A quiet firm for the moments that matter most.
For over four decades, Ashcroft & Vane has guided principals, families, and enterprises through insolvency and restructuring — protecting reputation, preserving wealth, and restoring control.
Insolvency is not a verdict. It is a turning point.
Most people believe bankruptcy means public ruin — a permanent mark on a lifetime of work. We were founded on a different conviction: that people in financial crisis deserve to be handled with discretion and dignity, not processed like a case file.
What is at stake is rarely just a balance sheet. It is a name, a family, and a future. Our entire practice is built to protect all three — resolving matters privately, before they ever become a public spectacle.
We keep the firm deliberately small so that every client is represented by a senior partner who knows the matter intimately and carries it personally, from the first confidential conversation through the final order.
Discretion above all
Every matter is compartmentalized and handled by senior staff only. Your affairs never enter general circulation.
Dignity, not judgment
We treat financial distress as a strategic problem to be solved — never a personal failing to be endured.
Senior counsel, personally
You work with a named partner from the first conversation to the final order, and well beyond it.
A method built around the person, not the file.
- 01
We listen first
Before any strategy, we understand what you have built and what you most need to protect — the file follows the person, not the reverse.
- 02
We choose the quietest tool
The goal is never to avoid a filing at all costs, nor to rush toward one. We select the quietest instrument that achieves your outcome.
- 03
We stay after the order
Resolution is not the end. We remain your counsel — on rebuilding, protecting, and preventing a recurrence.
We understand that what is at stake is not just a balance sheet — it is your name, your family, and your future.
Eleanor R. Ashcroft
Managing Partner
1979
Ashcroft & Vane founded as a two-partner restructuring practice in Lower Manhattan.
1994
Expanded into cross-border insolvency as clients’ interests grew international.
2008
Guided a generation of principals and enterprises through the financial crisis, quietly.
Today
A deliberately small firm with $4.2B+ in obligations restructured and a Band 1 ranking.
The names on the door still lead the work. To meet the partners who will carry your matter personally, view our counsel.
Begin a confidential conversation.
Every inquiry is reviewed by a senior partner and protected by attorney–client privilege from the first word.