Experienced restructuring lawyer Kristin C. Wigness has joined McGuireWoods as senior counsel in New York, bringing significant in-house acumen advising the Israel Discount Bank of New York.
As senior vice president and associate general counsel for the New York-chartered subsidiary of one of Israel’s largest commercial banks, Wigness oversaw all lending matters, including regulatory issues and litigation, credit risk and corporate governance. He also created new bank products and updated bank policies and procedures.
Before joining IDBNY, Wigness was a restructuring partner with two major law firms: Katten Munchin Rosenman and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he led business and finance training for its U.S. offices. His experience includes representing U.S. and foreign banks, financial institutions, real estate lenders and creditor groups, focusing on debtor-in-possession financings, debt and corporate restructurings, complex out-of-court workouts and insolvency proceedings.
“We’re thrilled to have someone with Kris’ varied finance and bankruptcy knowledge join McGuireWoods,” said Scott Vaughn, who chairs the firm’s Restructuring & Insolvency Department. “He will be an enormous asset to our clients.”
Wigness is the latest addition to McGuireWoods’ New York office, which has welcomed five lateral partners this year, said office managing partner Noreen Kelly. “Kris continues our run of excellent lawyers joining the firm in the nation’s financial hub who are making important contributions and adding value to the clients we serve.”
Wigness joins a McGuireWoods practice that includes 31 transactional lawyers and litigators with experience in some of the most major restructurings and Chapter 11 cases in recent years. Eighteen McGuireWoods attorneys are included in The Best Lawyers in America for “Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency.” The firm also was honored in three deal categories in 2017’s M&A Advisor Turnaround Awards, which recognize top distressed investment and restructuring deals and the firms that handled them.
“McGuireWoods’ reputation representing financial institutions makes the firm the perfect fit for my restructuring skill-set. I am delighted to serve our clients as a member of this exceptional team,” Wigness said