Bankruptcy Beat Snapshot: Brian Resnick

Partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.

Graduate of Columbia Law School.

Performed on “Saturday Night Live” with Tina Fey and Rudy Giuliani.

That’s just the start of long and unusual résumé that led Brian Resnick from playing on Broadway to becoming partner in one of Manhattan’s top bankruptcy practices.

Resnick, a Juilliard-trained percussionist, made his career as a working musician in New York until eight years ago, when he changed his tune and took up corporate restructuring with Davis Polk.

Before leaving the stage for the courtroom, he accomplished a lot. Resnick preformed in Italy behind Luciano Pavarotti, jammed with Art Garfunkel and Olivia Newton-John and played in 14 Broadway musicals, including “Miss Saigon” and “Aida.”

Resnick said he had to hustle and make connections, including with SNL band leader Lenny Pickett, to land gigs as he mostly worked a substitute musician. And he did all this while attending law school—often taking his homework into the pit.

“I’d hit a cymbal, read a half page of contracts, then play the xylophone,” he said.

His big on-screen moment came on SNL in 2001, when Giuliani sang his swan song—literally. Filling in for the usual percussionist in the Saturday Night Live Band, Resnick was summoned to play tambourine behind Fey and Giuliani as the pair belted out “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” during a “Weekend Update” segment. The appearance on the show was Giuliani’s last as mayor.

“It was incredibly cool,” Resnick said.

Now Resnick performs along another high-powered duo, Donald Bernstein and Marshall Huebner, who co-head Davis Polk’s restructuring group. As part of that ensemble, Resnick has worked on several mega-bankruptcy cases. In Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s Chapter 11 case, Resnick is representing the administrators and liquidators of the failed investment bank’s European affiliates. In Delphi Corp.’s case, he represented J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the agent for the auto-parts maker’s $4.5 billion bankruptcy loan.

While Resnick’s two careers couldn’t seem more dissimilar, he said his first job prepared him well for his second.

“On a Broadway show, they don’t give you a second chance, so I learned to be the most prepared guy in the room,” Resnick said. “I’m used to spending 12 hours in a practice room—now I spend 12 hours, or more, at my desk making sure every document is perfect.”