Katten Muchin Rosenman UK LLP has announced the appointment of partner Sonya Van de Graaff to the firm's growing Insolvency and Restructuring practice in London.

She joins Katten from Avonhurst, where she was a partner. Previously, Van de Graaff spent a number of years as a partner at Morrison & Foerster (London) and, in the years leading up to the global financial crisis of 2008, she was a managing director at investment banking giant Bear Stearns where she focused on a broad range of business areas, including special situations investments and structured products.

Van de Graaff has broad-based UK and cross-border contentious and non-contentious restructuring and insolvency experience including advising creditors, debtors and boards of directors navigating financial distress, as well as replacement trustees parachuted into a restructuring transaction. Her expertise includes corporate credits and structured products, advising financial institutions and sovereign-related entities. She also regularly advises on enforcement strategies. She has been involved in a number of market-leading transactions and brings a collaborative and commercial approach to resolving disparate interests amongst divergent stakeholders.

Commenting on Sonya Van de Graaff's appointment, Christopher Hitchins, Katten's London managing partner, said:

We are thrilled to have Sonya join and help us to grow our Insolvency and Restructuring practice here in London. She is a well-known restructuring specialist with a particular focus on funds clients which fits seamlessly with our other practice groups.

Her strong background in contentious and non-contentious restructuring matters, and her time spent in-house give her the strong commercial viewpoint and deep understanding of our clients' needs which is exactly what we look for in our lawyers.

Van de Graaff added:

I am excited to be joining the Katten team in London and helping to grow the practice group. The London office has ambitious growth strategies in the pipeline that I am delighted to be part of.