Hogan Lovells Hires Trio of Jones Day Bankruptcy Partners

Hogan Lovells has hired three bankruptcy partners from Jones Day.

Richard “Rick” Wynne, who has served as lead debtor’s counsel to American Apparel and represents Mattel as a creditor in the Toys R Us Chapter 11 bankruptcy, will co-head Hogan Lovells’ U.S. bankruptcy, restructuring and insolvency practice.

Bennett Spiegel and Erin Brady also join Hogan Lovells as partners.

Their start date is today, Monday, April 23, Hogan Lovells announced. All three will work out of Los Angeles.

Wynne told Bloomberg Law in an interview that his team was approached to join Hogan Lovells as it sought to expand its bankruptcy, restructuring and insolvency practice, which now staffs a total of seven partners with his team’s addition.

Wynne cited as one reason the opportunity was attractive Hogan Lovells’ 2017 hire of Richard Climan and other mergers and acquisitions partners. They joined from Weil Gotshal & Manges in Silicon Valley.

“We had some common clients that we’d worked with, that also worked with the Climan group, so that was a very good fit for that,” Wynne told Bloomberg Law.

The bankruptcy and restructuring practice for Hogan Lovells in the U.S. has been growing but the group hasn’t been big enough to compete for all of the best work, according to Christopher R. Donoho III, co-head of the Hogan Lovells’ U.S. bankruptcy practice.

“It does kind of indicate the firm’s support of our bankruptcy and restructuring practice, and while we don’t have any immediate expansion plans, this is certainly not intended to be the last step,” Donoho told Bloomberg Law.

Wynne, Spiegel, and Brady all came from Jones Day, where they advised debtors, creditors, creditors’ committees, bondholders, trustees, and buyers in a variety of industries. The three attorneys have practiced together for more than 15 years, according to Hogan Lovells.

Spiegel represented actress Zsa Zsa Gabor in a Chapter 11 case, and rock band Motley Crue in the bankruptcy case of one of the band members. Brady, meanwhile, represented American Apparel and its affiliates in two recent Chapter 11 cases.

The legal recruiter who brokered the deal was Sabina Lippman of Lippman Jungers LLC.