Pioneering bankruptcy lawyer Jay Goffman is starting a new advisory firm with Steve Smith, a former head of restructuring and leveraged finance at investment bank UBS, that will offer merchant-banking services and restructuring advice for business owners, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Goffman and Smith launched the new boutique firm named Smith Goffman Partners, which expects to provide restructuring advice and arrange bespoke loans for companies facing financial challenges, its co-founders said. “Restructuring is not a purely legal exercise or financial exercise or business exercise; you need all three,” Goffman said in an interview. “We will be rendering financial advice but with the benefit of experience in all three areas, and we can pair that with capital or access to capital to help fill a need.” Goffman, a four-decade restructuring veteran, rose to prominence after resolving some of the largest-ever corporate defaults while leading the bankruptcy practice at law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, including the 2009 chapter 11 case of chemical maker LyondellBasell. Goffman represented the company’s owner, Len Blavatnik, while Smith led a team of UBS bankers who helped provide $6.5 billion in financing for LyondellBasell, the largest-ever bankruptcy loan.
