profile picture of James Newton

James A. Newton

Partner | New YorkMiami

Experience

Counsel to the ad hoc group of Puerto Rico Ports Authority bondholders in connection with its restructuring of approximately $180 million of funded debt obligations owed by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority. The transaction became only the fourth successful transaction under the newly enacted Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act.

Counsel to an ad hoc group of term and revolving lenders to Education Management Corporation in connection with negotiation and implementation of a strict foreclosure on their collateral and subsequent efforts to monetize that collateral.

Counsel to an ad hoc group of term lenders to Dream Center Education Holdings in connection with Dream Center’s distressed spinoff of two not-for-profit education systems to new ownership and the simultaneous restructuring of its existing debt.

(Bankr. D. Del.) Counsel to the ad hoc group of secured and unsecured noteholders in connection with the chapter 11 prepackaged plan of Southeastern Grocers LLC—one of the largest conventional supermarkets in the United States operating under the Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo, Harveys and Fresco y Más banners—successfully rationalizing its 704-store footprint and restructuring more than $1.5 billion of debt and other obligations, paying unsecured trade creditors in full.

(Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors for international telecom company Avaya Inc. and its affiliated debtors. Avaya had more than $6 billion of secured debt at the time of its filing and was saddled with significant pension underfunding liabilities for its domestic and certain foreign affiliates.

Represented ad hoc groups of holders of bonds issued by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and certain of its instrumentalities in connection with Puerto Rico’s efforts to improve its fiscal situation and, ultimately, in connection with the restructuring of their debt under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act and related Commonwealth laws.

(Bankr. D.V.I.) Counsel to HOVENSA LLC, once owner of one of the ten largest oil refineries in the world, in its chapter 11 case. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, HOVENSA had approximately $2 billion of prepetition indebtedness, exclusive of significant legacy liabilities primarily in the form of environmental obligations, pension obligations, and retiree benefits.

(Bankr. Del.) Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of UCI International, one of North America's largest manufacturers of automotive replacement parts.

(Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) Acted as counsel to Residential Capital and its affiliates, comprising one of the largest residential real estate finance companies at the time of its chapter 11 filing, with assets and liabilities each in excess of $15 billion. The debtors’ business was comprised primarily of loan servicing and origination. 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.

(Bankr. D. Del.) Representation of the official committee of unsecured creditors of mortgage insurer The PMI Group, Inc. in its chapter 11 bankruptcy.