Alston & Bird has expanded its bankruptcy and financial restructuring capabilities with the addition of Gerard Catalanello and James Vincequerra as partners in the firm’s New York office. Both join from Duane Morris LLP.
“Gerard and Jim are immensely talented attorneys with a long record of successfully representing creditors, debtors and other parties in complicated insolvencies and restructurings across a broad range of industries, including financial services, retail, real estate and telecommunications,” said Kit Weitnauer, leader of Alston & Bird's Bankruptcy & Financial Restructuring Group. “At a time of increasing client demand for services that leverage both our bankruptcy and finance capabilities, particularly with regard to structured finance creditor representations, Gerard and Jim have built a strong creditor-side bankruptcy practice that makes an excellent fit for our firm and our clients.”
Catalanello represents a broad range of clients – debtors, financial institutions, liquidation trusts, equity holders, indenture trustees and acquirers of assets of troubled companies – in bankruptcy proceedings, as well as in out-of-court workouts. He has served as counsel to official committees of unsecured creditors in a variety of Chapter 11 cases and has represented several institutions in negotiating and selling millions of dollars of claims in major Chapter 11 cases. He is a frequent writer on creditors’ rights and bankruptcy topics and has been published in the Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice, New York State Bar Journal, Health Law Journal and the New York Law Journal.
Vincequerra represents debtors, creditors and their committees, bondholders and asset acquirers in corporate and debt restructurings, distressed mergers and acquisitions and bankruptcy cases, both in and out of court. He has significant experience working with clients to enhance their competitiveness through strategic bankruptcy asset acquisitions and advising premier lending institutions, rating agencies and borrowers in high-stakes transactions in the structured finance arena, specifically with substantive consolidation analyses concerning commercial mortgage-backed securities and securitized loans.
“Gerard and Jim have an outstanding command of all aspects of out-of-court workouts, bankruptcies and reorganizations,” said Jamie Hutchinson, partner in charge of Alston & Bird’s New York office. “In New York in particular, where we see a growing trend among structured finance clients for services tied to workouts of securitized transactions and bankruptcies, Gerard and Jim will be a strong complement to our market-leading finance practice and play a key role advising clients on pragmatic and creative approaches to deal-making.”
Catalanello and Vincequerra are the most recent additions to Alston & Bird’s New York office. Last December, the firm added Adam Kaiser and John Aerni as partners in its Litigation Practice. They followed the November arrival of as partner in the firm’s Investment Management, Trading & Markets Group.