Corporate America is taking a huge hit from the coronavirus. These lawyers, bankers, and investors stand to gain the most from the chaos.

REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Even advisers who are veterans of the 2008 financial crisis say that the current situation, where healthy businesses have seen their cash flow evaporate overnight, is unprecedented.

• Economic disruption caused by the novel coronavirus has put a group of investors, lawyers, and bankers back in the spotlight.
• Restructuring attorneys and investment bankers are fielding a rush of calls from clients.
• Distress investing, which looks to take advantage of bankruptcies and other high-risk situations, struggled to find opportunities for years.
• Private-equity shops are looking to invest in public equities and ramp up loans to help businesses through the crisis.
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The coronavirus is slamming global economies and sending company revenues plunging. The sudden, unexpected shock has prompted huge stock selloffs and credit downgrades and sent global markets into turmoil.

But the chaos is an opportunity for a group of advisers and investors who have been waiting years for a big shakeout.

The coronavirus will likely accelerate work on energy companies and retailers that were already seeing weakness, restructuring attorneys have told Business Insider. But even advisers who are veterans of the 2008 financial crisis say that the current situation, where healthy businesses have seen their cash flow evaporate overnight, is unprecedented.

We took a look at the top investors set to pounce on with the hopes of bagging huge returns. We've also compiled the names of leading restructuring bankers and lawyers to understand who the power players are when it comes to cleaning up the mess. And we've talked to private-equity insiders to understand the opportunities they see and how they'll balance new investments with helping to stabilize existing portfolio companies.

Restructuring advisers are set for a surge in business

Quinn Emanuel; Willkie Farr; Jones Day; Samantha Lee/Business Insider

• POWER PLAYERS: Meet 20 Wall Street restructuring bankers who will sort out the defaults and bankruptcies of the coronavirus crisis

• 10 lawyers who navigated the biggest bankruptcies in history are set for a huge boom in business as the coronavirus fuels a restructuring surge

• Restructuring bankers are suddenly Wall Street's hot commodity as they're getting swamped with calls from clients facing a cash crunch

• 'All hands on deck': Restructuring lawyers say a sudden collapse of revenues is accelerating work with the retail and energy sectors

• Big Law M&A work is evaporating as coronavirus spreads, but some firms are about to make bank. Here are the winners and losers.

Investors are gearing up

Heidi Gutman/Getty Images; Apollo Global Management; John Lamparski/Getty Images; Blackstone Group; Ruobing Su/Business Insider

• Meet the 10 Wall Street power players picking through up to $1 trillion in distressed debt to bag huge returns

• Morgan Stanley hired a top trader away from Deutsche Bank in distressed credit - an area primed for a boom as corporate debt gets crushed

• Activist investors are scooping up 'ridiculously cheap' shares during the coronavirus crisis, setting off a war of words involving top law firms and Wall Street titans like Carl Icahn

PE firms are shoring up investments while eyeing new opportunities

Informa Connect Global Finance"A downturn would not be a bad thing for Apollo," Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black said at the SuperReturn conference in Berlin earlier this year.

• Private equity bet billions on live entertainment in 2019. Here's how the coronavirus has turned that investment thesis on its head.

• We talked to 14 private-equity insiders about how they're planning to play the coronavirus turmoil. They identified 2 huge opportunities.

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