Goldman Bankruptcy Guru Joining Boutique

Perella Weinberg Partners

, a merger advisory firm, has hired a pair of veteran advisers to bankrupt and distressed companies, including

Goldman Sachs

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executive Richard Shinder.

Restructuring advisers are in high demand at the moment, as companies struggle due to the global financial crisis. Though big banks like Goldman,

JPMorgan Chase

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and

Citigroup

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play an important role in corporate restructurings, smaller advisers like

Evercore

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and

Lazard

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tend to punch above their weight, since serving as an adviser long meant banks would miss out on opportunities to provide financing . While a change in bankruptcy laws a couple of years ago was initially seen as likely to shift the balance of power toward the big banks, that hasn't happened to the extent many anticipated.

Though Shinder worked as an adviser at

The Blackstone Group

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earlier in his career, he was focused on private equity investments while at Goldman. He will be joined by Agnes Tang, formerly of

Houlihan Lokey

-- another boutique that is a major player in the bankruptcy advice business.

Perella Weinberg was founded in 2006 by former Joseph Perella and Peter Weinberg, former high- ranking executives at

Morgan Stanley

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and Goldman, respectively.