Best Lawyers® has named Tonkon Torp partners Albert N. Kennedy and Kenneth D. Stephens as 2011 Portland, Oregon Lawyers of the Year in their respective disciplines.
Kennedy was named for Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights and Stephens for Corporate Law. They were selected after receiving particularly high ratings among their peers for their abilities, professionalism and integrity. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is honored by Best Lawyers as the Lawyer of the Year. Last year, Tonkon Torp partner Ronald L. Greenman was named Portland Lawyer of the Year for Corporate Law.
Kennedy and Stephens were instrumental in the recent high profile, high stakes resolution of Sunwest Management’s bankruptcy and subsequent $1.2 billion sale to a joint venture advised by Blackstone Real Estate Advisors. One of the biggest and most complex bankruptcy cases of its kind ever filed in Oregon, the Sunwest matter involved disentangling and reorganizing hundreds of legal entities to allow Sunwest to be treated as a single company protected from disorderly, piecemeal liquidation. Had the sale to Blackstone not been completed, foreclosure of Sunwest’s property empire would have meant a loss of over $500 million in investments and potential disruption of thousands of employee caregivers and 11,000 seniors living in Sunwest facilities.
“The Sunwest matter is perhaps the most prominent but by no means the only example of the quality of work that Al and Ken have been delivering for decades,” says Michael M. Morgan, Tonkon Torp’s managing partner. “The firm is delighted to see them honored by their peers.”
Stephens is a founding member of Tonkon Torp and has a longstanding reputation for his work in complex corporate and securities matters. Kennedy, who joined Tonkon Torp in 1984, has been a lead attorney in some of the most significant commercial bankruptcy cases filed in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.
