Ropes & Gray Hires Another Fried Frank Partner, Fifth This Month

Ropes & Gray on Thursday hired former Fried Frank partner Eliza Riffe Hollander, expanding an earlier raid on the firm’s restructuring group.

Hollander, a finance partner with experience advising on complex debt financings, is part of the broader special situations practice Ropes & Gray has been building. She leaves Fried Frank after more than a decade at the firm, and nearly two years as a partner, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Ropes & Gray this month hired Rachel Strickland and three other partners from Fried Frank to restock its restructuring practice following the departure last year of its former leader Ryan Dahl to Latham & Watkins. Strickland now leads restructuring at Ropes & Gray.

Big Law restructuring practices have been in flux, driven in part by an aggressive expansion at Latham, which has hired partners from Weil Gotshal & Manges, Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Ropes & Gray since late 2024.

Latham hired Ray Schrock, who had previously worked with Dahl at Weil’s restructuring shop. Both also previously worked at Kirkland & Ellis.

Strickland’s team, which includes Daniel Forman and Andrew Mordkoff, had joined Fried Frank from Willkie Farr & Gallagher in 2024. Willkie, meanwhile, hired a Kirkland partner last year to lead its restructuring group.

The talent race is heightened by the more prominent role restructuring practices are playing as battles over credit provisions proliferate. So-called liability management exercises have become a major part of the services law firms provide in the area—expanding far beyond traditional Chapter 11 bankruptcy services.

“Eliza brings exactly the kind of experience our credit opportunities fund clients are looking for,” said Leonard Klingbaum, co-head of Ropes & Gray’s global finance group and leader of the firm’s credit opportunities practice. “Her work in liability management and complex recapitalizations speaks directly to the strategies these funds pursue.”