KOLJA VON BISMARCK heads Sidley’s Restructuring group in Munich. He has extensive experience advising borrowers, secured and unsecured creditors, distressed investors, private equity funds as well alternative credit providers on the restructuring of financially distressed companies, predominantly in a cross border context. He also regularly advises management teams and boards of directors regarding their duties in financially distressed situations.
Kolja has been involved in many major cross-border financial restructurings with a German COMI and is constantly rated and widely considered as one of the leading German practitioners in his area of practice. He has received acknowledgement as a “Leading Individual” for Restructuring and Insolvency from numerous industry ranking guides, including Chambers, Best Lawyers in Germany, and IFLR1000. In Chambers Europe 2021, he is ranked in Band 1 for Restructuring/Insolvency (Germany), where sources comment that “commercially he is very smart” and that he is “one of the most renowned lawyers for restructuring and insolvency law.” He is further lauded in the previous 2020 edition as “superb” and “absolutely outstanding.” In the 2019 edition, clients stated that “he is an institution in Germany. He is extremely competent and strong in negotiations.” As in the previous edition (2020), he has also been listed among the “best lawyers” for Restructuring and Insolvency Law by Handelsblatt Best Lawyers 2021. Additionally, Kolja has been recognized by Who’s Who Legal: Restructuring & Insolvency 2021 and has been named a “Thought Leader” in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders 2019 for Restructuring and Insolvency Law. In the 2019/2020 edition of the JUVE Handbook, Kolja was recognized as a “Restructuring Thought Leader,” with commentators describing him as “an excellent networker and an outstanding negotiator.” Most recently, he has been recognized as a leading individual in Restructuring by Wirtschaftswoche 2020 and “highly regarded” in the 2020 edition of IFLR1000.
Prior to joining Sidley in 2017, Kolja was a senior partner in the banking practice of another international firm.
He is fluent in German, English and French.