Kirkland bankruptcy team defects to Jones Day

Kirkland's West Coast restructuring group head Richard Wynne, partner Bennett Spiegel, of counsel Erin Brady and Lori Sinanyan, and associates Christopher Healey, Stacie Torres, and Lance Miller will all join Jones Day's Los Angeles office, with the exception of Miller, who is based in New York. The lateral hires leave Kirkland with only three restructuring lawyers in Los Angeles.

Wynne said the idea of leaving Kirkland had been "percolating" in his head for six months, but that he and the other lawyers were only interested in moving as a group.

"We certainly had a lot of feelers within the past year from many different firms and recruiters," said Wynne.

"We have been doing a lot of bondholder and creditors' committee-type work for the past several years and Jones Day is very interested in developing that practice on a national front," Wynne said. "We thought that would help us gel a little bit better."

Wynne said he has been encouraged by Jones Day's commitment to developing its presence in the California market - the firm has five offices in the state.

The addition of Wynne's team will allow Jones Day to revamp its restructuring operations on the West Coast. The firm currently only has three bankruptcy partners in San Francisco.

Wynne has handled debtors' counsel assignments for bankrupt insurance company Conseco as well as representing a group of 400 lenders who held $4.3bn (£2.7bn) in bank debt for now-defunct cable company Adelphia Communications.

Wynne and his team are taking several high-profile assignments with them to Jones Day, including representing the bondholders committee owed roughly $2.5bn (£1.6bn) in the out-of-court restructuring of Las Vegas-based Station Casinos. Wynne said he is also still busy working for the lenders committee in the Adelphia case.

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