Juan Verdugo

• Advised on the acquisition of Spain’s first major NPL portfolio sale (EUR1bn OB), which included top-tier hotel assets and other operating businesses (Project Amazona).
• Advised on the most innovative restructuring in Spain, according to the Financial Times (European Award for Legal Innovation 2016), through the partial spin-off of a leading Spanish industrial company.
• Advised on the standardization of criteria by the Spanish General Directorate of Registries about NPLs market, increasing transaction speed and investor recovery rates.
• Advised on the creation of a new legal standard in the Spanish NPLs market, recognized with first prize in Legal Expertise by the Financial Times (European Award for Legal Innovation 2019).
• Advised on the orderly closure, relocation, and sale of Thomas Cook’s Spanish business, leading the restructuring and coordinating the insolvency proceedings of its Spanish subsidiaries.
• Advised on the financial restructuring and EUR100m bond issuance of Spain’s leading aviation, rescue, and firefighting services operator.
• Advised on a landmark consultation with the Bank of Spain regarding the scope of European NPLs regulations, resulting in a temporary exemption from registration and supervision for Spanish servicers
• Advised on the negotiation, approval, and court confirmation of Spain’s first restructuring plan, including class formation, cross-class cramdown, interim financing, and new money—setting a precedent for the Spanish market.
• Advised on the cross-border restructuring of the Telepizza and Pronovias groups, overcoming complex legal challenges and successfully applying Spain’s new restructuring tools.
• Advised on the first pre-pack sale in Spain through the electronic insolvency procedure for microenterprises, which saved the country’s leading international politics magazine.
• Advised on the EUR300m debt restructuring of Spain’s fourth-largest fishing group, entailing the sale of fully restructured companies.

• Chambers Europe 2025 (Insolvency) – Top Ranked
• Chambers Europe 2025 (Restructuring) – Ranked
• The Legal 500 Europe 2025 (Restructuring and Insolvency) – Top Ranked
• IFRL 1000 2025 (Restructuring and Insolvency, Banking) – Top Ranked
• Who is Who Legal 2024 (Restructuring and Insolvency) – Top Ranked
• Client Choice Awards 2022 & 2025 – Restructuring and Insolvency (Spain)
• Financial Times European Award for Legal Innovation 2019 – Stand-out (Debt Servicing and NPL Recovery Modernization)
• Financial Times European Award for Legal Innovation 2016 – Commended (Most Innovative European Restructuring Deal)

Articles (Spanish)

• Approval of the restructuring plan of the Cineworld UK group (Revista General de Insolvencias & Reestructuraciones, No. 14, 2024)
• NPLs secured portfolios and registry hurdles in Spain (Revista General de Insolvencias & Reestructuraciones, No. 6, 2022)
• Transfers of business units and contract assignments (Revista de derecho concursal y paraconcursal, No. 34, 2021)
• Third-party payments and cross-guarantees in insolvency (Revista de derecho concursal y paraconcursal, No. 31, 2019)

Book Chapters (Spanish)

• Credit servicers and registry requirements under the Real Estate Credit Contracts Act (Práctica mercantil para abogados, 2020)
• Distressed Transactions (Derecho práctico de reestructuraciones e insolvencias empresariales, 2017)

Books (English)

• Distress Transactions in Spain: A Brief Investor’s Guide (Thomson Reuters, 2019)
• The Restructuring Review (Law Business Research)

Articles (English)

• Spain: Recognition of Foreign Insolvency Proceedings and Enforcement of Related Judgments (Thomson Reuters, Practical Law, 2024)
• Spain: Risks in Distressed Transactions and Director Liability (Thomson Reuters, Practical Law, 2024)
• Spain: Insolvency Litigation Funding (Global Restructuring Review, 2018)

IFLR 1000 2024
“Clear, direct, know the laws, and innovative. Give a lot of confidence to the customer.”

Legal 500 EMEA 2023
“Juan Verdugo is a benchmark in all pre-insolvency and insolvency situations.  What makes him stand out is his vast experience, clarity when presenting his advice, extremely high level of technical knowledge, and constant evolution and training. He also has a very good relationship with foreign funds”

“The personal involvement and treatment of the case/situation as his own is what has made us very comfortable working with Juan Verdugo. He has not limited himself to a legal opinion but has contributed ideas and his enormous experience in other key areas such as the approach to negotiations, the search for alternatives to the main actions, the consideration of different scenarios, and so on”

Global Restructuring Review 100 2021
“Verdugo is undoubtedly a market leader”; “He works his legal magic to make clients’ dreams come true. He makes the grey areas of restructuring black and white in a way that significantly eases the decision-making process.”