The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Megan M. Wasson works on bankruptcy and restructuring matters. She assists significant parties, including bondholders, indenture trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, and creditors’ committees, in complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, out-of-court restructurings, and other distressed situations.
Alexander Woolverton represents debtors, creditors, and distressed investment funds in Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, and cross-border insolvencies, with a focus on advising distressed investment funds, institutional investors, and ad hoc groups of creditors in restructuring matters. He also represents companies and distressed investment funds in out-of-court liability management and insolvency-sensitive transactions.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
Megan: My work involves representing clients in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, out-of-court restructurings, and other distressed situations.
Xander: I represent clients in Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, and cross-border insolvencies, as well as in out-of-court liability management and insolvency-sensitive transactions.
What types of clients do you represent?
Megan: A combination of creditors’ committees, debtors, and ad hoc groups across all different industries.
Xander: I represent companies, distressed investment funds, institutional investors and ad hoc groups of creditors.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Megan: Recently I have been involved in several of our mass tort cases, including representing state attorneys’ general in Mallinckrodt’s first bankruptcy case, creditors’ committees in the Rite Aid and Endo International plc bankruptcy cases, and tort claimants in the Red River Talc bankruptcy case. Each of these cases included a combination of issues attendant to mass tort cases as well as cutting-edge litigations and lien challenges.
Xander: I’m currently representing creditors of a multinational specialty pharmaceutical company in connection with its ongoing restructuring efforts. Recently, I was involved in our representation of bondholders of AES Puerto Rico, LP, in connection with their successful out-of-court restructuring and recapitalization.
How did you choose this practice area?
Megan: I was originally drawn to Kramer Levin as a summer associate because of our white collar litigation practice but ultimately fell in love with restructuring because of the multidisciplinary nature of the work and the wonderful people in our group. I really enjoy the blend of litigation and corporate work that bankruptcy provides and that the fast-paced nature of our cases gives you hands-on, meaningful work as an associate. I was also encouraged by the number of wonderful female role models in the restructuring space—including our bankruptcy group in particular—like bankruptcy partners Amy Caton and Rachael Ringer.
Xander: When I was in law school, I actually did not consider bankruptcy as a potential practice area. After I graduated in 2009, I worked for the Department of the Interior in Alaska doing land use law for the Bureau of Land Management and Indian Affairs. It wasn’t until after I took the bar exam in 2011 when my law school dean, Michael Gerber, recommended me for a clerkship with Judge Martin Glenn in the bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York that I actually gave bankruptcy serious consideration. That same year, Residential Capital filed with Kramer Levin representing the unsecured creditors’ committee. That’s when I met the firm’s bankruptcy and restructuring co-chair, Kenneth Eckstein, as well as Rachael Ringer and Joseph Shifer. They were also involved with the Dewey & LeBoeuf and General Maritime bankruptcies during that time. That experience is what ultimately made me decide on bankruptcy as a field.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
Megan: On any given day, I can be on an all-day Zoom hearing in another jurisdiction, and then the next day, I could be doing deposition preparation all morning and then negotiating financing agreements in the afternoon. Each day ends up being a combination of some litigation work and some corporate work. I often find that I can have a schedule set for the day, but that can quickly change by 9 a.m. Similar to Xander’s approach though, I consider that unpredictability to be what makes bankruptcy an exciting practice.
Xander: I often start my day before my kids are up so that I can make time to take them to school in the morning, and I try to make time to have dinner with my kids, which means I have to make up the work time after they’ve gone to bed. I am an avid runner and run five or six days a week, schedule permitting—often with my phone so that I can be reached even when exercising. I can’t count the times that I’ve had to take work calls while running in Prospect Park in Brooklyn or across the Williamsburg Bridge! The bottom line is there is no typical daily schedule, but that fits perfectly well with the organized chaos that goes along with being a parent to three young kids.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Megan: I would recommend taking a bankruptcy- or restructuring-focused seminar to get a better idea of what a career in bankruptcy actually looks like. Regardless of the practice you’re interested in, knowing early on what type of work it involves and what that career can actually look like can be very helpful. For example, bankruptcy tends to appeal to people who like fast-paced, dynamic representations. People who have broader real-world experience beyond just academics also tend to do well in this field.
Xander: I studied at a liberal arts college and was an English major. In my view, that education prepared me incredibly well for a career in corporate law. It cultivated in me a love of learning and a curiosity that is essential in a line of work where you are constantly learning something new—about a new client, a new industry, or a novel legal issue. Having an open mind and being ready to learn is essential to being successful, and that is really something that I took with me from my liberal arts education.
What do you like best about your practice area?
Megan: It keeps me on my toes, because no two days are ever the same: One day I can be in depositions or a court hearing all day, and the next, I’m negotiating a term sheet for a financing or drafting trust documents.
Xander: What I like best is that you need to bring an attitude of learning to every representation.
What is unique about your practice area at your firm?
Megan: We’ve developed a niche representing commercial claimants and governmental claimants in mass tort cases, which is unique to Kramer Levin. Most firms involved in the mass tort space typically represent personal injury claimants or tortfeasors/insurers.
Xander: I would say what’s most unique is that our representations are a blend of hedge funds and unsecured creditors’ committees; this is a client base that is not very common in BigLaw firms.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
Megan: Our practice group is unique in that we tend to staff our cases relatively leanly, so junior associates get to take on a broad spectrum of different projects, which can range from researching an issue for an upcoming brief (or drafting part of that brief) to helping investigate claims that we may be looking to litigate by digging up a company’s press releases, history, and past SEC filings.
Xander: Bankruptcy and restructuring is distinguished from other BigLaw firm practices because there are more opportunities to take on substantive work early in your career. This opportunity to take on more meaningful assignments early is really unique to any bankruptcy and restructuring practice.
How do you see this practice area evolving in the future?
Megan: I see it as becoming more global and cross-border, with more international implications as both law firms and large corporations continue to consolidate and expand their global reach. Most of our recent cases involve some international or cross-border components.
Xander: I see it as getting more finance oriented. The need for a restructuring lawyer to also be a competent finance lawyer is becoming more and more important.