September 3, 2026
New York, NY (September 3, 2026) — Willkie announced today that Eugene Park, a leading liability management lawyer, will join the firm’s Strategic Capital and Restructuring Group as a partner. He will serve as Chair of the Liability Management and Strategic Credit practice. Eugene has more than a decade of experience advising companies and their creditors on the complex liability management and financing transactions that now sit at the center of the market.
“Eugene is one of the most inventive capital structure lawyers working today,” said Willkie Chairman Matthew Feldman. “Clients look to us for guidance on complex issues requiring innovative capital solutions, and Eugene will support our restructuring practice in providing even better service to our clients both in and out of court.”
The expansion builds on the momentum Willkie has generated since Ryan Bennett joined the firm less than a year ago as Chair of its Strategic Capital and Restructuring Group. Under Ryan’s leadership, the group has continued to strengthen its capabilities across the full spectrum of restructuring matters, with particular emphasis on advising middle-market private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies through complex financial situations.
On the company side, Willkie has continued to win significant mandates, including its representation of Saks Global, while its market-leading creditors’ committee practice has long been a cornerstone of the firm’s restructuring franchise. Eugene’s arrival adds additional liability management capability to that established platform, further expanding the solutions Willkie can provide clients across the capital structure.
“We have a debtor-side practice that is landing some of the biggest mandates out there, and one of the strongest private equity platforms in the business feeding it,” said Ryan Bennett, Chair of the Strategic Capital and Restructuring Group. “Liability management used to be a lane you were either in or you weren't. Now it runs through everything, from a sponsor deciding how to finance a portfolio company, to a lender group protecting its position. Eugene adds even more strength to the team, further supporting us in turning those sponsor relationships into the creative capital work clients are asking for.”
Willkie’s private equity practice is among the deepest in the market, and the sponsors and portfolio companies it serves are responsible for originating much of today's liability management and capital structure work. Eugene’s hire is part of Willkie’s ongoing initiative to widen the Strategic Capital and Restructuring Group’s remit beyond traditional debtor-side restructuring to address all of the ways companies raise and rework capital, including new-money drop-down and bridge financings and the specialized structures behind equipment and data center deals. Eugene will lead the liability management side of Willkie’s expanded platform alongside the group's restructuring and financing work.
“Willkie pairs a top private equity franchise with a winning debtor-side practice, and it is investing in exactly the direction the market is moving,” Eugene said. “The work is not one-dimensional anymore. A client might need a rescue financing this quarter and a liability management exercise the next. Willkie advises across all of these disciplines seamlessly to provide clients with end-to-end sophisticated and commercial advice.”
Eugene brings deep experience in both company- and creditor-side representations. He has represented companies including Cision, Envision Healthcare, US Renal, United Site Services, and Bed Bath & Beyond, among others, in transactions that reshaped multibillion-dollar capital structures. On the creditor side, Eugene has advised numerous ad hoc lender groups; run complex financing deals led by anchor lenders such as the Magenta financing anchored by Elliott and the Liberty Puerto Rico financing anchored by Diameter; and advised lenders in data center financings. Lawdragon named him to its 2026 list of the 500 leading global bankruptcy and restructuring lawyers.
Eugene joins Willkie’s New York office as the Strategic Capital and Restructuring Group continues to take on some of the market’s largest and most complex matters.
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Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP provides leading-edge legal solutions on complex, business critical issues spanning markets and industries. Our approximately 1,300 attorneys across 16 offices worldwide deliver innovative, pragmatic and sophisticated legal services across approximately 45 practice areas. Learn more at www.willkie.com.