U.S. Financial Restructuring

For decades, our U.S. team has been recognized as comprising lawyers with extraordinary ability, versatility and perseverance who work at the vanguard of shaping the futures of numerous companies. As one restructuring industry insider recently told Chambers, “They are a great group, and I’m always happy to see them on the other side of the table. Their lawyers are smart, talented and commercial, and you can always reach a point of consensus with them.”

Akin’s financial restructuring lawyers are the engineers behind the outcomes of many of the biggest deals, representing companies, creditors and key investors involved in multibillion-dollar restructurings.

Clients Include Every Type of Participant in Restructurings and Special Situations

We have a long, successful track record of advising companies, official and informal creditors’ committees and ad hoc groups, institutional investors, funds, lenders and boards in formal in-court proceedings and out-of-court restructurings, financings and distressed and special situations transactions. Our restructuring experience includes multijurisdictional and cross-border matters, and advising on recapitalizations.

Clients that seek our advice come from a broad range of industries, including entertainment, aviation, real estate, retail, financial services, healthcare and life sciences, hospitality, media, private capital, technology, telecommunications, logistics, and traditional and renewable energy sectors.

We routinely advise on the following types of matters, among others:

• Chapter 11 cases
• Section 363 sales
• Debtor-in-possession (DIP) financings
• Exit and bridge financings
• Liability management exercises
• Distressed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions
• Balance sheet restructurings
• Out of court restructurings
• Prepackaged and prenegotiated restructurings
• Recapitalizations and debt-for-equity exchanges
• Intercreditor and subordination issues
• Exchange offers
• All bankruptcy litigation matters
• Investigations
• Adversary proceedings
• Other insolvency issues.

Representative Work

Our experience advising on groundbreaking restructurings includes the following, among many matters:

• Aeroméxico: Counsel to an ad hoc group of senior noteholders of Aerovías de México in the chapter 11 cases of Aeroméxico and its affiliates, Mexico’s flagship airline, involving $2 billion in liabilities. Cross-border Restructuring of the Year - Over $1B (M&A Advisor)
• Diamond Sports: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Diamond Sports Group and its affiliates, an operator of regional sports broadcast networks for more than 40 teams across Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), involving more than $8 billion in liabilities.
• FirstEnergy Solutions: Counsel to the debtors in the chapter 11 cases of FirstEnergy Solutions and its subsidiaries, an electric utility that services roughly one million residential, commercial and industrial customers, involving $3.8 billion in liabilities.
• Frontier Communications: Counsel to an ad hoc group of unsecured noteholders in the chapter 11 cases of Frontier Communications and its affiliates, an American telecommunications company, involving $17 billion in liabilities. Telecommunications Services Deal of the Year (M&A Advisor)
• GTT Communications: Counsel to GTT Communications and its affiliates, operator of one of the largest Tier 1 internet networks in the world, in their chapter 11 cases involving $4.5 billion in liabilities. Successful Restructurings of the Year (Turnarounds & Workouts)
• iHeartMedia: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 cases of iHeartMedia and its affiliates, the largest owner of radio stations in the U.S., involving $16 billion in liabilities. Transaction of the Year: Mega Company Transaction (TMA Awards)
• Intelsat: Counsel to an ad hoc group of creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Intelsat and its affiliates, one of the largest satellite services providers in the world, involving $14.7 billion in liabilities. Restructuring of the Year – Over $10B (M&A Advisor)
• Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E): Counsel to the ad hoc committee of senior unsecured noteholders in the chapter 11 cases of PG&E and its affiliates, an America utility, involving over $30 billion in liabilities. To date, this is the seventh largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Innovation Award 2021 (New York Law Journal)
• Purdue Pharma: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Purdue Pharma and its affiliates, the privately held pharmaceutical company and maker of OxyContin, involving over a trillion dollars of asserted claims.
• Sears: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Sears and its affiliates, once the largest retailer in the world, involving $5.6 billion in liabilities; and, subsequently, counsel to the litigation trust board charged with prosecuting various estate claims in respect of prepetition conduct. Deal of the Year: Restructuring and Insolvency (IFLR1000)
• Sungard: Counsel to Sungard Availability Services and its affiliates, a global operator of colocation data and disaster recovery centers, in their chapter 11 cases involving more than $500 million in liabilities and the sale of substantially all of the company’s assets.
• SVB: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 case of SVB Financial Group, the former parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, involving $3.4 billion in liabilities.