Am Law Picks Ira Dizengoff, Katie Goldstein, Michael Stamer for Inaugural List of Northeast Trailblazers

May 3, 2021The American Lawyer

Reading Time : 2 min

(New York) – Akin Gump is pleased to share that, for its inaugural list of Northeast Trailblazers, The American Lawyer has picked Akin Gump financial restructuring partners Ira Dizengoff and Michael Stamer and white collar defense and government investigations partner Katie Goldstein among the honorees.

According to Am Law, the Trailblazers are those who have “moved the needle in the legal industry and are agents of change,” having left their mark on practice, policy and technological advancements in their sector.

Messrs. Dizengoff and Stamer are both known for the large, high-profile, complex corporate restructurings through which guide clients, including, among others, official committees and ad hoc groups of unsecured creditors, ad hoc groups of secured creditors, debtor in possession lenders, institutional investors and hedge funds. They work in a range of industries, but primarily focus on energy, health care, retail, media and telecom. Both men are “Noted practitioners” in Chambers & Partners’ Band 1 ranking of the firm’s financial restructuring practice.

In their published profile for the recognition, they discuss the genesis of their trailblazing approach as recognizing that, if they wanted to establish a go-to restructuring practice, they would need to build a “top-tier interdisciplinary team of lawyers who had highly specialized knowledge and experience across myriad industries and sectors.” As a result, they built a four-person team into a global practice of more than 100 lawyers in seven offices across three continents, with a focus on learning clients’ business and getting to the heart of each matter with tangible, concrete action steps. They note their goal for the practice is to be “a true and trusted advisor that clients can turn to in any situation, knowing we can help them develop unique and creative solutions to their most challenging problems.”

Ms. Goldstein, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Southern District of New York’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force, represents banks, private investment funds, corporations and their senior executives in investigations and enforcement proceedings arising under the federal securities and commodities laws. A recent recognition came from Securities Docket, which name her to its “Enforcement 40,” a list of the 40 best and brightest securities enforcement defense lawyers (learn more here).

In her profile, Ms. Goldstein notes the genesis of the idea that made her a trailblazer as the establishment by former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara of a task force of industry experts to study federal insider trading law and offer suggestions for how to improve it. She was asked to join this panel and worked on a report, issued in January 2020, that called for Congress to pass an insider trading statute that would bring clarity to this area of the law by defining the crime of insider trading by law, the goal being, she writes, to bring “needed certainty to market participants and those responsible for enforcing the law, as well as to enhance the public’s faith and trust in the integrity of the securities markets.” Ms. Goldstein notes that she is proud of the report and believes that “it provides a balanced and careful roadmap for Congress to follow in considering legislation in this area.”

Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

# # #

Share This Insight

© 2024 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. All rights reserved. Attorney advertising. This document is distributed for informational use only; it does not constitute legal advice and should not be used as such. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Akin is the practicing name of Akin Gump LLP, a New York limited liability partnership authorized and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 267321. A list of the partners is available for inspection at Eighth Floor, Ten Bishops Square, London E1 6EG. For more information about Akin Gump LLP, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and other associated entities under which the Akin Gump network operates worldwide, please see our Legal Notices page.