Ronit J. Berkovich is a partner in the Business Finance & Restructuring Department of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Ms. Berkovich’s practice involves representing debtors, creditors, lenders, investors, and acquirers of assets in all aspects of distressed situations. She has extensive experience representing debtors, including in some of the largest chapter 11 cases in history. Her debtor representations include General Motors, Lehman Brothers, WorldCom (MCI), BearingPoint, Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Centers, Lenox, Farmland Dairies, Independent Wireless One, and Vertis (through which Vertis merged with American Color Graphics in the first ever “double prepack merger”). She has also represented companies in out-of-court workouts and in international restructurings, such as Telewest Communications plc and Parmalat Finanziaria SpA, and has provided restructuring advisory services to Fortune 500 companies. Her recent lender and purchaser representations have included in the following chapter 11 cases: Hawaiian Telcom, Moonlight Basin, Genmar, Spheris, and Epic Air.
Ms. Berkovich actively lectures on various topics relating to restructuring, assisted in teaching a class on corporate reorganization at Cardozo Law School for several years, taught legal research and writing at Harvard Law School for two years, and taught a seminar in economics at Harvard College.
Publications include:
- The Implications of the Third Circuit’s Armstrong Decision on Creative Corporate Restructuring: Will Strict Construction of the Absolute Priority Rule Make Chapter 11 Consensus Less Likely?” in American University Law Review (2006) (with Harvey R. Miller),
- "Foreclosure Sale Extinguishes Debtor's Redemption Right Despite Undelivered Deed” in Real Estate Finance (December 2003),
- The Bankruptcy Bulletin, various articles from 2003-2010, including most recently "Extra! Extra! Secured Creditors Left Feeling Insecure in Philadelphia: In a Split Decision, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals Holds that Secured Creditors Are Not Guaranteed a Right to Credit Bid Under a Plan Asset Sale" (April 7, 2010),
- contributor to “Chapter 11 in Transition – From Boom to Bust and Into the Future” in The American Bankruptcy Law Journal (2007) (with Harvey R. Miller),
- contributions to several articles in the New York Law Journal, including most recently “The Rule of Explicitness and Entitlement to Post-Petition Interest” (September 30, 2004).
Ms. Berkovich received a bachelor's degree (with distinction) in Economics and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia in 1997 and a juris doctorate degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2001.