McLaughlin & Stern Has New Leader For Bankruptcy Group

McLaughlin & Stern LLP has a new leader and special counsel in place to help continue to grow its bankruptcy practice, including continuing to work on key Chapter 11 cases in Delaware’s busy bankruptcy court.

The firm, which has offices in New York, Florida and Connecticut, announced recently that Ira Reid, a longtime commercial restructuring lawyer, has joined McLaughlin & Stern as special counsel to the bankruptcy & restructuring group and partner Steven S. Newburgh has been promoted to chair the group.

In the announcement, Geoffry R. Handler, the firm’s managing partner, said: “Working together with Steven S. Newburgh on many matters over the years, we have admired his considerable skill and expertise as a bankruptcy lawyer and with the addition of Ira Reid to the firm’s bankruptcy & restructuring group, we have added substantially to the group’s highly skilled and dedicated partners and look forward to Steven’s leadership role.”

“Obviously, I’m very pleased and honored the firm has elevated me to the position,” Newburgh told Law360 Pulse on Thursday.

Reid was brought on “because we felt the need to have another experienced and seasoned bankruptcy lawyer so I can share the load of some of these big cases,” Newburgh said.

“We want to beef up our capability to handle these big cases,” he added.

Newburgh, who has been with the firm for nine years and is based in its West Palm Beach, Florida, office, said he looks forward to molding and growing the group.

And part of that work will be continuing to take on cases in Delaware, one of the nation’s busiest and preeminent venues for bankruptcy matters. Among Delaware cases, his firm has represented interested stakeholders in the Chapter 11 bankruptcies of car rental giant Hertz, office space provider Knotel Inc., home improvement lender Renovate America Inc. and Great Eastern Energy.

“Delaware by far, for me, is the most efficient [venue] to handle a Chapter 11,” Newburgh told Law360 Pulse. “I love practicing before the Delaware judges and working with Delaware lawyers … they know how to get things done.”

The First State’s court has the expertise to handle and efficiently move along the biggest corporate bankruptcies, he said.

Newburgh, whose legal career spans roughly 40 years and includes stints as a complex commercial litigator and as a bankruptcy lawyer, takes over at the helm of McLaughlin & Stern’s bankruptcy group from Paul H. Silverman, the firm said. Silverman will continue as special counsel and remain an “active member of the firm’s bankruptcy & restructuring group,” the firm said. Newburgh received his law degree from Nova Southeastern School of Law.

Reid, who is based in the firm’s New York City office, has more than 30 years of  “experience as a commercial restructuring lawyer,” including proceedings under chapters 7, 11 and 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, according to McLaughlin & Stern. He was previously a partner at Baker & McKenzie and also practiced at the former firm LeBouef Lamb Greene & MacRae, the firm said. Reid received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School.

“Mr. Reid is particularly skilled in the bankruptcy implications and resolution of complex structured finance transactions, repurchase agreements and credit derivatives, including swap transactions,” the announcement said.

McLaughlin & Stern’s bankruptcy & restructuring group consists of eight attorneys including Reid, Newburgh and Silverman. Other attorneys in the group are Brian J. Grieco, Andrew Luskin, Chester R. Ostrowski, Marc Rosenberg and Neil B. Solomon, the firm said.

Established in 1898, McLaughlin & Stern said it “provides a diverse range of legal services with expertise in sophisticated commercial transactions, corporate restructuring, securities law and arbitration, real estate law, and trusts and estates.”