Often forming part of a cohesive cross-office/cross-disciplinary offering, the ‘knowledgeable and creative’ team at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton excels at handling complex cross-border debt restructuring and insolvency matters for creditors and debtors. ’Superstar debt restructuring partner’ Polina Lyadnova is key to much of this, and regularly handles emerging markets-related work, where she benefits from core understanding of the underlying financing documentation as a result of broader banking and capital markets knowledge. ‘Very experienced’ US-qualified practitioner Solomon Noh excels at handling fund-related work, be it in the context of ad-hoc bondholder committee matters or new money solutions in distressed scenarios on behalf of private credit funds. The ’very skilled’ Alastair Goldrein co-heads the team alongside Noh and Lyadnova and has particular expertise advising on Ukraine-related matters.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction: Lawyer & team quality
Client satisfaction: Sector knowledge
Client satisfaction: NPS ®
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Abhi Chopra and James Armshaw are great London-based associates who can produce high quality work around the clock.'
- 'The knowledgeable and creative team is very experienced at working on multi-jurisdictional restructuring matters, in particular in emerging markets.'
- 'Alastair Goldrein is a very skilled advisor, who is quick to identify opportunities and threats in restructuring mandates. He is very clever, creative and provides hands-on advice.'
- 'Polina Lyadnova is a superstar debt restructuring partner, with an amazing work ethic and high level of responsiveness.'
- 'The lawyers in this practice are skilled at presenting complex issues in ways that are easily accessible by non-lawyer clients and boards of directors.'
- 'The firm has decades of depth in complex debt restructuring and insolvency - in particular, in the cross-border and sovereign context. The quality of the Cleary partners and associates in this practice is uniformly strong.'
Key clients
- Operadora de Servicios Mega Ad Hoc Group of Noteholders of Vodafone Ukraine Ad Hoc Group of holders of Notes issued by Light Group Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders of CLISA Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders of Ukrenergo Ad Hoc Group of Holders of Warrants issued by Ukraine Consortium of investors led by Castle Water Fir Tree Partners Ad hoc group of Noteholders of DTEK Energy Ad Hoc Group of holders of loan participation Notes issued by EMIS Finance Gemcorp Capital Management Limited Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd Natura & Co. Holding S.A i2 Capital Markets Seacrest Petróleo Bermuda Limited EDENRED
Work highlights
Advising Operadora Mega in its complex restructuring of $1.3bn of debt under USD and MXN bonds, international and local bank facilities.
Advised an ad hoc group of holders of notes issued by Compañía Latinoamericanade Infraestructura & Servicios S.A. (CLISA), a leading Argentine infrastructure manager and developer, in connection with CLISA’s comprehensive restructuring of its step-up senior secured notes.
Advised an ad hoc group of noteholders of Vodafone Ukraine in relation to the restructuring of $500m loan participation notes due February 2025.
Lawyers
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Practice head
Solomon Noh; Polina Lyadnova; Alastair Goldrein
Other key lawyers
Jim Ho; James Armshaw