- Appointment deepens restructuring and bankruptcy expertise in the UK and Europe

LONDON and NEW YORK, Jan. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP (Cadwalader), a leading counselor to global financial institutions and corporations, today announced that Karen McMaster has joined the firm's Financial Restructuring Department as Special Counsel. McMaster will be a resident in Cadwalader's London office.

Remarking on the appointment, Gregory Petrick, Managing Partner of the Firm's London office and Head of its European and Asian Restructuring Practice, said: "We are excited to welcome Karen to our firm. Her experience in banking, finance, restructuring and insolvency along with her first-rate legal skills will be valuable assets to our clients and will strengthen the depth of the team. Our clients face increasing complexity in the global regulatory and legal environment, requiring Cadwalader to have in place exceptional solicitors with unparalleled experience."

McMaster joins Cadwalader from Linklaters LLP where she was a managing associate in the London office. Prior to joining Linklaters in 2007, McMaster worked as a senior associate at Baker & McKenzie in Melbourne, Australia.

McMaster has worked on a number of high profile and complex domestic and cross border restructurings and she has considerable experience devising and implementing creative restructuring solutions for a diverse range of clients including CLO funds and distressed investors, sponsors, corporates and creditor committees. She has significant recent experience in Spain and Italy, including the restructuring of Dinosol, Seat Pagine Gialle and the Scheme of Arrangement of Orizonia.

McMaster's hire complements the recent significant hires of Yushan Ng, a veteran restructuring and insolvency attorney who joined the London office from Linklaters LLP as a Financial Restructuring partner in September 2012, and Stephen Day, a veteran structured finance and securitization attorney, who joined the London office from Mayer Brown as partner in the Capital Markets practice in October 2012.

McMaster began her legal career in 2000 as an associate with Gadens Lawyers, an Australian top ten firm. She earned her BA and LLB from the University of Melbourne.

About Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, established in 1792, is one of the world's leading international law firms, with offices in New York, Washington, Charlotte, Houston, London, Hong Kong, Beijing and Brussels. Cadwalader serves a diverse client base, including many of the world's top financial institutions, undertaking business in more than 50 countries in six continents. The firm offers legal expertise in antitrust, banking, business fraud, corporate finance, corporate governance, energy, environmental, financial restructuring and reorganizations, healthcare, intellectual property, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, private client, private equity, real estate, regulation, securitization, structured finance, and tax. More information about Cadwalader can be found at www.cadwalader.com.