Sylvia Mayer is a partner in the Business Finance & Restructuring Department at Weil. Sylvia specializes in distressed situations, including both actual distress (such as workouts, bankruptcy, and restructuring engagements for debtors, investors, or acquirers), and hypothetical distress (such as recovery and resolution planning for financial institutions). She is known for her excellence in creative problem solving, pragmatic solutions, advocacy, crisis leadership and complex case management. Sylvia has represented debtors, committees, trustees, creditors and acquirers in chapter 11 cases and out of court restructurings. She has applied her restructuring expertise to areas outside of the chapter 11 context, including representations involving insurance company rehabilitations and systemically important financial institution resolution planning. In addition to serving as a leader in numerous restructuring and resolution planning engagements, she regularly speaks and writes about current bankruptcy, restructuring, and resolution planning issues, actively participates in public service and civic organizations in her community, and is very involved in the firm’s pro bono and diversity programs.
Since 2011, Sylvia has focused much of her practice on systemically important financial institution resolution planning and counseling. She was deeply involved in development of the resolution plan for two of the nine institutions required to submit resolution plans by July 1, 2012 in the US, engagements in which she remains actively involved, as well as working with other institutions on future submissions.
In 2013, Ms. Mayer served as one of the lead restructuring attorneys on the prepackaged chapter 11 filing of LodgeNet Interactive. In 2010, she represented Highland Hospitality in an out-of-court transaction involving its $1 billion hotel portfolio and General Growth Properties in its successful solvent company reorganization where it emerged from chapter 11 with a $15 billion market capitalization following a $7.25 billion recapitalization and the spinoff of The Howard Hughes Corp.
Sylvia has represented such high profile chapter 11 debtors as Enron Corp., Edison Brothers Stores, FoxMeyer, LodgeNet Interactive, Pioneer Companies, SemGroup LP, United Companies Financial Corporation, and WorldCom, as well as chapter 11 trustees in D&A Realty and Midcon Offshore. She has also represented statutory unsecured creditors' committees in APS Holdings and First Wave Marine and ad hoc committees in Adelphia Communications Corp. and the out-of-court restructuring of Gothic Energy. In addition to debtor, trustee, and committee work, Sylvia has represented various creditor constituencies or acquirers in companies such as Century Offshore, EOTT Energy, McKenzie Methane, Rand Energy, Silver Cinemas and Stanley Stores. Over the course of her career, she has worked on cases in a variety of industries including energy, financial, hospitality, petro-chemical, pharmaceutical, retail, and telecommunications. Moreover, Sylvia's experience extends to commercial litigation and appellate work in state and federal courts around the country.
Ms. Mayer writes, teaches and speaks about current bankruptcy and restructuring issues. For example, in February 2013, she published an article on the benefits of resolution planning in the Banking Law Journal. A shorter form of this article appeared in December 2012 in the American Banker. In November 2012, Ms. Mayer served on an American Bar Association panel with a Section Chief in the FDIC’s Office of Complex Financial Institutions. In October 2012, she published an article detailing lessons learned working on the first round of resolution plans submitted in the United States.