Peter Van N. Lockwood is a member in Caplin & Drysdale's Washington, D.C. office. He joined the firm as an associate in 1968 and became a member in 1972. Prior to that, he served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court from 1967-1968 and to Chief Judge Bailey Aldrich of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from 1966-1967.
Services
Mr. Lockwood represents creditors committees and individual creditors in bankruptcy and reorganization cases, focusing on matters involving debtors with substantial asbestos personal injury tort liabilities who are seeking to reorganize under section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code. In such cases, he generally represents the asbestos claimant creditors committees. In that capacity, he is involved in both the negotiation and drafting of reorganization plans and related documents as well as participating in the litigation over confirmation of such plans.
Highlights
Mr. Lockwood is a senior member of the firm’s civil litigation and creditors rights group. In his litigation practice, he has handled a wide range of civil litigation representing both plaintiffs and defendants. He has served as class counsel in one of the most protracted securities fraud cases of this century,
Anixter v. Home-Stake Production Co.,
(1973-1996), and also has represented corporate officers and directors in class-action securities law and derivative suits. Mr. Lockwood also has defended civil RICO and lawyer and accountant malpractice cases.
Over the past fifteen years, working with Elihu Inselbuch in the firm’s New York office, Mr. Lockwood has devoted an increasing percentage of his time to the representation of asbestos claimants committees in mass tort bankruptcies. He is currently actively involved in the pending reorganization proceedings of Pittsburgh Corning, W.R. Grace, NARCO, A.P. Green, Thorpe Insulation and Plant Insulation. He previously participated in the reorganization proceedings of Burns & Roe, Raytech Corporation, Hillsborough Holding Co., Babcock & Wilcox, Owens Corning, Armstrong World Industries, G-I Holdings, U.S. Gypsum, Federal Mogul, Kaiser Aluminum, Western MacArthur and Mid-Valley reorganizations.
Awards and Honors Mr. Lockwood is listed in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the specialty of Commercial Litigation. He is also ranked as a leading lawyer in bankruptcy in the 2010 edition of
The Legal 500 and a Top Lawyer in the 2010 edition of
Chambers USA: Band 3 in Bankruptcy/Restructuring – District of Columbia.