September 21, 2018
Willkie was named a finalist in The American Lawyer’s 2018 Global Legal Awards, which honors complex cross-border legal work across a range of disciplines. Now in its sixth year, the Global Legal Awards recognizes the law firms who advised on the year’s most notable international matters in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, finance, pro bono and dispute resolution. Willkie is recognized as a finalist in the following categories:
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Mergers and acquisitions: Brookfield’s bankruptcy acquisition of Westinghouse Electric
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Finance: CGG S.A.’s dual French-U.S. restructuring
Brookfield’s $4.6 billion acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Company, a leading global provider of infrastructure services to the power generation industry, closed on August 1, 2018. The Willkie team representing Brookfield was led by partners Matthew Feldman, William Gump, John Longmire and Kfir Abutbul, who advised Brookfield on all aspects of the complex transaction, including obtaining regulatory approvals throughout the world, financing, and successful confirmation and implementation of Westinghouse’s chapter 11 plan. The Willkie financing team was led by partner Leonard Klingbaum.
In one of the largest restructurings in French history, and the first-ever successful coordination of a French sauvegarde proceedings with a U.S. chapter 11 bankruptcy case, CGG, a geosciences company that provides services to the oil and gas industry, completed a multi-billion dollar restructuring on February 21, 2018. A multidisciplinary Willkie team advised the steering committee of CGG’s high-yield bondholders, led by partners Lionel Spizzichino in Paris and John Longmire in New York.
The firm previously won an American Lawyer Global Legal Award in 2015 for its role in the restructuring of the French fashion retail group Vivarte.
This year’s Global Legal Awards winners will be announced on December 5, 2018.
