Areas of Focus
Member of the firm's Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practice and Co-Chair of the firm's Markets and Trading Practice, Vince Lazar provides strategic and critical counsel to clients who are restructuring their companies, purchasing or selling distressed businesses or are parties to bankruptcy cases or insolvency-related litigation. With a unique practice at the intersection of the bankruptcy and financial services sectors, Vince also advises clients concerning financial markets risks and default situations and is considered an authority in commodity broker liquidations.
Vince has litigated numerous insolvency related lawsuits, ranging from clawback actions to breach of fiduciary and negligence claims to international judgment enforcement matters. Vince helps clients navigate the most challenging lawsuits, providing clear advice that permits clients to make well-informed strategy decisions.
Clients appreciate Vince’s practical, forward-thinking advice and his ability to simplify the difficult decisions they often need to make. Vince has a solid reputation as an industry leader, holding positions such as Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, Vice-Chair of the American College of Bankruptcy Foundation, and Member of the International Insolvency Institute. Vince is a contributing author of Colliers on Bankruptcy and frequently speaks at symposiums and conferences hosted by organizations such the American Bankruptcy Institute, the American College of Bankruptcy, The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the American Bar Association and the Futures Industry Association.
I take the time to study my client’s business and goals. This lets me better understand their needs and stay focused on their key objectives.
Areas of Focus
Representative Matters
- Co-leads a team serving as lead bankruptcy counsel for Omnicare, LLC, a CVS Health subsidiary, guiding the company through Chapter 11 proceedings to address a nearly $1 billion False Claims Act judgment and industry-wide challenges. The team’s work includes leading complex restructuring negotiations and exploring strategic alternatives for the nationwide pharmacy services provider.
- Representing the court-appointed Examiner in the chapter 11 cases of Celsius Network LLC.
- Advised MF Global’s largest clearinghouse and its primary self-regulatory organization, serving a key role in the design and implementation of the only transfer of under margined customer accounts to other commodity brokers ever undertaken in a bankruptcy case. These actions averted significant disruption in commodity and other financial markets.
- Co-led a team representing the trustee of this defunct investment firm that had misused more than $1 billion of customer property. The team recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for its clients and creditors, including in landmark litigation against Sentinel’s lender which had accepted Sentinel customer securities as collateral for house loans.
- Represented the bankruptcy trustee in the first successful going concern sale of a commodity broker under the Bankruptcy Code, resulting in a seamless transfer of accounts to another broker and more than $3 billion in customer assets without any market impact.
- Served as co-counsel to Covanta in its successful multi-year bankruptcy case involving the disposition or wind-down of dozens of non-core business lines and the recapitalization of its core waste-to-energy business, permitting it to emerge from bankruptcy as the leader in its industry.
- Defending several foreign clients who invested in offshore funds that in turn invested with Bernie Madoff’s securities brokerage. The Madoff trustee is attempting to recover all distributions that these clients received from their fund investments, even though they had no meaningful contacts with the United States and no knowledge that Madoff was operating a Ponzi scheme.
Credentials
Service / Recognition
Overview
Member of the firm's Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practice and Co-Chair of the firm's Markets and Trading Practice, Vince Lazar provides strategic and critical counsel to clients who are restructuring their companies, purchasing or selling distressed businesses or are parties to bankruptcy cases or insolvency-related litigation. With a unique practice at the intersection of the bankruptcy and financial services sectors, Vince also advises clients concerning financial markets risks and default situations and is considered an authority in commodity broker liquidations.
Vince has litigated numerous insolvency related lawsuits, ranging from clawback actions to breach of fiduciary and negligence claims to international judgment enforcement matters. Vince helps clients navigate the most challenging lawsuits, providing clear advice that permits clients to make well-informed strategy decisions.
Clients appreciate Vince’s practical, forward-thinking advice and his ability to simplify the difficult decisions they often need to make. Vince has a solid reputation as an industry leader, holding positions such as Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, Vice-Chair of the American College of Bankruptcy Foundation, and Member of the International Insolvency Institute. Vince is a contributing author of Colliers on Bankruptcy and frequently speaks at symposiums and conferences hosted by organizations such the American Bankruptcy Institute, the American College of Bankruptcy, The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the American Bar Association and the Futures Industry Association.
I take the time to study my client’s business and goals. This lets me better understand their needs and stay focused on their key objectives.
Areas of Focus
Representative Matters
- Co-leads a team serving as lead bankruptcy counsel for Omnicare, LLC, a CVS Health subsidiary, guiding the company through Chapter 11 proceedings to address a nearly $1 billion False Claims Act judgment and industry-wide challenges. The team’s work includes leading complex restructuring negotiations and exploring strategic alternatives for the nationwide pharmacy services provider.
- Representing the court-appointed Examiner in the chapter 11 cases of Celsius Network LLC.
- Advised MF Global’s largest clearinghouse and its primary self-regulatory organization, serving a key role in the design and implementation of the only transfer of under margined customer accounts to other commodity brokers ever undertaken in a bankruptcy case. These actions averted significant disruption in commodity and other financial markets.
- Co-led a team representing the trustee of this defunct investment firm that had misused more than $1 billion of customer property. The team recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for its clients and creditors, including in landmark litigation against Sentinel’s lender which had accepted Sentinel customer securities as collateral for house loans.
- Represented the bankruptcy trustee in the first successful going concern sale of a commodity broker under the Bankruptcy Code, resulting in a seamless transfer of accounts to another broker and more than $3 billion in customer assets without any market impact.
- Served as co-counsel to Covanta in its successful multi-year bankruptcy case involving the disposition or wind-down of dozens of non-core business lines and the recapitalization of its core waste-to-energy business, permitting it to emerge from bankruptcy as the leader in its industry.
- Defending several foreign clients who invested in offshore funds that in turn invested with Bernie Madoff’s securities brokerage. The Madoff trustee is attempting to recover all distributions that these clients received from their fund investments, even though they had no meaningful contacts with the United States and no knowledge that Madoff was operating a Ponzi scheme.
Credentials
Admissions
- Illinois, 1990
- New York, 2014
Education
- University of Illinois College of Law, JD, magna cum laude; Order of the Coif, 1990
- Northwestern University, BA, 1987
Court Admissions
- US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- US District Court, Central District of Illinois
- US District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar)
- US District Court, Eastern District of New York
- US District Court, Southern District of New York
Service / Recognition
Awards
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyers, 2026
- Chambers Global, Derivatives and Derivatives Enforcement (Nationwide), 2024; Bankruptcy and Restructuring (Illinois), 2024
- BTI Consulting Group, Client Service All-Star, 2022
- American Liver Foundation, Community Honoree, 2014
- The Best Lawyers in America, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law, 2013-2022, 2024, 2026
- Chambers USA, Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Illinois), 2009-2026; Derivatives (Nationwide), 2023-2024
- Illinois Super Lawyers, 2006; 2009-2024; in Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights, Bankruptcy: Business
- Legal 500, Finance: Corporate Restructuring, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2019, Corporate: Restructuring (including bankruptcy), 2020, 2021
- Leading Lawyers Network, Bankruptcy and Workout Law, 2015-2019
Service to the Bar
- American Bar Association, Co-Chair, Joint Part 190 Rules Subcommittee
- American Bankruptcy Institute
- American College of Bankruptcy, Fellow
- American College of Bankruptcy Foundation, Director
- Chicago Bar Association
- Futures Industry Association
- INSOL International
- Lawyers Club of Chicago
- Turnaround Management Association
- Seventh Circuit Bar Association
- International Insolvency Institute
Speaking Engagements
- Panelist, “Tales from the Crypt-O,” Fall Meeting, American College of Bankruptcy, October 19, 2022
- Panelist, "Tales from the Crypt-O,” 2022 International Insolvency and Restructuring Symposium, American Bankruptcy Institute, October 14, 2022
- Co-Presenter, “Riding Out the Storm – Tips for Dodging Bankruptcy Losses,” Jenner & Block’s CLE Relay, June 12, 2020
- Panelist, “Look Into My Crystal Ball – Cases that Affect Practice in the Seventh Circuit,” American College of Bankruptcy Seventh Circuit Education Committee Seminar, September 27, 2019
- Moderator, “Default Management and CCP Failure Resolution,” Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Symposium on OTC Derivatives and Central Clearing, April 04, 2019
- To view Vince's extensive speaking engagement credentials, please click here.