Russell J. Kestenbaum

Russell Kestenbaum is a partner in the New York office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Practice Group Leader of the firm’s Tax Group.

A partner since 2007, Mr. Kestenbaum’s practice focuses on advising on tax issues relating to bankruptcies and out of court debt restructurings, the tax aspects of initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions (both domestic and cross-border), structuring for private equity funds, and debt issuances.
Mr. Kestenbaum counsels a wide range of clients including Arrow Electronics, The Carlyle Group, Cerberus Capital Partners, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Towers Watson, Harbinger Capital, Cerberus, AerCap, Vector Group, Prosieben, Silver Point, Strategic Value Partners and EIF. He also represents various court appointed creditors’ committees, including those in the Lehman, Enron, Refco, Eastman Kodak, A&P and Winn-Dixie bankruptcy proceedings.

Most recently Mr. Kestenbaum represented Lightsquared Inc., Station Casinos and Intermet Corporation in their Chapter 11 cases and counseled significant creditor groups in the bankruptcy cases of Nortel Networks, Lyondell Chemicals, American Airlines and Capmark. He represented Towers Perrin in its merger of equals with Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Catalyst Health Solutions, Inc. in its merger with SXC Health Solutions Corp., and Sovereign Bank in its merger with Santander.

Good to know

Areas of Practice 1) Tax, 2) Mergers and Acquisitions and 3) Bankruptcy
Law School Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (J.D.)
Admitted Year 1994
Education University of Albany, The State University of New York (B.A.)
Bar Member / Association New York State Bar Association, Connecticut State Bar Association
Most recent firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
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