Duane Morris LLP has appointed San Francisco partner Meagen E. Leary to the firm’s eight-member Executive Committee. Leary will also continue in her role as co-chair of the Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring Practice Group. Joining Leary as co-chair of the group is Philadelphia partner Wendy M. Simkulak who succeeds Philadelphia partner James J. Holman. Holman will continue practicing as a partner in the group.
“Meagen is an outstanding lawyer who has developed a powerhouse practice and we’re thrilled to have her on our Executive Committee as a senior leader in the firm. As we look toward the future, a new guard of engaged and capable partners are enabling us to move confidently ahead,” said Duane Morris Chairman and CEO Matthew A. Taylor. “We appreciate all of Jim’s leadership and hard work on behalf of Duane Morris. He and Meagen have done an excellent job of co-managing our Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring Practice Group for the past five years. We are looking forward to having Wendy’s insights and direction, working in tandem with Meagen’s experience and knowledge, to steer us through what may be an upcoming critical juncture for our clients in uncertain economic times.”
Leary maintains a national creditors’ rights, commercial real estate finance and bankruptcy practice. Her clients include institutional lenders, CMBS servicers, REITs, debt funds and other diverse businesses. Leary and her team handle all aspects of commercial loan workouts, bankruptcies, real estate finance and lender liability litigation, and commercial loan and real estate transactions. In addition, she provides national, coordinating counsel and general counsel services to several clients.
Leary is a frequent speaker and writer on legal and practical issues that impact her clients and an active member of the American College of Mortgage Attorneys and the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council. She is a cum laude graduate of Tulane University Law School, where she was a member of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal, and a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.
In addition to her new role as the practice group’s co-chair, Simkulak serves as chair of the group’s Insurance Rights division. She also serves as a team lead for the firm’s Insurance/Reinsurance industry group and is a member of the firm’s governing Partners Board. Simkulak represents insurance companies, financial institutions, trade creditors, lessors, liquidating trustees and debtors in debt restructurings and in all aspects of a bankruptcy case.
Simkulak is listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, 2016 through 2022 editions. She has also been rated as “Highly Regarded” for Restructuring and Insolvency by IFLR1000. Admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, Simkulak is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Simkulak is also a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Muhlenberg College.
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