Melissa A. Hager

Of Counsel

New York, (212) 336-4324

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Education

Providence College (B.A., 1988)
;
Quinnipiac College (J.D., 1992)

Practices

Business Restructuring + Insolvency

Distressed Real Estate

Bar Admissions

Connecticut
New York

Melissa A. Hager has more than 20 years of experience advising a wide array of clients in complex business reorganizations, debt restructurings, asset sales and insolvency matters throughout the country. Ms. Hager regularly represents official and ad hoc creditors’ committees, debtors, secured creditors and financial institutions in numerous industry sectors including financial services, real estate and real estate development, mortgage servicing, hospitality and lodging, energy, telecommunications, healthcare, and retail. Her experience also includes representation of bankruptcy examiners, bankruptcy trustees, liquidating trustees, and other post-confirmation creditor fiduciaries.

She serves as the membership and sponsorship director of the New York network of the International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC) and is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute. She has been rated AV preeminent by her peers in the Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings.

Ms. Hager received her B.A., cum laude, from Providence College and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Quinnipiac School of Law in Hamden, CT, where she was an editor of the Law Review.

MF Global Holdings Ltd.

(Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) Counsel to Louis J. Freeh, former Federal Judge and former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as Chapter 11 Trustee for MF Global in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. With $41 billion in assets at the time of filing, MF Global was the largest bankruptcy filing of 2011 and the eighth-largest in U.S. history. This case involves a wind-down of an extremely complex global operation and the realization of value from various entities in the MF Global Group, many of which are in their own administration or liquidation proceedings domestically and internationally.

In re Fairfield Residential LLC, et al.

(Bankr. D. Del.) Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Fairfield Residential LLC, a large multi-family and low income housing developer and property manager, in its Chapter 11 reorganization. Currently represent the FFR Trust, the liquidating trust that was formed post-petition to liquidate the debtors’ remaining assets, resolve claims, and facilitate distributions to creditors.

In re Extended Stay Inc., et al.

(Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) Representation of mezzanine lenders owed $3.3 billion by the Debtors in Extended Stay Inc.'s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Extended Stay is the largest bankruptcy filing in the history of the hospitality industry with nearly $8 billion in debt.

In re Tricom, S.A.

Represented Tricom, S.A., and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 proceedings, which involved the restructuring of more than $700 million. The case represented the first effort to reorganize a public Dominican Republic corporation under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Residential Capital, LLC

(Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) Counsel to Residential Capital, one of the largest residential real estate finance companies with assets and liabilities each in excess of $15 billion, whose business is comprised primarily of loan servicing and origination, and its subsidiary companies, in their pending chapter 11 cases. Residential Capital was the largest bankruptcy filing of 2012 and the case represents the first time ever that a mortgage servicer was able to successfully continue servicing and originating mortgages in bankruptcy and be sold as a going concern.