High-powered bankruptcy lawyer Chaim Fortgang has launched Fortgang Consulting, based in the Greenwich, Conn. offices of Silver Point Capital. Fortgang is advising Silver Point "on a variety of different situations," he told sister publication Corporate Financing Week. Officials at Silver Point did not return calls.
"I'm not in the law biz right now," says the 50-something former head of the high-flying bankruptcy group at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. He says that Silver Point is his only client currently. "I'm an outside consultant," he explains.
Fortgang had a high-profile career as a brilliant but abrasive bankruptcy lawyer. It was his sharp tongue that brought his tenure at Wachtell to an end, lawyers recall. In 2001 Fortgang was swept into a controversy after reportedly deriding a U.S. Trustee as "moronic" in a dispute over fees that was reported by the Wall Street Journal. Fortgang says he was misquoted.
Shortly after his alleged comments, Fortgang left Wachtell. He later resurfaced as a senior managing director at New York-based private equity and asset management shop Fortress Investment Group in May of 2002. Fortgang says he left Fortress at the end of 2003, declining further comment. Lilly Donohue, partner at Fortress declined to comment regarding Fortgang's departure.
"He is one of the gurus of the bankruptcy world on a par with Harvey Miller [currently vice-chairman of Greenhill & Co.]," says one restructuring banker. "He is well respected but very outspoken and he just disappeared after Wachtell," the banker adds. Fortgang, while at Wachtell, reportedly commanded a standard fee of $750 per hour plus a success fee of one percent on the unsecured lenders' non-cash recovery.
Fortgang declines to discuss terms of his engagement at Silver Point, a multi-billion dollar credit opportunity investment fund specializing in acquisitions, management and resolution of distressed situations. He says his focus for Silver Point is helping identify attractive investments and consulting with other analysts and managers about issues in their investments. When asked if he had any wish-list for himself at this point in his career, he replies "I'd like to be a Supreme Court Justice; but I don't think that's going to happen."