Linklaters’ New York office is on a lateral hiring spree by its own standards, with the Magic Circle firm following up its first US lateral in two years with its second in a week.
Seven days after appointing Baker & McKenzie’s New York litigation head Douglas Tween as chief of its US cartel and government investigations practice, Linklaters has hired Margot Schonholtz from Willkie Farr & Gallagher to head its restructuring and insolvency practice in Manhattan.
With outgoing managing partner Simon Davies set to be succeeded by banking chief Gideon Moore and partner feedback putting the US at the top of its agenda, Schonholtz’s arrival signals a departure from a strategy that has sought to win work for Fortune 500 clients in Europe and Asia without depending on US mandates as well.
Schonholtz joins the firm’s restructuring and insolvency practice, specialising in representing leading institutional creditors, agents to syndicated lending groups on debt restructurings, complex loan workouts, asset sale transactions and insolvency matters.
She leaves Willkie Farr after five years at the firm, having spent the previous decade as a partner at Kaye Scholer and Clifford Chance.
Tony Bugg, global head of Linklaters’ restructuring and insolvency practice, said: ‘US bankruptcy law is increasingly becoming a key component to global restructurings. Margot’s credentials, experience and understanding of this space, across multiple jurisdictions, make her ideally suited to our client work in complex, high-value cross-border restructuring matters.’
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk
