Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft announced that long-time partner George Davis joined John Rapisardi and Deryck Palmer in leading the Financial Restructuring Group, effective January 1, 2012.

“George’s commitment to the law and the restructuring practice has been evident for many years,” stated Christopher White, chairman of Cadwalader. “His leadership in some of the most complex restructuring matters garners much praise from colleagues within our Firm and from peers and clients outside. We are fortunate that he has agreed to help lead the practice into the future,” White said.

Davis has been consistently recognized in the United States by Chambers USA, Legal 500, Corporate Counsel, Turnarounds and Workouts as well as in IFLR 1000, being lauded, as an attorney who can build “consensus among groups with extremely different viewpoints.” He is also regularly acknowledged in The Best Lawyers in America and praised as someone who has an “ability to find solutions to difficult problems.”

Davis led teams in the restructuring of LyondellBasell Industries, in which he helped secure the largest commercial DIP financing and handled the largest LBO fraudulent conveyance case in the history of chapter 11. He guided this chemical company giant in its highly acclaimed global reorganization, paving the way for plan confirmation and a global discharge in just 15 months. Under his leadership, Cadwalader was named winner of the Restructuring Deal of the Year by IFLR Europe, the Turnaround Award of the Year and Industrial Goods and Basic Resource Deal of the Year by M&A Advisor and Restructuring Deal of the Year by Investment Dealers’ Digest. Davis has been named an Outstanding Restructuring Lawyer for 2012, 2011 and 2010 by Turnarounds & Workouts, a distinction given to only 12 lawyers a year.

An adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights, George is a frequent writer and speaker on restructuring topics and an active member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Turnaround Management Association.