OVERVIEW
Heidi Sorvino has been the Managing Partner in the New York Office for White and Williams since 2021. Upon her arrival at the firm in 2017, she helped to successfully launch and culminate the Bankruptcy and Restructuring practice in New York and she is nationally recognized by her clients and peers as a leading lawyer in the practice of financial restructuring and bankruptcy. She is also Co-Chair of the Financial Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practice, where she has demonstrated a strong command of business finance and bankruptcy law through decades of experience counseling clients dealing with distressed debt. She concentrates on corporate restructurings, complex bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings. Drawing on skills developed during her graduate studies in clinical social work, Heidi partners with clients to fully understand their needs and goals to develop personalized and creative strategies to address issues. Heidi is widely respected for her client service and responsiveness.
Heidi represents creditors and debtors through all phases of bankruptcy proceedings both inside and outside of the courtroom. She is appointed to serve as a Subchapter V and Chapter 11 trustee, managing the affairs of a debtor’s business through its financial restructuring and resulting bankruptcy proceedings. Heidi has conducted numerous mediations in Chapter 11 cases. She also represents distressed companies, creditors, insurance companies, financial institutions, hedge funds, distressed-debt investors, and indenture trustees through negotiations to avoid the courtroom and to understand changing and emerging legal/regulatory issues. She has been at the forefront of bankruptcy law for more than 34 years representing clients in prosperous economies, during difficult financial times and everything in between.
Heidi is well known for her ability to articulate and address complex business issues. She is frequently called upon by international news agencies to discuss cutting edge issues in corporate turnarounds and restructurings. She has appeared as a guest on Reuters Television, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business News. She has also been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Crain's New York Business, and Dow Jones Newswire.
Heidi brings an honest toughness to matters and is well respected by her peers. Her strength and candor are recognized with high ratings in Martindale-Hubbell, The Best Lawyers in America®, and "Super Lawyers," amongst others. Beyond her client work, Heidi takes an active role in mentoring junior lawyers and members of the professional community and is a force on the golf course. She brings to her work the determination and perspective of being a mother of four, being one of six siblings, and being brought up by a mom who was one of seven women in medical school in the 1950s.
Recognition and Involvement
Recognition & Involvement
Heidi Sorvino has been named as one of the Leading Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring lawyers in the United States by Lawdragon for 2023 and 2024.
Heidi is AV® Preeminent rated by the Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating system. Since 2013, she has been recognized since for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law by The Best Lawyers in America®, and is recognized by Super Lawyers.
In 2014, she delivered the commencement address and was awarded a Doctor of Laws Degree, Honoris Causa, from the College of St. Elizabeth for her commitment to the practice of law and promoting women as full partners in the workplace.
Heidi is actively involved in the business community and was named Chairperson of the Turnaround Management Association's (TMA) New York City Chapter (2023). Heidi is immediate past President of the TMA NYC Chapter (2022) and prior to this served as President Elect (2021). She served on the TMA's Global Board of Trustees, as General Counsel of the TMA New York City Chapter, as Co-Chair of the New York Chapter of the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation, and as a board member of the Ameritrans Capital Corporation. On November 2, 2022, Heidi presented at the TMA Restructuring BootCamp in Boston.
Credentials
Bar and Court Admissions
New York
New Jersey
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Education
St. John's University School of Law, JD, 1989
New York University, Graduate School of Social Work, MSW, 1985
Hamilton College, BA, 1983
News & Insights
Memberships
American Bankruptcy Institute
Chairperson for Turnaround Management Association, New York City Chapter
International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
- Successfully negotiated the resolution of a $16 million adversary proceeding, including outstanding taxes and litigation, filed by a Chapter 11 trustee
- Represented stalking horse bidder at 363 sale of a debtor’s business, the second largest U.S. supplier of decorative fabrics and furniture to the design industry, in Chapter 11 case
- Appointed Chapter 11 Trustee by the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, successfully closing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale and removal of a shareholder of a defaulted borrower from a New York City property
- Represented largest unsecured creditor in Central District of California Subchapter V case in which settlement payment resulting from litigation was due to our client
- Negotiated successful disposition of medspa business which paid off restructured indebtedness
- Successfully represented nursing home debtors in a Connecticut Chapter 11 proceeding, including defense of attacks from the Department of Labor, secured creditors and labor unions