Edward Smith focuses his practice in the areas of commercial litigation and bankruptcy, with an emphasis on cross-border issues.
Mr. Smith’s practice includes extensive experience advising overseas clients on New York and U.S. law issues, including representing foreign clients in litigation and in U.S. Chapter 15 cases (which is based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency). He currently represents the liquidators of a Zurich-based financial services company that is the subject of Swiss insolvency proceedings. Mr. Smith has also advised numerous overseas counterparties to derivatives and other financial contracts in Lehman’s U.S. bankruptcy proceedings. He has recently concluded a representation of an Asian electronics company that was one of the largest unsecured creditors in the Kodak Chapter 11 case. Additionally, he represented a German bank in the municipal bankruptcy proceedings of Jefferson County, Alabama.
Mr. Smith has extensive U.S. bankruptcy experience. He has represented both debtors and creditors in numerous large and complex bankruptcy cases, including In re Enron Corp.; In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.; In re Lehman Brothers Inc.; In re General Growth Properties; In re Bradlee's Stores, Inc.; In re Chateaugay Corp.; In re The Drexel Burnham Lambert Group, Inc.; In re Johns Manville Corp.; In re Lone Star Industries; In re Nextwave Personal Communications, Inc. and In re United States Lines, Inc. Mr. Smith's bankruptcy litigation experience includes all phases of litigation, including trials and appeals.
From 1990 to 2000, Mr. Smith served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and represented the federal government in all phases of civil litigation, including trials and appeals as well as in bankruptcy, tax, environmental law, constitutional law, torts and commercial law. Mr. Smith was appointed as a supervisor in the Civil Division of the United States Attorney's Office beginning in 1996. He served as Chief of the Environmental Protection Unit from 1996 through 1998, supervising the Office's civil environmental litigation and investigations and serving as principal liaison with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal agencies. From 1998 through 2000, Mr. Smith was Chief of the Tax and Bankruptcy Unit, supervising the handling of all civil tax litigation and several major Chapter 11 proceedings in Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York as well as acting as principal liaison with the Internal Revenue Service and the Tax Division of the Department of Justice.
