[ Press Release ]
Duane Morris' New York Office Adds Prominent Bankruptcy Partner and Special Counsel
January 5, 2009
NEW YORK, January 5, 2009 - Duane Morris LLP has added William H. Schrag as a partner in its Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring Practice Group in the firm's New York office. He was formerly a partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP. William C. Heuer, also formerly of Dewey & LeBoeuf, will join Schrag in New York as special counsel for the group.
Schrag and Heuer join the firm shortly after the addition of a 20-lawyer New York-based construction and real estate practice from Thelen LLP. These additions have boosted the number of attorneys in the New York office of Duane Morris to 100 lawyers.
With more than 25 years of experience, Schrag focuses his practice on domestic and international insolvency litigation, workouts, corporate reorganization and bankruptcy matters. He has extensive experience representing major financial institutions, such as bank lenders and agents, as well as manufacturers and institutional creditors, official creditors' committees, Chapter 11 trustees, purchasers of estate assets and court-appointed examiners in U.S. and cross-border bankruptcy proceedings. He has handled litigation arising from bankruptcy matters, and has served as counsel to commercial lenders in creditors' rights enforcement and the defense of lender liability claims.
Schrag has represented major clients in several high-profile bankruptcy proceedings over the past 25 years. He served as counsel to JPMorgan Chase Bank and its predecessors in connection with the bankruptcy proceedings of, among others, Refco Inc., Dura Automotive Systems Inc., Rockefeller Center Properties, Barney's Inc., Atlanta Shipping Corp., and Axona Int'l Credit & Commerce Ltd. He has also represented other money center banks and various nationally-known manufacturers, such as Alcon Laboratories, Tyco Fire & Security and Bombardier Inc.
Schrag previously served as a partner at Morgan Lewis and as an assistant corporation counsel in the Commercial Litigation Division of the New York City Law Department. He is active in the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Insolvency Institute, the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, the GLOBAL INSOLvency.com Advisory Board and the Steering Committee of the Annual Zaretsky Roundtable on Bankruptcy Law. He frequently writes and speaks on cross-border insolvencies and other bankruptcy-related issues.
Schrag earned his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1978, where he received the Brooklyn Law School and American Jurisprudence Awards for Administrative Law. He graduated in 1975 with a B.A. in Political Science from George Washington University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is admitted to practice in New York.
Heuer focuses his practice in the areas of bankruptcy, creditors' rights, financial restructuring and related litigation. He has represented clients operating in such industries as financial services, real estate, telecommunications, healthcare, shipping, safety equipment and general consumer products manufacturing and services. Heuer has also been involved in a number of cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, including Marshall v. Marshall (In re Vickie Lynn Marshall), Travelers Casualty & Surety Co. v. PG&E, Marrama v. Citizens Bank of Massachusetts, Howard Delivery Service v. Zurich Am. Ins. Co. and DeRoche v. Ariz. Indus. Comm'n (In re DeRoche). Heuer was also co-counsel to a group of 64 amici in the recent Supreme Court case D.C. v. Heller, involving the Second Amendment, and has been named a member of the Pro Bono Society of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and a member of the Empire State Counsel of the New York Bar Association for his pro bono contributions. He has written on numerous bankruptcy matters.
Heuer earned his J.D. in 1997 from St. John's University School of Law, where he was a staff member and editor of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review and president of the Bankruptcy Law Society, and graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1991. He is admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut.
About Duane Morris
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