Milbank

Milbank LLP is one of the nation’s leading firms for corporate finance and restructuring, litigation, and project finance, and is known for its international work and focus on the energy sector.

Embracing Change

Milbank planted its roots on Wall Street more than 150 years ago as Anderson, Adams & Young. The firm’s first clients included American entrepreneurs, bankers, and railroad financiers, including the Vanderbilts and the Rockefellers. The firm weathered two World Wars, the Great Depression, and a long string of mergers before settling in as Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in 1962. Today, the firm has 12 offices across the globe—including its new digs in Hudson Yards. The firm also rebranded in 2019, shedding the “Tweed, Hadley & McCloy” to become simply Milbank LLP.

Onward and Upward

Milbank is a giant in the corporate law space, with a stellar reputation among leading financial institutions and other corporate clients. The firm’s No. 1 spot in Vault’s Project Finance ranking is just the beginning—Milbank is also among the top 15 firms for Banking & Financial Services, Securities/Capital Markets, General Corporate Practice, and M&A.

Milbank’s financial restructuring group has consistently ranked as one of the preeminent practices and leaders in its field. The team is often called into action to represent creditors and other key stakeholders in complicated restructurings, including Puerto Rico, Gymboree, J. Crew, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Caesar’s Entertainment. The firm also advises major hedge funds and private equity firms on complex M&A transactions involving swapping debt for equity to de-stress companies in distress.

Given the firm’s corporate prowess, it is no surprise that it is home to strong securities litigation and white collar defense groups. Among the firm’s ranks are former SEC attorneys (including its former head of enforcement) and seven former Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

Milbank also has a highly regarded Global Projects, Energy, and Infrastructure practice. The firm has a hand in bringing a range of infrastructure projects to life, from financing for airports and roads to ports and pipelines. On the energy side, the firm works with some of America’s most ambitious offshore wind projects and ethanol producers, while keeping a foothold in fossil fuel and metals projects.

Ivy League Training

Milbank’s training programs are truly Ivy League. For one week each year, the firm’s fourth-year through seventh-year associates head to Cambridge to be schooled “Harvard style” on topics ranging from leadership skills to business to client relations through the firm’s program, Milbank@Harvard. The program is taught by professors from Harvard’s Law and Business schools, with Milbank partners offering real-world examples and anecdotes. The firm’s training isn’t limited to the ivory tower, though. On the home front, litigation associates participate in a multiple-year training program called Advocacy@Milbank, transactional associates take part in Deals@Milbank, and in 2020, the firm introduced Restructuring@Milbank for financial restructuring associates.

COVID-19 Update

Milbank’s recruiting has remained consistent during COVID-19. We maintained the full ten-week length of both our 2020 and 2021 summer programs, unlike nearly all of our peer firms, onboarding and fully integrating our summer associates into the firm and the Milbank community. We have continued to hire laterally across our offices throughout the pandemic. Our first-year associate class joined us, as planned, in fall 2020 and we look forward to welcoming this year’s class in October. We expect to hire a 2022 summer class consistent with our historical size. We plan to utilize virtual interviewing where necessary, with the expectation that we will be able to adjust how we conduct interviews as guidelines surrounding travel and workplaces change. We encourage students to reach out to us directly to discuss opportunities to join our summer program. The decisions we have made during this period reflect our strong view that our people and culture are our most valuable assets. We hope that you will consider joining us.

• Milbank Advised private equity firm Veritas Capital on its successful sale of athenahealth to Hellman & Friedman and Bain Capital for $17 billion.

• Milbank advised Avianca Airlines, the second-largest airline group in Latin America, in its successful chapter 11 reorganization. In May 2020, Avianca filed chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. As a result of Milbank’s efforts, Avianca successfully used the chapter 11 process to obtain critical short-term financing, to tailor its fleet of leased aircraft for a revamped business model, and ultimately to eliminate more than $1 billion of net debt. Avianca’s chapter 11 process was largely consensual, and on December 1, 2021, Avianca became the first Latin American airline during the 2020-21 restructuring wave to emerge from chapter 11. With its emergence, Avianca has delivered to its creditors a lean, well-capitalized business that is positioned to compete for passengers and cargo as the industry recovers.

• In one of the largest LBOs since the 2008 financial crisis and one of the largest-ever healthcare LBOs, Milbank represented the debt financing sources in connection with the agreement by a consortium of private equity firms to acquire Medline Industries in a transaction valued at more than $30 billion.

• Milbank is committed to providing legal advocacy to juveniles sentenced to life in prison without parole, a sentence rule unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012. The firm’s pro bono efforts include the firm’s successful representation of 4 clients who have been released on parole.

• Named Top 20 Most Innovative Law Firm at the 2021 FT Innovative Lawyers Awards
• Named Law360 Bankruptcy Practice Group of the Year 2021
• Honored by The Legal Aid Society with Honorable Jonathan Lippman Public Service Law Award. The Legal Aid Society noted that no firm has made more of an impact than Milbank. Advocating on behalf of young immigrants, homeless students, and people experiencing the scourge of unlawful police behavior, the attorneys at Milbank achieved outstanding results that improved the circumstances of Legal Aid clients and thousands of New Yorkers in every borough.
• Milbank’s Hudson Yards office recognized as an Iconic NYC Project at Interior Design’s NYCxDESIGN Awards 2021, which honor outstanding architecture and design projects.