The oversight board charged with digging Puerto Rico out of $72 billion in debt has white-shoe law firms vying to quarterback a lengthy and likely contentious restructuring, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported on Friday. Tasked by Congress with stabilizing the commonwealth’s finances, the seven-member board on Thursday conducted a round of interviews with the firms competing to serve as its legal counsel and strategic adviser. Nearly 50 law firms applied. A handful of firms in Puerto Rico and the mainland received callbacks, including O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Jenner & Block LLP, Chadbourne & Parke LLP, Sidley Austin LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP. The board, appointed this summer under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, or PROMESA, has the power to approve budgets and to initiate a quasi-bankruptcy process if creditors disagree on a restructuring strategy. Its members include a former bankruptcy judge, executives and a law professor. The board hasn’t said if it will hire both mainland lawyers and a separate local law firm.
