Business Restructuring + Insolvency

Morrison & Foerster’s Business Restructuring & Insolvency Group has a truly diverse practice and a record of accomplishment in some of the most significant bankruptcy matters of recent years. We are counsel to debtors, creditors’ committees, ad hoc committees, secured lenders, and other participants in the distressed markets. We handle financial institution restructurings, cross-border insolvencies, distressed real estate matters, insolvencies involving key intellectual property, and hedge fund failures, among other things. Some notable representations include:

• Official committee of unsecured creditors in the chapter 11 cases of telecommunications company Avaya Inc. and its affiliates. 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.


• Real Industry, Inc., Real Alloy Recycling, Inc., and their affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 cases. Real Alloy is a large-scale recycler of aluminum with operations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Real Industry is a holding company with approximately a billion dollars in tax attributes. The debtors filed for chapter 11 to restructure their $401 million in funded debt obligations and approximately $75 million in other obligations.


• Ciber Inc., an IT service company, and its affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 cases. Ciber achieved annual revenue of $610 million in the year prior to its bankruptcy filing. After a competitive bankruptcy auction process, Ciber doubled the stalking horse bid for its North American and Indian assets. Following the sale, we worked with Ciber to wind down its affairs and make distributions to creditors.


• Official committee of unsecured creditors in the chapter 11 cases of 21st Century Oncology Holdings, Inc. and its affiliates, the largest global provider of integrated cancer care services. At the time of its filing, 21st Century Oncology had more than $1.1 billion of prepetition funded debt that it was seeking to restructure through its chapter 11 cases.


• Maxus Energy Corporation and four affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 cases. Maxus and its affiliates are engaged primarily in the business of managing various oil and gas-related interests, as well as providing environmental remediation management services. The companies have significant environmental remediation obligations and litigation liabilities.


• Sungevity, Inc. and its affiliates as the debtors in their chapter 11 cases. Prior to its 363 sale, Sungevity was one of the largest private residential solar installation companies in the United States. Sungevity filed for chapter 11 with approximately $185 million in prepetition debt, including funded debt, trade debt, and potential employee related claims.


• Official committee of unsecured creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Texas power company Energy Future Holdings Corp. and its affiliates. This is the 10th largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, with the debtors holding approximately $40 billion in debt.


• Official committees of unsecured creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Peabody Energy, Armstrong Energy, Patriot Coal, and Walter Energy.


• Residential Capital, LLC, one of the largest real estate finance companies in the world, as the debtor in the largest chapter 11 case filed in 2012. ResCap was the first financial services company to successfully continue its regulated business operations in bankruptcy and be sold as a going concern.


• Chapter 11 trustee for MF Global in the largest chapter 11 case filed in 2011, where we helped settle more than $3 billion of claims against affiliates which will lead to a substantial recovery for unsecured creditors and eliminate a massive $1.6 billion shortfall in customer accounts.


• Two of the largest banks in Iceland through the Icelandic fiscal crisis on issues related to securities matters, restructuring of assets, cross-border conflicts of law, and litigation matters, as well as providing advice related to the global settlement of claims. As part of this process, we were instrumental in rewriting Iceland’s insolvency law.


• Amalgamated Bank, successfully, in the U.S. Supreme Court’s much-anticipated ruling in RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC v. Amalgamated Bank in favor of a secured creditor’s right to credit bid at an auction sale of its collateral in the bankruptcy context

We also have an experienced, full-service debt trading team that represents banks, asset managers, hedge funds, and other market participants in every type of debt trading transaction, including par and distressed loan trades, restructured equity transactions, trade claims trades, derivatives transfers, loan securitizations, and portfolio transfers, and that has provided related regulatory and strategic counsel.

Our work has not gone unnoticed. We are recognized as a leading bankruptcy group by Chambers USA and Legal 500 US. We were also named “Bankruptcy Firm of the Year” for 2013 by Chambers USA and “Bankruptcy Group of the Year” for 2012 by Law360.