Mr Philip Anker > WilmerHale > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile
WilmerHale Offices
7 WORLD TRADE CENTER
250 GREENWICH STREET
NEW YORK, NY 10007
NEW YORK
United States
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Mr Philip Anker
Position
Partner
- Co-Chair, Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Practice Group
Career
Philip Anker, co-chair of the firm’s Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Practice Group, is an experienced bankruptcy litigator and counselor who has practiced for more than 30 years in the field. Among other honors, he has been inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. Mr. Anker has been selected as one of the “Best Lawyers” in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law in the Best Lawyers in America each year since 2005, with peers stating that he is “a first-class litigator who is tremendous in open court.” In the 2020 edition, Best Lawyers in America named him “Lawyer of the Year” in the area of Litigation – Bankruptcy. He is also listed in the 2013-2021 editions of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of Litigation – Bankruptcy; the 2012-2022 editions of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business for his “excellent” Bankruptcy/Restructuring work, where clients describe him as “amazing in court,” “commercial, thoughtful and with a good command of the law” and “tough, tenacious, credible and incredibly effective;” the 2010-2021 editions of Benchmark Litigation, which has rated him as a “National Star” and “Top 10 Practitioner” for Bankruptcy Law and cites Mr. Anker’s peers and clients as saying that he is “a superb lawyer, highly professional, and among the elite bankruptcy practitioners;” in the 2018 edition of Expert Guides’ Best of the Best USA as one of the leading practitioners in the country in Restructuring and Insolvency Law, as selected by his peers; and in the 2020-2021 editions of Lawdragon where he is listed as among the 500 leading bankruptcy and restructuring lawyers in the country.
Mr. Anker’s practice is wide-ranging. He has represented the full panoply of clients in business bankruptcy cases: debtors, Chapter 11 trustees, trustees of post-confirmation trusts, creditors’ committees, ad hoc committees, secured creditors, debtor-in-possession lenders, noteholders, indenture trustees, unsecured trade creditors, equity holders, investors and purchasers of companies, claims and assets in bankruptcy. In addition, Mr. Anker has played a leading role in some of the largest, most prominent bankruptcy-related litigation matters in recent years, including disputed plan confirmation and other highly contested matters, as well as adversary proceedings and other actions, arising out of the Adelphia, Boston Generating, Boy Scouts, Energy Future Holdings, Enron, Global Crossing, Grupo Aeromexico, Idearc, Intelsat, Lyondell, Momentive, Refco, Sears, and Tribune Chapter 11 cases, as well as several consumer bankruptcy class actions. Among other prominent cases, Mr. Anker obtained the allowance for a group of noteholders of nearly $600 million in make-whole claims in one of the largest Chapter 11 cases ever, completed the successful defense at trial of a multi-billion-dollar fraudulent transfer action, and successfully prosecuted, at trial and on appeal, claims for contempt arising out of an acquisition, also led by Mr. Anker, of substantially all of the assets of a leading data fusion company. Mr. Anker has argued and prevailed (in whole or in substantial part) in nine separate bankruptcy appeals in the US Courts of Appeals, including In re MPM Silicones, LLC, 874 F.3d 787 (2d Cir. 2017); Delaware Trust Co. v. Energy Future Intermediate Holding Co., 842 F.3d 249 (3d Cir. 2016); In re Tribune Co. Fraudulent Transfer Litigation, 818 F.3d 98 (2d Cir. 2016); Adelphia Recovery Trust v. Bank of America, No. 09-0039-CV, 379 F. App’x 10 (2d Cir. 2010), aff’g, 390 B.R. 80 (S.D.N.Y. 2008); Eastman Kodak Co. v. Wachovia Bank, N.A., 456 F.3d 1277 (11th Cir. 2006); MBNA America Bank, N.A. v. Hill, 436 F.3d 104 (2d Cir. 2006); Arruda v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 310 F.3d 13 (1st Cir. 2002); and AT&T Universal Card Servs. v. Mercer, 246 F.3d 391 (5th Cir. en banc 2001). Mr. Anker also successfully argued for the investment bank defendants in the New York Court of Appeals in Kirschner v. KPMG, et al., 15 N.Y. 3d 446, 938 N.E. 2d 941, 912 N.Y.S. 2d 508 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2010), which resulted in that court’s seminal decision reinforcing the in pari delicto defense and the dismissal of $2 billion in claims against the banks.
Memberships
Mr. Anker is a member of the New York City Bar Association Bankruptcy Committee as well as the American Bankruptcy Institute. He is a periodic contributor on the Creditor Rights Coalition, a frequent speaker and panelist at bankruptcy law conferences, and an author of numerous articles on issues of bankruptcy and related law. Mr. Anker previously served as co-chair of the Debtor Practice Subcommittee of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation.
Education
- JD, George Washington University Law School, 1982
- BA, University of Pennsylvania, 1978
Lawyer Rankings
United States > Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
WilmerHale‘s primarily New York-based bankruptcy and restructuring practice is skilled at handling bankruptcy litigation including contested plan confirmation proceedings, claims disputes, fraudulent transfer and fiduciary duty, while also having acted for insurers and situated parties in bankruptcies arising out of mass tort liability. Philip Anker co-chairs the practice alongside Andrew Goldman, both of whom are experienced litigators and have represented a range of clients from both the debtor and creditor side. George Shuster in Boston focuses on transactional and litigation-driven bankruptcy, as well as handling clients for both the biotechnology and life sciences industries. Benjamin Loveland is a key name from the firm.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Finance > Financial services regulation
- Antitrust > Cartel
- International trade > CFIUS
- Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense
- Industry focus > Education
- Intellectual property > Patents: licensing
- Industry focus > Education
- Industry focus > Education
- Industry focus > Native American law
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (full coverage)
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
Firm Rankings
- Media, technology and telecoms > Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)
- Dispute resolution > General commercial disputes
- M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: middle-market ($500m-999m)
- Media, technology and telecoms > Outsourcing
- Government > State attorneys general
- Media, technology and telecoms > Technology transactions
- International trade > Trade remedies and trade policy
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Venture capital and emerging companies
- Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Corporate governance
- International trade > Customs, export controls and economic sanctions
- Government > Government contracts
- Government > Government relations
- Dispute resolution > International arbitration
- Healthcare > Life sciences
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
- Environment > Environment: regulatory
- Dispute resolution > Financial services litigation
- Finance > Fintech
- Media, technology and telecoms > Media and entertainment: litigation
- Antitrust > Merger control
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (International Trade Commission)
- Tax > US taxes: non-contentious
- Finance > Commercial lending
- Real estate > Real estate
- Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
- Dispute resolution > Appellate: courts of appeals / Appellate: supreme courts (states and federal)
- Finance > Capital markets: debt offerings
- Dispute resolution > Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense