Weil, Gotshal & Manges today announced that Paul Bromfield will join its London Restructuring practice. The continued development of the London Restructuring practice is one of Weil’s strategic goals, building upon the firm’s premier global franchise in that area.

Paul, a highly regarded restructuring partner who joins from Jones Day, has advised as debtor’s counsel on a variety of insolvency issues and complex cross-border restructurings, including representing:

• the board of XL Leisure and its administrators 
• the board of Ennstone plc on a pre-packaged administration, one of the first pre-packs of a main market listed company 
• senior lenders in a number of developing markets cross-border restructurings 
• senior lenders in a number of football-related matters including West Ham United, Leicester City, and Portsmouth 
• the mezzanine investor committee in the Cheyne plc SIV 
• the board of London Town pub group in their restructuring discussions with lenders and subsequent pre-packaged administration. 

Paul has also acted for the administrators of Enron Europe and MG Rover, the senior creditors committee in the Eurotunnel restructuring and has been involved in a number of Australian-related matters.

Following the recruitment of Adam Plainer to head Weil’s Restructuring practice in London in March, Weil’s strategy of expanding its restructuring capability in London led to the recruitment earlier in the year of Linton Bloomberg as Counsel and several recent associate hires. Paul will further complement and enhance the growing team.

Michael Francies, Weil London Managing Partner, commented, “A key element of the firm’s and the London office’s strategy has always been to grow our restructuring practice. In the short time that he has been with us, Adam has become well-established, with some significant mandates and, with Paul joining, we are well-placed to continue to capitalise on opportunities for the global restructuring practice.”

Adam Plainer said, “Having additional partner resource in London is key to our goal of building out the European restructuring team. Paul’s knowledge of the London market and experience in playing a key role in cross-border deals is an invaluable addition to our client offering.”

The hire is in line with the firm’s strategy to grow out not just the Restructuring arena in Weil’s London office, but also to capitalize on the firm’s and office’s strengths in other areas, such as:

• Private Equity: In June Weil announced the hire of a highly regarded four-partner fund formation team from Clifford Chance to work with the firm’s top-ranked fund formation practices in the US and Asia 
• Finance: In 2011 Weil recruited leading banking partner Stephen Lucas from Linklaters to lead, with Jacky Kelly, the growth of the finance practice, assisted by former Ashurst banking partner James Hogben and high-yield specialist Rob Ferguson from Shearman & Sterling, who were recruited earlier in the year 
• Dispute Resolution: Juliet Blanch, who joined Weil London in 2010, now leads the firm’s international arbitration group.