Welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Monday, February 2. In today's briefing, Optimum Communications has hired White & Case as restructuring counsel after Kirkland & Ellis withdrew, tapping the veteran debtor side lawyer Tom Lauria to advise on the telecom company's capital structure amid ongoing creditor disputes. And law firm Ropes & Gray landed a new practice leader from Fried Frank.

Optimum Communications, the indebted telecom company that has been feuding with its creditors, has engaged White & Case as financial transaction counsel after Kirkland & Ellis withdrew from the representation.

White & Case partner Tom Lauria will be leading the assignment for Optimum. Lauria is known for his representations of large corporate debtors, including Hertz Global Holdings.

Optimum said in a statement that Lauria, one of the nation’s top restructuring lawyers, will “advise the company on its ongoing efforts to strengthen its capital structure following the withdrawal of prior counsel.”

Restructuring lawyer Rachel Strickland is leaving the law firm Fried Frank to assume a new role as the global chair of the business restructuring group at Ropes & Gray.

Strickland’s colleagues Andrew Mordkoff, Dan Forman and Andrew Minear are also joining Ropes & Gray, where they are expected to work on complex restructurings, liability management transactions and other special situations.

Prison healthcare provider YesCare asked a bankruptcy court to maintain its legal protections from thousands of injury lawsuits after defaulting on settlement payments.

YesCare and other parties to the $75 million settlement that resolved the bankruptcy of its former affiliate Tehum Care Services have missed a combined $7.5 million in payments since September, according to court filings by compensation trusts created under Tehum’s chapter 11 plan.

In a filing Thursday, YesCare said the settlement parties entered into a forbearance agreement in November, under which the trusts received $200,000 in fees. Despite those payments, the trusts notified the court earlier last week that failure to cure the default would restore injury claimants’ rights to pursue YesCare, its owners and affiliates in tort litigation as early as Monday. Judge Christopher Lopez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston has scheduled a hearing for Monday.

—Akiko Matsuda

The U.S. arm of spirits maker Stoli Group reached an agreement with Fifth Third Bank that keeps the case in chapter 11 for now. Under the agreement, Stoli is permitted to use $2.5 million of the bank’s cash collateral to pay overdue professional fees, addressing a key driver behind the company’s push to convert the case to a chapter 7 liquidation.

Following several hours of negotiations outside the court room, the unsecured creditors’ committee also agreed in principle to support Fifth Third’s request for the appointment of a chapter 11 trustee, according to Jeremy Downs, counsel to the bank.

A hearing is expected to resume Monday before Judge Scott Everett of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas to review the final agreement and rule on the trustee motion.

—Akiko Matsuda

State lawmakers this month proposed new bills against corporate interference in medicine, as the backlash against private equity’s involvement in healthcare continues to spread. Lawmakers in Washington, New Mexico, Vermont and Maine in recent weeks introduced bills banning the corporate practice of medicine, referring to the interference by financial investors in the relationship between doctor and patient.

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