Clifford Chance (CC) has hired one of Germany’s top restructuring lawyers, Kolja von Bismarck, in Munich. 

Von Bismarck was most recently a partner at Sidley Austin, which he joined in 2017 from Linklaters. He retired from the firm earlier this year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. 

His move to CC will reunite him with former Sidley restructuring partners Andreas Steiger and Patrick Schulz, both of whom left to join CC in Munich in June. 

It also follows CC’s Germany restructuring head, Cristina Weidner, defecting to Kirkland & Ellis in Munich last year and marks a return to the firm for von Bismarck, who was a partner there between 1997 and 2009, when he joined Linklaters. 

CC said the ex-Sidley trio will take on both German and cross-border restructuring mandates from Munich. 

“Attracting three eminent restructuring partners in times when restructuring is in high demand underlines the strategic development and Clifford Chance’s elite standing for restructuring and insolvency in the market,” said Stefan Sax, who leads the firm’s restructuring and insolvency group in Germany.

Von Bismarck, who is ranked Band 1 by Chambers and Partners in Germany for his restructuring practice, brings extensive experience advising borrowers, secured and unsecured creditors, distressed investors, private equity funds and alternative credit providers on the restructuring of financially distressed companies, particularly in a cross-border context. 

His recent work has included advising General Motors Europe on the restructuring of the Adam Opel Group and Volkswagen AG in its proposed co-investment with Ford Motor Company in autonomous vehicle technology company Argo AI, as well as advising leading German banks and utility providers on refinancings and restructurings.  

Von Bismarck will join CC at the start of next month, taking the firm’s core Germany restructuring and insolvency team partner headcount to four alongside three counsel and five associates. 

The firm said the enlarged team would continue to build out its focus on cross-border creditor and company side work, including expanding the firm’s relationships with key financial sponsors. 

“These hires solidify our reputation as one of the leading firms for this type of work in the market,” commented Oliver Kronat, who leads the German global financial markets practice at CC. “In addition, we now have more opportunities in the cross-border private equity and financing space, outside the previous core activities of our restructuring practice.”

CC also boosted its US restructuring and insolvency practice earlier in the year with the hire of partners Brian Lohan and Maja Zerjal Fink in New York from Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.