Irish Legal 100

WILLIAM M. O’CONNOR

WILLIAM M. “Bill” O’Connor is a partner and co-chair of the Real Estate Capital Markets Practice Group in the New York office of Holland & Knight. He is a nationally recognized leader in the special servicing of commercial mortgage backed securities and related aspects of loan workouts.

O’Connor concentrates his practice on creditors’ rights litigation, loan workouts, loan portfolio sales and acquisitions, rescue financing, bankruptcies, restructurings, ICC arbitrations, international documentary credits, multinational insolvencies and restructurings, and Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act cases. He has an active international practice involving infrastructure and project finance.

O’Connor represents leading financial institutions, special servicers, hedge funds, and real estate opportunity funds. He is a founding member and past chairman of the High Yield Distressed Realty Assets Forum of CREFC, the leading industry trade association for the commercial real estate finance industry.

O’Connor is also a distinguished speaker who has presented at the NYC Schack Institute of Real Estate on CMBS Restructuring Methods and the Current State of the Distressed Real Estate Debt Secondary Market.

O’Connor is a past editor-in-chief of the Westchester Bar Journal. New York Super Lawyers has recognized him in the years 2006, and 2011-2022.

In 2015 O’Connor was the recipient of the St. Vincent DePaul Award from the College of Mount Saint Vincent in honor of his charitable and philanthropic work. In October of 2016, Ireland’s national theater, The Abbey, presented him with its Sound Wave Award medal, given to a donor for exemplary service. He is the first person outside of Ireland to receive the medal. O’Connor was the honoree, along with former Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, at the National University of Ireland Galway Foundation dinner in New York in 2017.

O’Connor earned a BS from Fordham University and a JD from Fordham University School of Law, where he was articles editor of the Fordham International Law Journal and a member of the Jessup International Moot Court Team.

O’Connor traces his Irish ancestry two and three generations back to counties Clare and Kerry. He is a board member of the Galway University Foundation and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York. He is also a member of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade Foundation.

O’Connor and his wife Patty, also an attorney, have three sons, William, Tommy and Rory, a daughter-in-law, Ashley, and two grandchildren, Liam and Rylie.

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https://irishlegal.pressreader.com/article/285911686663612

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