Dechert Honored with Restructuring Deal of the Year at IFLR Americas Awards

Participants in the IFLR’s awards are judged on legal innovation. Winners are chosen for their excellence in orchestrating cross-border deals that break new legal ground and set market precedents.

Dechert, led by Allan Brilliant, co-chair of the firm’s financial restructuring practice, and partner Shmuel Vasser, acted as U.S. and international coordinating counsel to the International Bondholder Committee, one of the largest of Oi’s creditor constituencies, in the largest judicial reorganization ever undertaken in Latin America.

The Brazilian reorganization proceedings were closely observed by Oi’s regulator and the Brazilian government. In a reflection of the global nature of Oi’s operations, the company and its subsidiaries ultimately filed judicial reorganization and insolvency proceedings in Brazil, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Portugal, as well as a Chapter 15 bankruptcy case in the U.S. A restructuring plan, founded on a debt-for-equity swap, was approved by the Brazilian court in January 2018 and was completed successfully last July.

The scale and complexity involved in the work led The American Lawyer to name the Oi matter ‘Global Finance Deal of the Year’ in its Global Legal Awards 2018. The transaction was also named a winner in Latin Lawyer’s Deal of the Year Awards 2019, in Latin Finance’s Deals of the Year Awards 2018 and in the M&A Advisor’s Turnaround Awards 2018.

A second Dechert matter was named as a finalist by IFLR in the private equity category. A Dechert team led by Mark Thierfelder, chair of the firm’s global private equity practice, and private equity partner Jonathan Kim, advised GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, on its role as part of a Blackstone-led consortium in a US$20 billion partnership transaction with Thomson Reuters concerning Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk business, since rebranded as Refinitiv. In addition to being the second-largest private equity-backed acquisition of the past three years, the deal was multijurisdictional and required extensive coordination between a number of parties. Dechert’s role in the transaction was earlier highlighted by Law360 when it recognized Dechert’s private equity practice in its Practice Groups of the Year series.

About Dechert

Dechert is a leading global law firm with 26 offices around the world. We advise on matters and transactions of the greatest complexity, bringing energy, creativity and efficient management of legal issues to deliver commercial and practical advice for clients.