Paul Weiss Hires Lazard’s Ziman in Restructuring Expansion

Law firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison is expanding its restructuring practice by hiring a Lazard Ltd. banker who helped steer PG&E Corp. through its Chapter 11 case.

Ken Ziman joins Paul Weiss after more than five years at Lazard, where he was a managing director, according to a statement Tuesday. His career of more than 30 years has focused on company-side work, including advising on the MF Global Holdings, Takata Corp. and Gavilan Resources bankruptcies, as well as work for sponsors including Blackstone Group, Carlyle and KKR.

“It was a really good opportunity to continue to do what I’ve been doing at the highest level, and with a team that is super deep,” Ziman said in an interview.

Last year saw about 50% fewer large bankruptcies than 2020 as the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic subsided. The volume of debt trading at distressed levels has continued to decline to about $62 billion as of Dec. 31.

But inflation and the prospect of rising interest rates this year has Ziman looking ahead to potential sources of stress, particularly in autos, commercial real estate, and among highly leveraged companies owned by private equity firms, he said.

“There’s always idiosyncratic issues,” Ziman said. “There are always companies that get in trouble for their own reasons, whether they over-expanded or they borrowed too much, and they don’t have the revenue to support it.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
Allison McNeely in New York at amcneely@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Claire Boston at cboston6@bloomberg.net

Michael B. Marois

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