# Ducera Partners

Ducera Partners (Ducera) is an American boutique investment bank that has a focus on advising companies regarding restructuring matters. Through its affiliate partners, it is also involved with wealth management and growth capital. Headquartered in New York, it has additional offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Stamford.
Founded in 2015 by bankers who had previously worked for Perella Weinberg Partners (PWP), Ducera has since been engaged in legal disputes with PWP.

## Background
### Origins at Perella Weinberg Partners

Michael Kramer, Derron Slonecker, Joshua Scherer and Adam Verost were all bankers who worked in the restructuring group of Perella Weinberg Partners (PWP). They had previously worked together at Houlihan Lokey. Kramer joined PWP in 2007 after his restructuring firm, Kramer Capital Partners was acquired by it to build its restructuring practice. He was named founding head of PWP's restructuring group and was given a seat on the management committee.
By 2014, Kramer was dissatisfied with his treatment by PWP and felt he was not fairly given a leadership role despite the business he brought to it. Kramer had difficulty working within the firm's culture as well as that of its leader, Peter Weinberg as he came from a restructuring background that was more rough while the firm's leadership came from a traditional M&A background which was more genteel. Weinberg has stated that no one in the partnership wanted to work with Kramer. Kramer realized his status within the firm was eroding after the firm failed to award him his expected compensation and stripped him of his titles while planning to replace him with one of his team members.
In mid-February 2015 on Presidents' Day, Kramer, Slonecker, Scherer and Verost were all fired by voicemail. PWP stated they learnt of a meeting in January 2015 at Kramer's home in Connecticut, where eight members of the restructuring team gathered. Documents containing items related to starting a new firm which included a projected business plan were circulated there. Kramer claimed the meeting was called by junior members who were frustrated at PWP and that he did not solicit any team members to join him and any documents that suggested a new firm was not initiated by him. After Kramer and his colleagues were fired, four remaining members of the PWP restructuring team later resigned to join Kramer. In May 2015, Kramer and his fired colleague sued PWP for wrongful termination stating the firm manufactured reasons to fire them and cheat them out of about $60 million in deferred compensation.

### Ducera

Ducera was co-founded in 2015 by partners Michael Kramer, Derron Slonecker, Joshua Scherer, Agnes Tang, and Adam Verost. Kramer, Slonecker, Scherer and Verost had been colleagues at PWP, and were fired and sued by PWP, who claimed to have discovered their plan to leave and start their own firm. Kramer and his colleagues filed a countersuit for defamation and wrongful seizing of equity, in addition to denying their plan to leave. In 2016, the New York state court dismissed some of the compensation claims of Ducera's co-founders while allowing their allegations of defamation and interference of business prospects to move forward.
In 2015, Ducera restructured $72 billion worth of debt for a group of Puerto Rico Government Development Bank bondholders. In 2016, Ducera and Morgan Stanley advised Monsanto on its sale to Bayer for US$66 billion, of which Ducera was stated to have taken in $50 million in fees. The firm also advised Dex Media, Paragon Offshore PLC, Dynegy's Illinois Power Generation Company,, NewPage, SCANA for Westinghouse Electric Company. and Virgin Orbit.