Giles Lutz strengthens his new London office with his restructuring partner

Dr. Christian Halas, current partner at US law firm Akin Jump Strauss Hauer & Field, will move into Giles Lutz’s new London office in March. The 46-year-old will be part of the law firm’s finance practice and will work primarily from London, but also from Frankfurt. Change at the partner level is rare in Gleiss.

Halàsz specializes in financial restructuring and advises, for example, hedge funds and investors on bad loans and the restructuring of their portfolio companies. It also counts institutional investors and creditors’ committees among its clients. It supports them in complex financial restructurings and across borders.

For example, he advised bondholders in connection with the painstaking restructuring of credit of the industrial group Galapagos Heat Exchangers of more than one billion euros. Last year, he was part of the Akin Gump team, which was tasked by lenders to the Swiss airport operator Swissport with temporary financing and loan restructuring.

Halàsz was part of the founding team of Akin Gump in Frankfurt in 2014, which beat a team from Bingham McCutchen. American law firm Bingham, then a big name in cross-border restructuring and refinancing, was dissolved the same year.

Babysitter attacks the magic circle

With a newcomer at the forefront of transactions, finance and restructuring, Gillies launches an attack on Magic Circle and US law firms, which continue to operate this business primarily from London.

Co-managing partner Prof. Dr. Michael Arnold puts the mission to Halàsz as follows: “With his many years of experience, he will use his many years of experience in our new London office to further develop our relationships with international funds and distressed debt investors.”

Giles wants to expand into Great Britain at the start of the year and increase headcount to be understood as a strategic decision because – not despite – Brexit: in addition to financial advisory, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring as well as antitrust law issues, one of the focus areas It advises British companies on EU law after Brexit.

Nine partners will then work with Halàsz in London, splitting their work between UK and German locations. Among them, restructuring experts d. Andreas Spahlinger and Dr. Matthias Trisselt and finance experts d. Kay Burke and Dr. Helge Kurtz and transaction advisor Dr. Jean Palsen.