Welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Wednesday, February 19. In today's briefing, a major people move in restructuring; a clash between senior-living residents and bondholders; and lawyers' hourly rates reaching new heights.

Top finance lawyer Nemecek departs Kirkland for Simpson Thacher. David Nemecek played a key role in recent years in popularizing the use of liability management exercises, now the preferred route for troubled borrowers to reshape their balance sheets outside of bankruptcy court. He will be leading the capital structure solutions practice at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which will encompass traditional debt restructuring and bankruptcy practitioners along with lawyers who specialize in debt finance and liability management.

• Nemecek's future at Kirkland had been uncertain since the firm withdrew from representing his client Optimum Communications after the company filed antitrust litigation against lenders that Kirkland also counts among its own clientele.

Houston senior living residents seek to subordinate bondholders. Creditors of The Buckingham senior living facility in Houston asked a bankruptcy judge to prioritize payment of entrance-fee refund claims due to residents and their families ahead of nearly $169 million in bond debt.

Buckingham's official committee of unsecured creditors said in a complaint Tuesday that bondholders should be subordinated below refund claims that have a first-priority claim under the Texas Health and Safety Code. Residents and their families are owed $147 million in refund claims dating back to before the Buckingham's prior bankruptcy in 2021, the creditors committee said. The Buckingham filed for chapter 11 a second time in 2025. —Andrew Scurria

Appeals court weighs Revlon asbestos protections. Revlon clashed in a federal appeals court with personal-injury claimants who alleged the company’s bankruptcy restructuring failed to abide by the rules for addressing asbestos injury claims.

Revlon's 2023 chapter 11 plan addressed asbestos-related claims alleging that exposure to Revlon products caused cancer, but didn't use the dedicated section of bankruptcy law that lays out how companies can handle future asbestos-related claims through a dedicated trust.

Dozens of talc claimants who were diagnosed with cancer post-bankruptcy subsequently sued Revlon in state courts and are now trying to pursue the cosmetics maker in state courts. 

Lawyers for Revlon asserted that the asbestos-related law, section 524(g) of the bankruptcy code, is an option available for bankrupt asbestos defendants, but not mandatory.—Akiko Matsuda

Top legal rates soar to as much as $3,400. Legal fees have risen much faster than inflation for years now and corporations are trying to rein in spending by pressuring law firms to use artificial intelligence for routine tasks and keep associate fees in check. The same isn’t true at the top end, where star trial lawyers, rainmaking corporate dealmakers, and veterans of Supreme Court oral arguments are driving more aggressively on pay than ever and meeting little resistance.

Correction: Xerox struck a deal with TPG to raise financing, with TPG's credit business leading the financing. Yesterday’s newsletter incorrectly said Xerox struck a deal with TPG Capital.

Correction: Telecommunications business Mobileum emerged from bankruptcy in 2024. Yesterday's newsletter incorrectly said it was bankrupt.

Share your tips, suggestions and feedback with the WSJ Pro Bankruptcy team: Alexander Gladstone; Jodi Xu Klein; Akiko Matsuda; Alicia McElhaney; Andrew Scurria; Becky Yerak. 

Follow us on X: @gladstonea; @jodixu; @AskAkiko; @AliciaMcElhaney; @AndrewScurria; @beckyyerak.