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Marc Levinson

Senior Counsel

San Francisco Office

Marc A. Levinson is a senior counsel in the Restructuring Group.

Marc's practice concentrates on insolvency planning, bankruptcy cases, out-of-court reorganizations and workouts. He represents secured and unsecured creditors, acquirers of assets from insolvent companies, debtors, indenture trustees, committees, public entities and bankruptcy trustees.

  • He has been an examiner in two Chapter 11 cases, and frequently serves as a mediator of bankruptcy-related disputes.

    Marc is nationally recognized as a leading municipal bankruptcy lawyer by such publications as Chambers USA and Legal 500. In the 2022 California Bankruptcy/Restructuring category of Chambers USA, comments included the statement that clients regard Marc as having “a brilliant mind and ability to provide the best solution in complex dealings. He can break that brilliance down into understandable information for clients." In 2020, Legal 500 inducted Marc into their Hall of Fame, which recognizes lawyers at the pinnacle of the profession. In 2009 and 2015, he was selected as one of the “Dealmakers of the Year” by The American Lawyer for his roles in the Vallejo and the Stockton Chapter 9 cases, respectively. He has been named by the Daily Journal as one of California’s Top 100 Lawyers four times, and was selected by the Daily Journal as one of California’s Top 25 Municipal Lawyers in 2011, 2012 and 2013 for his work in the Chapter 9 representations of Stockton and Vallejo. In 2012, he was named one of the “California Attorneys of the Year” by California Lawyer, the magazine of the State Bar.

    Marc frequently lectures on bankruptcy, insolvency and corporate and municipal reorganization topics. He has spoken to numerous bar associations as well as to in-house counsel and business people at corporations such as The Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, Mitsubishi Electric America, Moody’s and Morgan Stanley. Marc is a conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference, is a past Chair of the American College of Bankruptcy and is a past president of the California Bankruptcy Forum. He has served as a guest lecturer at the U.C. Davis School of Law, Stanford Law School, the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, the University of Washington School of Law and the University of Southern California Law Center.

    Prior to joining Orrick, Marc was a partner at Sidley Austin in Los Angeles from 1980 to 1990. He was an associate and partner at Shutan & Trost in Los Angeles from 1975 to 1980.

  • A sample of notable recent engagements includes the following.

    • Directory Distributing Associates. Lead insolvency lawyer, working with Orrick’s employment lawyers in the representation of related multinational corporations in the chapter 11 case of a co-defendant in Fair Labor Standards Act cases originally filed in Texas and San Francisco, but removed to the district court and ultimately the bankruptcy court in St. Louis. After obtaining a stay of the litigation as to our clients, and after two years of motion practice, a global settlement was reached with the assistance of mediators in San Francisco and then Atlanta. The chapter 11 plan of liquidation, funded by our clients and to a much greater extent by recipients of alleged avoidable transfers, discharged over 46,000 FLSA claims and resulted in the dismissal with prejudice of the two cases. Over 98% of the FLSA claimants who returned ballots voted to approve the plan.

    • City of Stockton, California. Marc was the lead insolvency lawyer on the Orrick team that filed a Chapter 9 case for this city of approximately 300,000 in June 2012, making it the largest California city to seek bankruptcy relief. The filing followed an exhaustive 90-day statutorily-mandated mediation process involving major creditors in which Orrick worked with Stockton and its advisors to prepare a detailed proposal to restructure the material claims against the City. Orrick’s work for the City has generated multiple precedent-setting opinions relating to limits on the powers of a bankruptcy court to direct a municipality’s governmental decisions in a Chapter 9 case. The City’s plan of adjustment was confirmed in late 2014, and went effective in February 2015.   In December 2015, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that a portion of the appeal taken by the sole objector to the plan was equitably moot and affirmed the remainder of the confirmation order (542 B.R.261, 9th Cir. BAP 2015).

    • City of Vallejo, California. Marc was the lead insolvency lawyer on the Orrick team that filed a Chapter 9 case for this city of approximately 120,000 in May 2008. The case generated cutting edge legal issues, as well as litigation over many hotly-contested factual issues, including those relating to Vallejo’s insolvency and its eligibility to be a Chapter 9 debtor. Its plan of adjustment went effective in late 2011.

    • Official Committee of Equity Security Holder of USA Capital Diversified Trust Deed Fund LLC. Marc led an Orrick team in representing the interests of approximately 1,300 investors whose cumulative investment exceeded $150 million. The Diversified case was one of five companion Chapter 11 cases pending in Las Vegas. The total investment in the Chapter 11 debtors approximated $1 billion. The joint plan of reorganization went effective in March 2007, and Orrick continues to represent the revested Diversified Fund.
    • Oxford Automotive and Polymer Group. Marc was the lead bankruptcy partner in Orrick’s representation of a multibillion dollar distressed debt fund that acquired a controlling interest in the publicly-traded notes of two 1934 Act reporting companies. Through confirmation of consensual Chapter 11 plans (Oxford in Detroit and Polymer Group in Columbia, SC), the client acquired majority interests in the post-reorganization companies, each with a balance sheet de-levered by hundreds of millions of dollar.
    • Colo.com. Marc represented the creditors’ committee in this San Francisco Chapter 11 case of a failed colocation facility empire. During the case, which concluded with a confirmed plan of liquidation, over 20 locations, including real estate leases and personal property, were sold as a going concern to one buyer; additional leases and equipment were sold to other buyers.
    • Tri Valley Growers. This California cooperative was among the largest canners and processors of fruit in the world. In Tri Valley’s Chapter 11 case, Marc represented a publicly-traded insurance company owed in excess of $120 million of term debt secured by various canneries and the equipment located there. The matter was resolved consensually when Orrick’s client purchased the California operation (including assets not in its collateral package) obtaining full credit for its debt. The client subsequently sold the assets.
    • IRM Corporation. Marc headed a team of Orrick lawyers in the representation of 22 affiliated companies in Chapter 11 cases filed in Sacramento. The confirmed joint plan of reorganization resulted in the restructuring of approximately $165 million of senior secured institutional debt and the creation of more than $100 million in equity for investors. The reorganization plan, which was consensual among all constituencies, was the largest ever confirmed in the Sacramento bankruptcy court at the time.