Of Note

Individual Davis Polk lawyers maintain or have held the following leadership positions in the field of insolvency and restructuring:

Chairman and member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, an organization consisting of 60 of the leading lawyers, law professors and judges in the field of bankruptcy law; the Conference has been an adviser to Congress on every major piece of bankruptcy legislation since the 1930s.
Chair of the Courts Subcommittee of the Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization of the New York City Bar Association, charged with preparing proposed guidelines governing multiple facets of Chapter 11 cases in the District.
Chair of the Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization of the New York City Bar Association.
Co-chair of the TriBar Opinion Committee; Co-reporter for the TriBar Opinion Committee's Special Report, "Opinions in the Bankruptcy Context"
Founding director of the International Insolvency Institute
Member of INSOL International; Co-chair of the G-36 Committee
Member and director of the American College of Bankruptcy
Member of the Official U.S. Delegation to the Insolvency Working Group of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
Member of the board of editors and a contributor to Collier on Bankruptcy
Contributing editor for the Collier Bankruptcy practice guide
Teachers at various law schools, including Yale, Columbia and New York University

Awards and Rankings

1^st tier in Bankruptcy/Restructuring USA – Chambers Global 2013
1^st tier in Bankruptcy/Restructuring Nationwide – Chambers USA 2012
1^st tier in Bankruptcy/Restructuring New York – Chambers USA 2012
2^nd tier in Corporate Restructuring – Legal 500 U.S. 2012
2^nd tier in Restructuring and Insolvency – IFLR1000 2012
2^nd tier among U.S. law firms in bankruptcy matters – Benchmark Litigation 2012

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Notable Matters

Tribune. We advised the administrative agent for the pre-petition senior lenders owed more than $8.5 billion in the successful Chapter 11 restructuring of the Tribune Company, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2012. Tribune is one of the country’s leading multimedia companies, operating businesses in publishing, digital and broadcasting.
Lehman. We advised Lehman Brothers International (Europe) and its U.K. Lehman affiliates in connection with a complex settlement to resolve tens of billions of dollars in claims among more than 80 Lehman entities.
Patriot Coal. We are advising Patriot Coal Corporation in connection with its reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code and the related $802 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.
Elpida. We are advising Elpida Memory, Inc., a debtor in a corporate reorganization proceeding filed in Japan, in connection with obtaining provisional relief and recognition under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code of its Japanese proceeding.

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Kodak. We advised Citicorp North America, Inc. as administrative agent and collateral agent, and Citigroup Global Markets Inc., as sole lead arranger and bookrunner, for the $950 million debtor-in-possession credit facility for Eastman Kodak Company.
Sbarro’s. We advised Cantor Fitzgerald Securities as the agent for Sbarro’s prepetition lenders, post-petition debtor-in-possession lenders and exit lenders in connection with Sbarro’s restructuring pursuant to a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
LyondellBasell. We advised Citibank as agent on the $11.1 billion exit financing and $8.5 billion debtor-in-possession financing for Lyondell Chemical Company, the U.S. subsidiary of LyondellBasell Industries AF, a Dutch refiner of crude oil and manufacturer of chemicals and polymers. This was the largest non-governmental DIP loan yet provided to a U.S. debtor. We also advised Citi in connection with a $23 billion fraudulent transfer litigation.
Ford Motor Company. We advised Ford Motor Company on its debt restructuring plans, including a conversion offer for any and all of its outstanding convertible debt and tender offers by Ford Motor Credit Company for Ford’s outstanding unsecured bonds and senior secured term loans. Ford was able to retire $9.9 billion of debt.
American Airlines. We advised Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. on its $1 billion pre-purchase from American Airlines, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AMR Corporation, of AAdvantage MilesTM under American Airline's AAdvantage frequent flier loyalty program.
CIT. We advised Bank of America in connection with various exposures to CIT Group, the parent company of CIT Bank, which provides commercial financing and leasing products and management advisory services to the small and middle-market companies worldwide, including as agent on a $500 million DIP letter of credit facility, as owner participant under leveraged leases for approximately 7,000 rail cars and on other non-disclosable matters related to CIT Group's prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Frontier Airlines. We served as lead bankruptcy counsel to Frontier Airlines Holdings and its subsidiaries Frontier Airlines and Lynx Aviation in connection with their Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings, including drafting, negotiating and gaining confirmation of a plan of reorganization in which Republic Airways Holdings purchased 100% of the stock of reorganized Frontier Holdings for $108.75 million.
AIG. We advised the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S. Department of the Treasury on a series of more than $180 billion in unprecedented securities and loan transactions for AIG.
HeidelbergCement. We advised HeidelbergCement, a Heidelberg, Germany-based building materials company, in connection with U.S. law aspects of the refinancing of its credit facilities. The refinancing package included a €8.74 billion syndicated multi-currency term and revolving facilities agreement incorporating a euro swingline facility and a US$250 million syndicated revolving letter of guarantee facility agreement.
Countrywide. We advised Castle HoldCo 4, Ltd., the parent company of Countrywide plc, a U.K. residential estate agency, on a restructuring of certain of its debt obligations under schemes of arrangement implemented under English law and Cayman law.
Centro Properties. We advised Bank of America in connection with the restructuring of two secured, syndicated credit facilities and four property-level facilities, and the formation of a secured, working-capital credit facility, totaling more than $2.6 billion in principal amount, which were provided to U.S. affiliates of Centro Properties, an Australian commercial real estate company, in connection with the work-out and restructuring of the Centro Properties group, which included the separation of the U.S. facilities from the Australian facilities.
Citigroup. We are advising Citigroup on its realignment into two businesses, Citicorp and Citi Holdings.
Thomson. We are advising Thomson, a French provider of solutions for the creation, management, delivery and access of video for the communication, media and entertainment industries, in its effort to improve its balance sheet and implement its strategic framework.
Alpha Media Group. We advised Quadrangle Group, a global private investment firm, in connection with the restructuring of its portfolio company, Alpha Media Group, a New York-based multimedia group that includes Maxim and Blender magazines and Maxim digital.
Delphi. We advised JPMorgan Chase Bank as administrative ag
ent under Delphi Corporation’s debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing facility, in connection with a credit bid of $3.48 billion of DIP obligations for certain of Delphi’s assets on behalf of Delphi’s DIP lenders. Delphi is an international automotive parts supplier based in Troy, Michigan, and a debtor in Chapter 11 proceedings pending before Judge Robert Drain in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
National Amusements. We represented Bank of America, as administrative agent and collateral agent, for an out-of-court debt restructuring of National Amusements, a privately held media and entertainment company, involving $1.7 billion of previously unsecured debt, including $750 million of bank debt.
Syncora. We advised 23 financial institution counterparties holding credit default swap and financial guarantee exposure to monoline insurer Syncora Guarantee in connection with a comprehensive restructuring of credit default swap and financial guarantee obligations aggregating over $160 billion to remediate the Syncora’s policyholders’ surplus deficit. The transactions effectively commuted or restructured all of Syncora's $56 billion of CDS exposure and restructured or commuted in aggregate approximately $110 billion of par bonds insured.

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Areas of Experience

Investment Funds Litigation and Investigations

Bankruptcy Matters

Pre-Packaged and Out-of-Court Restructurings