Milbank LLP is pleased to announce that Andrew Leblanc and George Canellos took top honors at the Benchmark Litigation 2021 US Awards ceremony, held virtually on March 31.
Each year, Benchmark Litigation honors the country’s most distinguished firms and litigators, selected for their impressive performance and influence on the legal landscape. Award winners were chosen based on a months-long rigorous research process that included interviews with peers and a review of recent casework.
Mr. Leblanc, recognized for the fourth time as the East Coast’s “Bankruptcy Litigator of the Year,” is the managing partner of Milbank’s Washington, DC office and member of the firm’s Financial Restructuring and Litigation & Arbitration Groups. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, financial restructuring and international arbitration, with a particular focus on contested issues arising in bankruptcy cases. He regularly represents official committees, secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, and bidders in bankruptcy cases, as well as financial institutions as defendants in adversary proceedings brought as part of bankruptcy cases.
Mr. Canellos, recognized as the East Coast’s “White Collar Crime / Investigations Litigator of the Year,” is a partner and global head of the firm’s Litigation & Arbitration Group. He was also recently named to Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 100 Trial Lawyers – U.S.” list for 2021. Focusing his practice on white collar crime and securities enforcement, Mr. Canellos represents financial institutions, public companies, asset management firms and individuals in government investigations and contested litigation and provides counsel on corporate governance and compliance with securities and banking laws. He is known for his work in landmark white collar criminal cases and has served twice in federal law enforcement — most recently in top positions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and earlier in his career as a federal criminal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
In addition to these individual honors, Milbank was shortlisted for the fourth year in a row in the “Bankruptcy Litigation Firm of the Year” category. With the combined resources of the firm’s Litigation and Financial Restructuring offerings, Milbank is known globally for advising on prominent corporate restructurings and groundbreaking chapter 11 cases. Milbank lawyers have represented debtors, senior creditors, official and ad hoc committees of creditors and equity holders, and other parties in several of the largest and most complex bankruptcy cases in U.S. history. Among the many notable matters the firm has handled over the last year, Milbank has represented the lenders in J.C. Penney’s chapter 11 proceedings, the unsecured creditors in PG&E Corporation’s US$59 billion restructuring and the ad hoc committee in J. Crew’s restructuring.
