Corporate restructuring is a set of measures adopted by companies facing financial, operational, or strategic difficulties, with the aim of preserving their economic activity, maintaining jobs, and ensuring compliance with their obligations to creditors, suppliers, employees, and other stakeholders. It is a technical process that requires a careful analysis of the company's situation and the implementation of legally sound and economically viable solutions. In this scenario, the joint work of a lawyer and a financial advisor is essential for the success of the restructuring.
The lawyer is responsible for interpreting the applicable legal system and structuring the reorganization process within legal limits. Their role is not limited to drafting documents or providing legal representation. They act strategically in defining the restructuring model—judicial, extrajudicial, or informal—assessing legal risks, mapping contingencies, and proposing solutions to mitigate them. In a judicial reorganization, for example, the lawyer leads the preparation of the reorganization plan, ensures that its clauses comply with Law No. 11,101/2005, and acts in all phases of the procedure, from filing to conducting the general creditors' meeting and monitoring the plan's approval and implementation.
In turn, the financial consultant is the professional who analyzes the company's actual economic situation, identifying critical liabilities, assessing cash flows, reviewing projections, and proposing financial rebalancing measures. They quantify the company's payment capacity, structure the economic terms of proposals to creditors, prepare feasibility statements, and provide the data that support legal and business decisions. Their role is essential to ensure that the restructuring plan is feasible within the proposed timeframe and conditions, and that it realistically reflects the company's potential.
Cooperation between the legal and financial departments must occur from the initial stages of crisis diagnosis through to the effective implementation of restructuring measures. These are not parallel actions, but rather complementary ones. The legality of decisions must be supported by concrete data, and the financial viability of proposals must be supported by a solid legal basis. In many cases, the lack of dialogue between these two departments compromises the effectiveness of the plan and exposes the company to additional risks, whether through the adoption of unenforceable clauses or through the weakness of legal arguments before creditors and the judiciary.
Therefore, successful corporate restructuring depends directly on the technical and coordinated performance of the lawyer and financial advisor. These professionals, together, lay the foundation for the company to overcome the crisis with legal certainty, economic stability, and the ability to resume sustainable growth.