Jonathan M. Landers, a practitioner in bankruptcy and insolvency law, has joined Jager Smith P.C. as a partner. He will be resident in Jager Smith’s New York office.

Landers has extensive experience in bankruptcy, insolvency, restructuring, financing transactions, purchase/sale of assets and bankruptcy and insolvency litigation matters, representing debtors, lenders and lending syndicates, large creditors, litigation defendants and asset sellers and purchasers. He is one of only sixty-five members of the prestigious National Bankruptcy Conference, a member of the American College of Bankruptcy (founding class), and has been recognized repeatedly in New York Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America – both in the most recent 2012 editions, respectively.

“Jon is one of the great lawyers in the restructuring field,” stated D.J. (Jan) Baker, partner at Latham & Watkins, and chairman of the American College of Bankruptcy. “Jager Smith is very fortunate to have a practitioner with his skill and experience join it in its New York office.”

Before joining Jager Smith, Landers served as lead counsel for numerous clients, including: debtors The Finova Group, Hoop (Disney Stores), Odyssey Group (North Face and Head Sportswear), Divi Hotels and S.S. Retail Stores; secured lenders in the cases of Insilco and Concap I, II, IV, and V (involving real estate loans aggregating $500+MM); and represented Merrill Lynch in the Enron and Adelphia bankruptcies; Wells Fargo Bank in the Placid and Penrod bankruptcies; and Dial Corporation in the Greyhound and Bergner bankruptcies; asset purchasers in the U.S. Aggregates, Greate Bay Casinos, Liquor Barn, Sonic Telecommunications, Grand Palais Riverboat and Rivermeadows (Crescent H Ranch) bankruptcies; and was lead counsel for lending groups (including Wells Fargo Bank, Bracton Corporation, successor to Crocker National Bank, and Bank of Montreal) in numerous workout and restructuring transactions; and Citibank in connection with the liquidation and bankruptcy of a number of major U.S. law firms, most recently, Heller Ehrman, Thelen and Brobeck.

Landers graduated from Colgate and magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Landers previously was a partner at Milberg, at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and has been a Professor of Law at the Universities of Kansas and Illinois, a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, a Visiting Scholar at the American Bar Foundation, a Visiting Professor at the University of California Law School (Boalt Hall), and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of San Francisco Law School.

Landers is the co-author of three books on bankruptcy, creditors’ rights and civil procedure, and the author of more than 25 published articles on bankruptcy, creditors’ rights and other areas, has testified a number of times before Congressional committees, and is a frequent speaker before bar associations and continuing legal education institutes. He is a contributing editor of Norton on Bankruptcy, and a member of the Board of Editors of the Norton Bankruptcy Law Advisor.