parts of any restructuring team. They are often the lead on research work streams, including with respect to case law research. Our research is a little different than what law students will learn in law school, though, because you are researching from a much narrower body of bankruptcy-related cases. It’s often most important to understand what has been done in other recent cases or what arguments have already been made in front of a specific bankruptcy judge. This means that the research is often narrowly tailored to bankruptcy cases but often involves a deeper dive into these cases and often a more forensic approach researching not only published decisions but also unpublished decisions, transcripts, and motion practice and precedent transaction documents that have been publicly filed. In other words, restructuring research is as much about understanding the overall trends in the market as it is about researching discrete legal issues, and junior associates are often on the front line of this work. Junior associates also routinely take the lead on first drafts of motion practice. On the transactional side, junior associates frequently take the lead on reviewing financing documents, and then once we are in negotiations, they will take the lead on the first draft of the NDAs, then the term sheets, and finally the definitive documents.
What are some typical career paths for lawyers in this practice area?
Given the generalist nature of the practice, I’m not sure that there’s a “typical” career path, but here are some examples showing where lawyers from our practice have gone: in-house restructuring counsel for bank workout groups; in-house counsel for investors; distressed investing; investment banking; general counsel of a public company; venture capitalism; entrepreneurs; and my personal favorite, an associate who went into family law (there’s more overlap than you’d think—both fields involve a lot of emotion and dividing up assets!).
What advice do you have for navigating the multidisciplinary nature of bankruptcy practice?
I always say that bankruptcy attorneys need to be both brave and humble. “Brave” because you will constantly be facing problems that you haven’t seen before and for which you will need to make up solutions. “Humble” because it’s really important to be able to acknowledge and admit that sometimes you are, indeed, making it up as you go. In showing a touch of humility in those situations, you are more likely to empower your team to realize that they too can be part of the solution since it’s not just technical expertise or lived practice that will get you to the right place; it also takes creative and novel thinking that lawyers at all levels can bring to the table.