Biography: Insolvency & Restructuring

Thomas Moers Mayer is co-chair of Kramer Levin's 40-attorney corporate restructuring and bankruptcy department.

Mr Mayer has represented official committees of unsecured creditors in some of the largest cases in history, including General Motors, Chrysler, Capmark, Smurfit Stone and Dana Corporation. Mr Mayer currently represents the Dutch Trustees of Lehman Brothers Treasury Co BV, the single largest creditor in the Lehman case with a claim of US$34 billion and over 100,000 creditors of its own.

Mr Mayer has also represented investors in financially distressed companies. His transactions include the 1991 acquisition of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation and the 2006 hostile takeover of WCI Steel Corporation, both through chapter 11 plans supported by the United Steelworkers of America. He is the leading scholar on trading claims and taking control of corporations in chapter 11, having authored or co-authored (with Chaim J Fortgang) five published articles and the Collier Bankruptcy Manual chapter on the topic.

Mr Mayer is a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, a non-partisan organisation of approximately 60 leading lawyers, law professors and bankruptcy judges, which provides bankruptcy advice to Congress. Mr Mayer is also a director and fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, an honourary association of approximately 660 leading senior insolvency professionals.