William M. O'Connor is a partner and chairs the firm's Financial Services group. Bill leads a New York-based creditors' rights team that represents leading financial institutions, special servicers, hedge funds and real estate opportunity funds. Bill is a nationally recognized leader known for his expertise in CMBS special servicing and related aspects of loan workouts, frequently speaking on such issues throughout the country. Bill is also a founding member and chair of the High Yield Debt and Investment Forum at CREFC, the industry’s trade association for the commercial real estate finance industry, which focuses on issues involving all types of non-performing commercial real estate loans and assets and the relationship that securitized (special servicers) and balance sheet lenders have with the investment community.
He concentrates his practice on creditors' rights litigation, loan workouts, loan portfolio sales and acquisitions, rescue financing, bankruptcies, restructurings, ICC arbitrations, international documentary credits, multinational insolvencies and restructurings, and Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act cases. Bill also has an active international practice involving infrastructure and project finance.
Bill is well known as past editor-in-chief of the Westchester Bar Journal. He is a member of the Creditors' Rights Committee of the New York State Bar Association's Commercial and Federal Litigation Section, and of the professional ethics committee of the Westchester Bar Association. He is an elected councilman of the Town of Pelham, NY. In addition to being selected by peers as a New York Metro Super Lawyer® first named in 2006, Bill most recently was chosen by national magazine Irish Voice for inclusion in the Irish Legal 100, a listing of the leading figures in the legal profession across North America. Bill also serves as a board member for the Galway University Foundation.
Bill is admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Western, Eastern, Southern and Northern Districts of New York and the Districts of New Jersey and Connecticut. He also is admitted to practice before the United States Courts of Appeal for the Second and Third Circuits, and in New York and New Jersey.
Bill obtained his law degree in 1980 from Fordham University, where he was articles editor of the Fordham International Law Journal and a member of the Jessup International Moot Court Team. He received his bachelor of science degree in 1977 from Fordham.
Memberships
ABA Advisory Panel
Town of Pelham Town Board
Creditors' Rights Committee, New York State Bar Association
Professional Ethics Committee, Westchester Bar Association
Federal Bar Council
Commercial Mortgage Securities Association
Mortgage Bankers Association
Loan Syndications and Trading Association
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