About

Number of years practice: 33

Principal practice areas: Bankruptcy and Restructuring, Capital Markets, Litigation, M&A, Project Finance

Bar admissions: New York

Languages spoken: English

Richard Cooper is one of the preeminent cross-border bankruptcy and restructuring lawyers in the United States and is the recognized leader in cross-border restructurings involving companies in Latin America.

Cooper’s practice focuses on domestic, international and sovereign restructurings. He is known for his innovative work on behalf of governments, state-owned entities, creditors, institutional investors, creditor committees, and others in connection with in and out-of-court insolvency proceedings and complex financings (including rescue financings). He has advised clients involved in some of the most prominent and noteworthy restructurings in the US and Latin America over the last 20 years, representing creditors, debtors, buyers and sellers of distressed companies and securities, creditor committees and DIP lenders, among other participants.

Cleary has restructured more private sector Latin America debt than any other firm (including the ICA restructuring, which was the largest in the country over the last five years). Additionally, the team has acted on significant cross-border restructuring for Mexican companies including Oro Negro, ODH, Oceanografia, Arendal, Maxcom, Corporación GEO, Comerci, Gruma, Industrias Unidas, IusaCell, and others.

The firm has maintained a dominant market position, with over $50bn in closed M&A involving Mexican companies and over $175bn in capital markets offerings by Mexican issuers since 2006, including Grupo Bimbo in its strategic outbound acquisitions that transformed them into the world’s largest baking company; and Pemex in several innovative financings, including the largest-ever euro-denominated emerging-market corporate-bond offering.

Cleary’s distinguished historical prominence in Mexico has facilitated the establishment of excellent relationships with Mexican government offices and financial institutions, including the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and Banxico. In the private sector the team represents Banorte, Citibanamex, Inbursa, and Santander Mexico, and has represented BlackRock in asset management matters.

The firm has advised on many of most significant IPOs to come out of Mexico over the past few years, including Vista Oil & Gas, Grupo México Transportes, and IEnova.

Cleary prides itself on its ability to leverage a global network of lawyers as a single, integrated global partnership. On a practical level, the firm has over 200 Spanish-speaking professionals across the globe, which facilitiates cross-border work involving multinationals and domestic companies requiring cross-border expertise.