Legal Cheek Careers sits down with Sullivan & Cromwell’s Kon Asimacopoulos
“I started my legal career in Sydney, Australia, where I was born and raised,” says Kon Asimacopoulos, Co-Head of the European Restructuring and Special Situations Practice at Sullivan & Cromwell and Co-Head of its London Office. Before qualifying, he worked as a paralegal in litigation at “the predecessor to the current Ashurst, which was Blake Dawson Waldron at the time. One matter involved a “six-month trial, during which I discovered that major cases often rely on less glamorous hard work, including pushing trolleys full of files around the streets of Sydney before and after court”. It was, he says, “a wonderful experience” that led to him securing a role with a top Australian firm post-qualification.
His first years after qualification were spent at Gilbert & Tobin, during what Asimacopoulos describes as “an amazing growth period”. That experience continues to shape how he thinks as a lawyer today. “I’m still very dispute-minded,” he says, focused on strategic problem-solving and finding “a path through” even when “not everyone’s going to agree on every point”.
Later, Asimacopoulos decided to relocate to London. “It was either going to be New York or London,” he says. London won out, and he joined US firm Cadwalader at “the tail end of the tech and telecom boom of the early 2000s, which then turned to bust”. In a market suddenly full of restructurings, he learned the importance of “hustle” — and that “you could create work by chasing, by bringing the right stakeholders together and putting ideas and strategy in front of them.”
In 2006, Asimacopoulos moved to Kirkland & Ellis, where he stayed for just under 20 years. He speaks about witnessing exceptional growth and learning how to deliver “incredible client outcomes”, but he is equally emphatic about the “people side of performance — building teams where colleagues work really hard, but they also know you care about them”.
So why move on after nearly two decades? Now Co-Head of Sullivan & Cromwell’s Global Restructuring Group and Co-Head of its London office, Asimacopoulos is clear that it was not because he was unhappy. “Initially, I was not interested,” he admits, adding that he was “incredibly happy” where he was. However, after meeting people at Sullivan & Cromwell, he realised “this is a very, very special place”. The opportunity was, in his words, “unique”: a chance to help the firm “build upon their existing market leadership” and “push into new areas in a very clear and deliberate way”, in particular in London.
So what does a restructuring lawyer actually do? The definition, he says, is straightforward: “At its core, restructuring is helping a company or a company’s stakeholders through a period of stress.” Those stakeholders can include the business itself, its shareholders, “its lenders, noteholders or other creditors”, “trade creditors”, and “of course, its employees”. The solutions vary. They may involve reducing liabilities including cutting debt, giving the business more runway, or sometimes injecting new money to help it do certain things. But the broader aim is also, as Asimacopoulos puts it, “keeping it away from the cliff edge if that is possible”.
He also explains how the practice has changed over time. It is now “much less about the inevitability of ending up in court” than it used to be, in favour of “a predominant desire to get things done around a table in a preferably fully consensual way”. The key is “how you get to that point” says Asimacopoulos.
When asked what trainees and junior lawyers can get involved in, Asimacopoulos is immediate: “it’s absolutely everything”. “The greatest thing about restructuring is nothing is the same day to day,” he says. Over the course of just a few matters, you might be “helping a retailer address lease liabilities, dealing with a huge financial services company, or advising a manufacturing or renewable energy business.”
Juniors, he explains, are involved from the outset: carrying out “analysis of a company,its structure and situation”, understanding why it is distressed, and getting into the key documents — debt and other documents — to map out options and a plan. Crucially, “there are opportunities for them at every level of seniority here, from trainee all the way up, to get involved at every stage”. “We also want our lawyers to be involved in business development from day 1.” And what makes restructuring especially rewarding is that, “when it comes together, it can potentially save thousands of jobs”.
We often hear, especially in the context of the post-2008 financial crisis, that restructuring is counter-cyclical. But Asimacopoulos suggests that label is now far less useful. “It was once upon a time clearly counter-cyclical. Now it is largely all-weather,” he says, due in part to “the explosion of assets under management and the volume of transactions in the market in recent years, the scale, breadth and complicity of structures, and the long-term low growth environment”. With far more deals being done, even a “moderate default rate can keep restructuring and capital solutions teams consistently busy”.
What does he enjoy most about his role? He points first to “the intellectual rigor” of bringing stakeholders to the table and negotiating a company’s future — in particular, “the intersection of legal versus strategic”. He also praises something he feels the profession undersells: “the practice of mentoring and team building”. Big matters require teams, and teams do not “just happen automatically”. “We’re not robots, we’re people with, ambitions, lives and challenges,” he says, and he takes satisfaction in creating environments where people work hard but also feel supported, something he has become well known for.
That focus on people also shapes what he looks for in trainees. The first quality, he says, is “interest”. At that stage, “we know you’re clever”; the differentiator is genuine engagement with, and interest in, the seat you are in. “The worst thing is that someone gets all that way, after all that hard work and all that studying, and beating all the fierce competition, and just doesn’t try their best.” Then comes “a desire to learn” and, in his words, “a hunger” to meet people and build a presence in the market.
Finally, there is one non-negotiable: “being a nice person”. In his view, the first two types of people who tend not to make it assuming they have the intellectual horsepower are “those with lower energy” and “those who are not nice people because in my experience treating your colleagues and counterparts with respect is fundamental to long-term success”.
To close, I ask for his advice for aspiring solicitors who may be feeling bruised by rejection. Asimacopoulos returns to the importance of long-term thinking: “A career in law is a marathon. It’s not a sprint.” He describes coming from “a working-class background where hard work and hustle were the only way to progress” and says he keeps folders of rejections from early in his career as a reminder of his journey — “I retain them with pride”. For Asimacopoulos, “you have to have long term consistency and perseverance”. Treat setbacks as “a speed bump”, not a full stop. “Never let obstacles hold you back — they are a normal and necessary part of advancement. The right attitude is everything.”
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