July 16, 2015
Willkie advised on a matter selected by The American Lawyer as a winner of its 2015 Global Legal Awards, which seek to recognize the most distinguished international work across a range of disciplines. The firm is being honored for its role in the restructuring of the French fashion retail group Vivarte. AmLaw awarded the matter its Finance Deal of the Year: Restructuring (France).
The Vivarte restructuring was the largest-ever fully consensual lender-led restructuring in France, and the largest European LBO restructuring of 2014. Willkie represented key stakeholders, acting for a coordinating committee of major lenders in initial discussions with Vivarte, and after the committee phase representing a group of six lenders that put forward a detailed restructuring proposal.
Willkie’s multidisciplinary, cross-border team included restructuring, finance, corporate, tax and antitrust professionals from the firm’s Paris, London and New York offices. The Willkie team included: (Paris) partners Alexandra Bigot, Paul Lombard and Annette Péron, national partner Gabriel Flandin and special European counsel Philippe Grudé, (London) partner Graham Lane and (New York) partners Marc Abrams and Richard Reinhold.
The Global Legal Awards recognize top international legal matters, including corporate and finance deals, disputes and matters addressing social responsibility. The awards aim to honor all legal team members that played substantial roles in winning matters. Winners were announced on July 16 and an awards dinner will be held in September.
