October 3, 2022
Will Lead New Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice
New York, NY, October 3, 2022 -- Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP today announced that Hon. Shelley C. Chapman (Ret.), former U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), has rejoined the Firm as Senior Counsel. She will be a member of the Firm’s Business Reorganization & Restructuring Department and Chair of a newly formed Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice.
Before beginning her service on the bench, Judge Chapman was a partner at Willkie from 2001 to 2010. A widely-recognized leader of the bankruptcy bar, Judge Chapman oversaw the Lehman Brothers Holdings bankruptcy case—the largest bankruptcy case in history—and many other chapter 11 mega-cases and chapter 15 cross-border proceedings, including Boston Generating, Innkeepers, Ambac, LightSquared, Sbarro, NII Holdings, Sabine Oil & Gas, Nine West, Century 21, Aeromexico, and Philippine Airlines. She has also acted as a court-appointed mediator in numerous complex chapter 11 cases, including Windstream, Frontier Communications, OneWeb, Avianca S.A., Purdue Pharma, and Sears, and is currently serving as the lead mediator in the PROMESA/ Title III case of The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA)/The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Committed to furthering excellence in the wider bankruptcy community, she has mentored newly appointed bankruptcy judges and has hosted hundreds of school-age children in her courtroom for mock trials. Rejoining Willkie with Judge Chapman is Jamie Eisen, a former Willkie associate, who joins as Counsel and will work with both the ADR practice and Business Reorganization & Restructuring Department. Jamie served as Judge Chapman’s career law clerk since 2010.
Rachel Strickland, Co-Chair of Willkie’s Business Reorganization & Restructuring Department, said: “Judge Chapman is a powerhouse of the bankruptcy bar, known for her commitment to excellence, impressive body of work, leadership in the field and involvement in the community. We are thrilled to welcome her back to Willkie, where she has been a wonderful colleague and mentor to many. Over the past several years, she has become one of the most sought-after mediators for complex chapter 11 cases and has developed a reputation for building consensus and achieving value-maximizing global compromises. We believe the Alternative Dispute Resolution practice is a timely and important addition to the range of services Willkie provides its clients.”
“I am looking forward to this next phase of my career and am delighted to reunite with my many friends and colleagues at Willkie,” said Judge Chapman. “Willkie is a special place that combines world-class legal services with a practical business mindset and collegial approach, and it feels great to be returning, alongside Jamie. We are looking forward to working together to develop the ADR practice at Willkie and to build on our record of successful resolutions of complex commercial and bankruptcy disputes.”
Judge Chapman is a Conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference, a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Insolvency Institute. From 2015-2020, at the request of Chief Justice John Roberts, she served as the Chair of the Federal Judicial Center’s Bankruptcy Judge Education Advisory Committee, and continues to act as a mentor judge for the Federal Judicial Center’s Orientation Program for Newly Appointed Bankruptcy Judges. She is also a member of the FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee. Judge Chapman is a frequent lecturer on U.S. bankruptcy and international insolvency topics.
Willkie’s Business Reorganization & Restructuring Department is a global practice with market-leading capabilities in all aspects of business and financial restructurings and insolvency matters. The team represents a broad spectrum of clients (both in and out of court) in the U.S., UK, France, Germany and other key European jurisdictions.
*****************************************************
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is an international law firm of approximately 1,000 attorneys with offices in Brussels, Chicago, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Rome, San Francisco and Washington. The Firm is headquartered in New York City at 787 Seventh Avenue.
