Orrick Team Featured in The Lawyer for Role in Ocean Rig Restructuring

Orrick’s finance team was featured in The Lawyer for their role in the restructuring of Ocean Rig, the Cayman Islands-based offshore drilling contractor.  The team, shortlisted for Finance Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2018, helped Ocean Rig emerge from bankruptcy with its debt cut from £4 billion to £450 million.

The Orrick team was led by Bill Haft and included lawyers in New York and London, including Evan Hollander, Stephen Phillips, Scott Morrison, Ron D’Aversa, Doug Mintz, Peter Rooney, Stephen Ashley, Gillian Smith, Mitch Pahl, Ayanna Lewis-Gruss, Courtney Mitchell, Jack Mead, Monica Perrigino, Ken Marx, Peter Amend, Debra Felder, Siobhan Sheridan, Amy Roper, David Litterine-Kaufman, Danny Rubens, Emmanuel Fua, Jason Ervin, Peter Tringali and others.

Partner Stephen Phillips, who led the UK-based Orrick team, told The Lawyer, "The speed was remarkable given the multijurisdictional nature of the group and challenges by a minority creditor and a shareholder. The scheme included some novel features – for example, the implementation of a court-to-court protocol between the US bankruptcy court and the Grand Court of Cayman, and the transfer of certain antecedent transaction claims to a Cayman Islands STAR trust, the trustees of which would investigate the claims at a later date.”