Often forming part of a cohesive cross-office/cross-disciplinary offering, the ‘knowledgeable and creative’ team at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton excels at handling complex cross-border debt restructuring and insolvency matters for creditors and debtors. ’Superstar debt restructuring partner’ Polina Lyadnova is key to much of this, and regularly handles emerging markets-related work, where she benefits from core understanding of the underlying financing documentation as a result of broader banking and capital markets knowledge. ‘Very experienced’ US-qualified practitioner Solomon Noh excels at handling fund-related work, be it in the context of ad-hoc bondholder committee matters or new money solutions in distressed scenarios on behalf of private credit funds. The ’very skilled’ Alastair Goldrein co-heads the team alongside Noh and Lyadnova and has particular expertise advising on Ukraine-related matters.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The knowledgeable and creative team is very experienced at working on multi-jurisdictional restructuring matters, in particular in emerging markets.'
- 'The firm has decades of depth in complex debt restructuring and insolvency - in particular, in the cross-border and sovereign context. The quality of the Cleary partners and associates in this practice is uniformly strong.'
- 'The lawyers in this practice are skilled at presenting complex issues in ways that are easily accessible by non-lawyer clients and boards of directors.'
- 'Polina Lyadnova is a superstar debt restructuring partner, with an amazing work ethic and high level of responsiveness.'
- 'Alastair Goldrein is a very skilled advisor, who is quick to identify opportunities and threats in restructuring mandates. He is very clever, creative and provides hands-on advice.'
- 'Solomon Noh is very experienced.'
Key clients
- Operadora de Servicios Mega
- Ad Hoc Group of Noteholders of Vodafone Ukraine
- Ad Hoc Group of holders of Notes issued by Light Group
- Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders of CLISA
- Ad Hoc Group of Bondholders of Ukrenergo
- Ad Hoc Group of Holders of Warrants issued by Ukraine
- Consortium of investors led by Castle Water
- Fir Tree Partners
- Ad hoc group of Noteholders of DTEK Energy
- Ad Hoc Group of holders of loan participation Notes issued by EMIS Finance
- Gemcorp Capital Management Limited
- Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd
Work highlights
Advising Operadora Mega in its complex restructuring of $1.3bn of debt under USD and MXN bonds, international and local bank facilities.
Advised an ad hoc group of holders of notes issued by Compañía Latinoamericanade Infraestructura & Servicios S.A. (CLISA), a leading Argentine infrastructure manager and developer, in connection with CLISA’s comprehensive restructuring of its step-up senior secured notes.
Advised an ad hoc group of noteholders of Vodafone Ukraine in relation to the restructuring of $500m loan participation notes due February 2025.
Lawyers
Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Practice head
Solomon Noh; Polina Lyadnova; Alastair Goldrein
Other key lawyers
Jim Ho; James Armshaw