Restructuring & Insolvency
Squire Sanders restructuring and insolvency lawyers are recognized globally for their expertise and success in representing financial institutions, distressed companies, insolvency practitioners, creditors’ committees, investors, and strategic and financial buyers of troubled companies.
Squire Sanders has more than 90 restructuring and insolvency lawyers in 27 offices across 15 countries in the United States, the UK, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America. The strength and diversity of our practice across the globe mean we always act quickly and can be onsite anywhere in the world, with the capacity and experience to deal with multisite restructurings and insolvencies.
As compelling indications of our preeminent reputation, we have played key roles in some of the largest, most significant and highest profile restructurings and insolvencies in recent history including:
- Chapter 11 proceedings for:
- WorldCom (as co-counsel to the debtor)
- Enron (as co-counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors)
- Chrysler (as counsel for the Committee of Chrysler Affected Dealers)
- Phoenix Coyotes (as counsel to the debtor)
- AmFin Financial Corporation (as counsel to the debtor)
- The administrative receivership of the Arrows Formula 1 motor racing team (as lawyers to the administrative receivers)
- The administrations of:
- The Super Aguri Formula 1 motor racing team (as lawyers to the administrators)
- MG Rover Group (as lawyers to the administrators on pensions and cross-border issues)
- Global retail brands including Adams Childrenswear, Whittard of Chelsea and Cobra Beer (in various capacities including for management, financiers, administrators and buyers)
- Major UK insurance broker FirstCity Partnership (acting for the administrators and pension trustees)
- Major logistical supplier to the UK national rail network Gamble Rail Group
We are also experienced in complex cross-border insolvency matters (in particular under the EC Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings), representing parties in insolvency proceedings with US and UK ties and related proceedings in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, Venezuela, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Most restructuring engagements are highly complex and require a significant amount of creativity, so we work with our clients and their financial professionals to develop strategies that advance their business interests and preserve and create value. We frequently coordinate our efforts with other Squire Sanders practice groups such as corporate finance, banking, capital markets, property, construction and planning, environmental, health and safety, labor and employment, pensions, intellectual property, litigation, and tax and benefits.
Our lawyers are recognized authors, serving as editors of and contributors to major textbooks in the field of restructurings, speaking at national and international conferences, serving on boards of directors of organizations such as the American Bankruptcy Institute, as well as being senior members of organizations such as R3 – the Association of Business Recovery Professionals and the Insolvency Lawyers’ Association. Four of our partners are Fellows of the American College of Bankruptcy.
We handle complex commercial financial reorganizations and insolvencies for clients in diverse industries including:
- Agribusiness
- Casinos
- Chemicals
- Construction
- Electricity generation
- Food manufacturing
- Franchised fast food operations
- Healthcare
|
- High-tech manufacturing
- Infrastructure
- Insurance
- Investment and development real estate
- Professional sports clubs
- Resort hotels and Leisure
- Retail
|
Our clients include:
- Bondholders
- Creditors’ committees
- Equity interests
- Financial and other institutional lenders
- Financiers
- Franchisors
|
- Insolvency practitioners and other insolvency professionals
- Privately held companies
- Public companies
- Purchasers
- Secured lender committees
- Trustees of pension schemes
|
We successfully employ “prepackaged” reorganizations that in the United States have resulted in confirmed plans of reorganization in just 28 to 88 days. In the retail industry, for example, we have helped chain stores, some with debt in excess of US$200 million, restructure successfully. In one such case, we were able to assist in the sale of all stores as going concerns within 60 days of the chain’s Chapter 11 filing. In the UK, we have used prepackaged reorganizations to save thousands of jobs across sectors as diverse as retail, healthcare, engineering and leisure, among others.
Our practice covers all formal categories of insolvency ranging from all forms of receivership, administration and liquidation to bankruptcy and voluntary arrangements. We also have a strong contentious team including accredited mediators with proven track records of success. We are dedicated to serving our clients’ needs across the full range of the recovery and insolvency sector and to ensuring a maximum recovery to stakeholders wherever a business faces financial difficulty.
Our experience covers a wide variety of engagements and a vast array of client industries including, among others,
automotive,
aviation,
chemicals, construction, distribution,
energy, entertainment and media,
financial institutions and services,
food and beverage,
healthcare, hospitality,
manufacturing,
professional services,
real estate,
retail and steel.
Practice Expertise
Representative Experience
- Representing Baptist Foundation of Arizona, a nonprofit debtor, in major parallel proceedings of Chapter 11 bankruptcy litigation and charges filed by the Arizona State Securities Commission; work included serving as lead trial lawyer to resolve the claims of nearly 15,000 investors and holders of US$700 million in debt securities to secure Chapter 11 plan confirmation; oversight of internal fact investigation; liaison with state investigatory authorities; and board interviews/background checks for the restructuring and postbankruptcy boards.
- Serving as counsel to the chairman of the board in the successful reorganization of a large Ohio-based retail department store, Elder-Beerman Stores.
- Representing Brazil's nuclear agency, Industrias Nucleares do Brasil, S/A, in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of the world's largest trader of uranium. We also coordinated related litigation and arbitration in Rio de Janeiro, Bern and Hamburg.
- Handling the fast-track bankruptcy of Bryant Universal Roofing Co., a Phoenix-based large commercial roofing company, which allowed our client a quick sale of its assets. The buyer offered US$10.1 million, nearly all of which was used to assume the debt of one of our client's major creditors. The case is notable because it is rare to have all assets of a firm sold within 60 days after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
- Advising the administrators of Adams Childrenswear Limited in dealing with the disposal of a £100 million turnover business as a going concern, including advising in relation to the disposal of a portfolio of 120 trading outlets.
- Advising the scheme trustees in relation to the restructuring of Dana Corp., a Tier One automotive supplier, through Chapter 11 and company voluntary arrangement procedures.
- Representing Baltia Bank in the process of bankruptcy and liquidation in its relations with Russia-based debtors and creditors, in arbitration in Russia and as to regulations governing bankruptcy procedures applicable to banks and credit institutions in Russia.
- Representing EaglePicher Holdings and its affiliates, a diversified conglomerate consisting of a Tier 1 auto supplier, manufacturer and marketer of advanced technology and industrial products, in their Chapter 11 reorganization of in excess of US$1 billion. Our work included the negotiation and execution of a three-tranche US$345 million DIP financing agreement. The DIP consisted of a US$220 million first lien and US$75 million second lien term loan from Goldman Sachs Credit Partners LP, as well as a US$50 million third lien junior term loan from two funds affiliated with the company’s bondholders. We helped our clients obtain a crucial and unique provision in the DIP package: the option, but not the obligation, to convert the loan package to an exit financing for newly formed companies that acquired the clients’ assets under a plan of reorganization. This DIP replaced a US$60 million interim DIP facility provided by Harris N.A. Both transactions occurred in the context of Chapter 11 proceedings voluntarily filed by our clients to restructure their businesses more effectively.
- Representing the debtor, WorldCom, a telecommunications company, in the largest Chapter 11 case in history with more than US$100 billion in debt.
- Serving as counsel to Organized Living, an Ohio-based distressed retailer of home organization systems, in its liquidation.
Case Studies
In an attempt to reverse the decline of its business, a failing Las Vegas hotel and casino claimed in court that our client had agreed to contribute US$60 million in new equity and guarantees. Facing a mix of restructuring and trial issues, the clien...
While the owner of the National Hockey League’s Phoenix Coyotes waded through an historic bankruptcy proceeding in 2009, Squire Sanders helped lead the way toward an unprecedented resolution.
The Coyotes had moved to Arizona from Winnipeg, Manitoba,...
In November 2009, Squire Sanders filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases for AmTrust Financial Corporation (now known as AmFin Financial Corporation) and five subsidiaries in Cleveland. AmTrust Financial was the holding company for AmTrust Bank, which was ...
Squire Sanders negotiated a highly complex settlement providing for one of the biggest brownfield cleanups in New York State history. Since 1999, our client, a US steelmaker, had been defending various environmental counterclaims asserted by th...
In what was described at the time as the largest not-for-profit bankruptcy case in the annals of US Chapter 11, our client needed to resolve the claims of nearly 15,000 investors and holders of US$700 million in debt securities to get its Chapter 11 ...