2018 Q1 Preliminary Review (Part 2: Investment Banking)

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In 🌑Trouble Brews in Coal Country🌑, we acknowledged a company-side duopoly, writing,

We wanted to answer this question: who is dominating the restructuring industry? Well, Captain Obvious: Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.

We admit: we’re not surprised by this. We’ve been paying attention. In Q1 2018, Kirkland & Ellis LLP filed EXCO Resources Inc., PES Holdings LLC, Cenveo Inc., iHeartMedia Inc., and the Toys R Us “propco.” Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP filed Fieldwood Energy LLC, Tops Holdings II Corp., Claire’s Stores Inc. and Southeastern Grocers. That’s a meaningful and significant share of the large bankruptcy filings in the quarter. The industry is definitely a two-horse race when it comes to law firms and debtor filings. If we could long these firms, we would.

Subsequently in✌🏾Peace Out Nine West✌🏾, we added,

Last week in our preliminary Q1 report, we noted the slugfest transpiring between Weil Gotshal & Manges and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Well, only one week into Q2 and Kirkland has thrown down the gauntlet by filing three cases: Nine West Holdings LLC, VER Technologies and EV Energy. Savage.

We highlight this because, whether you’re an investor (and this is certainly not investment advice), a B-school student or law student, it is often very difficult to ascertain who is doing what in restructuring. The above ought to give you a better idea on the legal side.

But then the question becomes, who benefits from this duopoly?

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