Biography
Lisa Schweitzer, co-chair of the U.S. restructuring practice in Cleary Gottlieb’s New York office, focuses on financial restructuring, bankruptcy, and commercial litigation, including cross-border matters. She has extensive experience advising corporate debtors, individual creditors, committees and strategic investors in both U.S. Chapter 11 proceedings and restructurings in other jurisdictions in the Americas, as well as Europe and Asia. Lisa also leads companies in multimillion and billion dollar buy and sell side distressed M&A transactions and litigates multibillion dollar case-dispositive disputes in high-stakes bankruptcy proceedings.
Lisa advises clients in some of the most high-profile bankruptcy matters, including the first-of-its-kind cross-border restructuring of LATAM Airlines Group, which recently received multiple deal of the year awards, including from the Turnaround Management Association, IFLR and the American Bankruptcy Institute. Lisa has advised a broad range of clients in complex bankruptcy cases, including;
- Equinox Holdings, Inc. in the Chapter 11 proceedings of its subsidiary Blink Holdings, Inc.;
- Miami International Holdings Inc. in its acquisition of LedgerX from FTX subsidiaries in their Chapter 11 cases;
- the largest secured creditor in the Chapter 11 case of Kabbage, Inc. d/b/a KServicing, issuer of over $7 billion of loans in connection with the Paycheck Protection Program;
- Mubadala Capital in the successful restructuring of a portfolio company through a new investment and corporate restructuring of the underlying business;
- HCA in connection with Envision Healthcare’s Chapter 11 proceedings, and with certain asset purchases from Envision;
- AMERRA Capital Management, LLC and certain related individuals and affiliates in defending against estate claims brought in the Chapter 11 case of AMERRA’s portfolio company;
- Vale in its heavily contested litigation of recognition of BSGR’s Guernsey administration through a chapter 15 proceeding, which relates to Vale’s enforcement of a $2 billion judgment obtained against BSGR;
- Total S.A. as a major contract counterparty in McDermott International’s bankruptcy;
- Grupo Inbursa, a financial services company in Mexico and secured lender to multiple entities in the Mossi & Ghisolfi S.p.A. corporate group (M&G), in the M&G Chapter 11 cases; and
- Nortel Networks and its U.S. affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases and affiliated cross-border cases.
Additionally, Lisa has been providing strategic advice to several Fortune 100 U.S. and multinational companies on liquidity and restructuring advice arising from the COVID pandemic, and continues to advise several leading financing institutions, including UBS and Credit Suisse in matters relating to their resolution plans.
Lisa’s work has been repeatedly recognized by the business and legal press, including Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The Legal 500 United States, IFLR1000, Lawdragon,Benchmark Litigation, and was named an “Outstanding Restructuring Lawyer” for 2023 by Turnarounds & Workouts. Lisa was honored as one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation” by Benchmark Litigation and as a “Dealmaker of the Year” and “Dealmaker in the Spotlight” by The American Lawyer. Clients praise Lisa for being “very bright and incisive, and able to distill complex matters to provide straightforward and practical recommendations" and highlight that "Lisa’s management in court is impressive." Additionally, Lisa is well-regarded in the restructuring community, co-chairing the International Insolvency Institute’s Programs and Meetings Committee as well as INSOL International’s program committee for its 2024 annual conference, and serving as Secretary of the American College of Bankruptcy’s ACB Foundation.
Lisa received a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.