The Star Dealmakers Remaking the Rules of Corporate Debt (1)

David Nemecek and Scott Greenberg spent countless hours across the table from each other this year, battling over the fine print buried deep in junk-rated companies’ debt documents.

Kirkland & Ellis’s Nemecek was representing companies in distress. Greenberg, from rival law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, was on the other side, banding together investors owed billions of dollars to form so-called cooperation groups and fighting attempts to short-change them in a turnaround.

The two, both 47, are at the forefront of an elite group of white-shoe lawyers and Wall Street advisers who are reshaping a major corner of ...