Gary S. Lee

Partner

New York, (212) 468-8042

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Education

Manchester University (LL.B., 1988)

Practices

Business Restructuring + Insolvency

Clean Technology + Alternative Energy

Environment + Energy

Bar Admissions

New York
England & Wales

"...highly technical and extremely responsive..."
(Legal 500 US 2012)

Gary Lee is chair of the firmwide Business Restructuring & Insolvency Group and co-chair of the Finance Department of Morrison & Foerster LLP. He advises clients on domestic and international restructuring and insolvency matters in the United States, United Kingdom, and continental Europe. He currently acts as lead counsel to Residential Capital and its subsidiaries in their Chapter 11 cases and represents several hedge funds in restructuring and liquidation proceedings, including several matters in the Madoff SIPA proceedings.

Mr. Lee has been heavily involved in the implementation of foreign liquidations and schemes of arrangement in the United States and has been closely involved with issues arising under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Notably, Mr. Lee represented two of the largest Icelandic banks in their restructuring proceedings in Iceland. Mr. Lee has acted as counsel to the acquirer—in and out of Chapter 11—in several major international asset purchases of mining, smelting, and oil and gas operations. Mr. Lee has also been involved in several cross-border telecom restructuring and bankruptcy matters, including Genuity, Global Crossing, Ish, Viatel, and Star Telecom, among others.

Mr. Lee is a fellow of the American Bar Association, and previously served as the vice chairman of its Litigation Committee of the Young Lawyers Division. He is the co-chair of the Transnational Bankruptcy Committee of the International Insolvency Institute. Additionally, he is a member of the City Bar’s Insurance Law Committee, and is the former co-chair of its Insolvency Committee. He also served on the International Insolvency Committee of the American Bankruptcy Institute. Mr. Lee is a co-author of the “United States of America,” chapter of the book International Asset Tracing in Insolvency, Oxford University Press, 2010.

Mr. Lee is listed as a leading lawyer for Bankruptcy & Restructuring in Chambers USA 2013. Turnarounds & Workouts named him an Outstanding Restructuring Lawyer for 2012, an honor that was awarded to only twelve attorneys nationwide. The Legal 500 US recommends Mr. Lee as a “highly technical and extremely responsive” corporate restructuring lawyer. He was honored as “Person of the Year” by the Association of Insurance and Reinsurance Run-Off Companies in 2011 for his work on the GTE RE liquidation. Mr. Lee was cited in Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Lawyers and is ranked in The Deal’s Top Bankruptcy Lawyers by volume (U.S. only) (Second Quarter, 2012).

Residential Capital, LLC

(Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) Lead counsel to Residential Capital, one of the largest residential real estate finance companies with assets and liabilities each in excess of $15 billion, whose business is comprised primarily of loan servicing and origination, and its subsidiary companies, in their pending chapter 11 cases. Residential Capital was the largest bankruptcy filing of 2012 and the case represents the first time ever that a mortgage servicer was able to successfully continue servicing and originating mortgages in bankruptcy and be sold as a going concern.

MF Global Holdings Ltd.

(Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) Advised on various issues in relation to the UK MF Global estates in order to recover assets for the Chapter 11 estates, including claims into the estate of MF Global UK Limited in relation to which KPMG was appointed as the Special Administrator under The Investment Bank Special Administration Regulations 2011. This is the first time that the Special Administration Regime has been used; it was implemented in order to address difficulties that were highlighted following the failure of Lehman Brothers.

In re Ambac Financial Group, Inc.

(Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) Representation of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in one of the largest Chapter 11 cases filed in 2010.

The Resolution Committees of Glitnir Bank hf. and Landsbanki Islands hf.

Representation of two of the largest banks in Iceland, on issues related to securities matters, restructuring of assets, cross-border conflicts of law, and litigation matters as well as providing advice related to the global settlement of claims. In addition, MoFo worked with the Icelandic banks to harmonize their winding-up procedures with those of the United States, the European Union, and Canada.

State of Rhode Islands’s Department of Business Regulation

As lead lawyer representing the insurance division of the State of Rhode Island’s Department of Business Regulation, successfully obtained approval from a Rhode Island state court for the first-ever proposed discharge and liquidations of the obligations of a solvent insurer in the U.S. (In Re: GTE Reinsurance Company Limited).

Madoff Proceedings

Representation of the liquidators of several hedge funds that invested directly or indirectly in BMIS in proceedings in the United States, Cayman, BVI and Europe.

Sumitomo Corporation

We represented Sumitomo Corporation in the Apex Silver Mines Limited Chapter 11 case as pre-petition secured lender, DIP lender, and acquirer (from Apex's non-debtor subsidiaries) of Minera San Cristobal, the largest silver, zinc, and lead mine in Bolivia.

U.S. Subsidiaries of Hampson Industries PLC

Representation of the U.S. operating subsidiaries of Hampson Industries PLC, a U.K. publicly-traded company and global manufacturer and supplier of engineered products to customers in the aerospace and specialist engineering markets, in connection with their out-of-court restructuring and ultimate sale to American Industrial Partners for approximately $44 million.