The Contributors Speak Up

Introducing the Creditor Coalition Contributors

This group of top restructuring lawyers, financial advisers, investment bankers, investors and law professors will examine timely financial and restructuring topics and share their insight, bringing light to complex and important issues.

Read on to meet the Contributors and the topics they'll tackle.

Rachel Ehrlich Albanese is a nationally recognized Partner and Chair of the U.S. Restructuring Practice at the global law firm of DLA Piper. She has more than 20 years' experience representing secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, equity holders, purchasers of distressed assets, and other parties in interest in a wide range of restructuring matters, including cases under chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, out-of-court workouts, and cross-border insolvency proceedings. In addition, she has been involved in the current restructuring efforts in Puerto Rico since the earliest days when she participated in dozens of meetings with U.S. Congress members and staff to develop the law that ultimately became PROMESA.

Ms. Albanese is a co-chair of the Women in Bankruptcy & Restructuring affinity group of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL). She was selected by Crain’s New York Business as a 2022 Notable Woman in Law and is recognized by Chambers and Partners for Bankruptcy and Restructuring in New York. She is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation and the Turnaround Management Association, among others. She is a contributing author of the Bloomberg Law: Bankruptcy Treatise.


Rachel Albanese

Philip Anker is Co-Chair of Wilmer Hale’s Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Practice Group. He is an experienced bankruptcy litigator and counselor who has practiced for more than 30 years in the field. Among other honors, he has been inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. Mr. Anker has been selected as one of the “Best Lawyers” in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law in Best Lawyers in America each year since 2005. In the 2020 edition, Best Lawyers in America named him "Lawyer of the Year" in the area of Litigation - Bankruptcy.  He is also listed in the 2012-2021 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business for his Bankruptcy/Restructuring work; the 2010-2021 editions of Benchmark Litigation, which have rated him as a “National Star” and “Top 10 Practitioner” for bankruptcy law; and in the 2020-2021 editions of Lawdragon as one of the nation's 500 leading bankruptcy lawyers.

Recent cases in which Mr. Anker has played a leading role include Boy Scouts, Grupo Aeromexico, Intelsat, Mallinkrodt, Sears, and Tribune.


Philip Anker

Mr. Feltman is a Partner in the Restructuring and Finance Group at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. In his cross-disciplinary practice, Mr. Feltman focuses both on acquisitions of leveraged entities in connection with in-court and out-of-court workouts and on the financing aspects of leveraged acquisitions generally, including negotiation, implementation and issuance of credit facilities and debt securities. In 2020, Mr. Feltman was recognized as a Law360 MVP in the bankruptcy area. His recent engagements include advising an ad hoc group of lenders in connection with the bankruptcy of Washington Prime Group and Travelport Ltd. in connection with various capital raise and financial restructuring transactions and related litigation.


Josh Feltman

Justin Forlenza is Senior Covenant Analyst at Covenant Review/Fitch Solutions. He was with Covenant Review from 2012 until 2018 and rejoined Covenant Review in August of 2019. He has practiced law at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and most recently at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. Mr. Forlenza has extensive experience with leveraged finance transactions, including the negotiation and execution of credit agreements and bond indentures, issues relating to secured transactions under Articles 8 and 9 of the UCC, LBO financings, and the analysis of complex stressed and distressed capital structures. He graduated from Cornell University in 2003 and from Fordham Law School magna cum laude in 2007.


Justin Forlenza

Elliot Ganz is the General Counsel and Co-Head of Public Policy at the Loan Sales and Trading Association, the industry’s premier platform for all participants in the rapidly evolving syndicated lending market. Since 2005 he has managed all legal issues and co-headed its government policy and advocacy efforts. In 2018 Mr. Ganz was appointed to the additional role of Chief of Staff, responsible for managing the LSTA’s staff and leading its strategic initiatives. Before joining the LSTA Mr. Ganz worked for three years at a Wall Street law firm followed by 22 years in senior legal positions at four major U.S. and international banks. He served as a member of the Committee on Financing Chapter 11 of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11. Mr. Ganz has supervised the filing of over 20 amicus briefs on important loan and bankruptcy-related cases, including three briefs supporting successful appeals to each of the New York Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of the United States.


Elliot Ganz

Mr. Heimowitz is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Creditor Rights Coalition. Mr. Heimowitz is the Founder and Managing Member of Coda Advisory Group, an independent advisory firm that specializes in providing advice to and advocating for parties-in-interest involved in restructurings and special situations. He also acts as an independent director for companies in distress, restructuring and bankruptcy. 

Prior to founding Coda, Mr. Heimowitz was a portfolio manager at Claren Road Asset Management, a long-short credit hedge fund owned by The Carlyle Group. Prior to Claren Road, he was a Managing Director, Head of Credit Special Situations, and Co-Head of the Distressed Trading Desk for Citigroup Global Capital Markets. 

He is a CFA Charterholder, an advisory board member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, a founding advisory board member of the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Restructuring Studies, and regularly publishes and lectures on U.S. and transnational insolvency matters. 


Marc Heimowitz

Sidney Levinson is Co-Chair of Debevoise & Plimpton’s Restructuring Group.  He has extensive experience advising a range of clients, including bondholders, secured lenders, debtors, trustees and creditors’ committees in large and complex restructuring and bankruptcy proceedings, along with out-of-court workouts and liability management transactions.  In addition, Mr. Levinson has served as lead trial counsel in a number of high-profile cases, including representing Hawaiian Airlines in obtaining an $80 million judgment (plus attorney fees of $3.9 million) against Mesa Air Group.   Mr. Levinson is a fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, previously served as a subcommittee co-chair for the ABA's Business Bankruptcy Committee, and is ranked as a leading restructuring lawyer by Chambers USA.  From 1992 until 1995, Mr. Levinson was a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice (Civil Division), specializing in bankruptcy and commercial litigation.  Recent cases in which Mr. Levinson has played a leading role include Guitar Center, Alpha Media, Barney’s, Hexion and Caesars Entertainment.


Sidney Levinson

Jim Millar is the co-leader of Faegre Drinker’s corporate restructuring team. Mr. Millar has more than 25 years of experience advising bondholders, acquirers and other participants in corporate restructuring and bankruptcy litigation. He regularly represents bondholders in Chapter 11 cases, enforcing their rights under bankruptcy law, creditors’ rights law and contract law. Bondholders value his ability to develop novel and effective strategies to pursue their rights against well-funded debtors or other stakeholders elsewhere in the capital structure. 

In the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Mr. Millar developed and advanced the legal theory under the Trust Indenture Act during his representation of a group of unsecured bondholders. Other law firms subsequently adopted his theory, which heavily influenced the outcome of the case on bondholders’ challenge to Caesar’s attempt to release guarantees of the bonds without their consent. On a related issue in a precedential case, Mr. Millar obtained a favorable reversal from the New York Court of Appeals on behalf of certain minority bondholders on a legal issue under an indenture that incorporated the Trust Indenture Act as a matter of contract. 


Jim Millar

Mr. Sandler is a member of the firm's Management Committee and Long-term Planning Committee, and serves as a co-Chair of the firm’s Committee Practice Group.

He has substantial experience representing debtors, equity and creditors’ committees, acquirers, fiduciaries, and other significant parties in interest in complex reorganizations and financially distressed situations, both in and out of court. While acknowledging that bankruptcy is often a viable business tool to manage liability, Mr. Sandler believes that it is a tool of last resort, and many of his company-side representations are out-of-court. His recent committee representations include Party City, Cineworld, Sungard, Ascena, J Crew, Ditech Holdings, Corsicana Bedding, Rockdale Marcellus, Tuesday Morning, Gymboree II, Payless I and II, Shopko, the Weinstein Company, Bon-Ton Department Stores, Woodbridge Group, BCBG Max Azria, Aeropostale, and Sports Authority. He is ranked among the nation’s top Bankruptcy/Restructuring attorneys by Chambers USA, which states that “he’s exceptionally good at what he does and is unbelievably hard-working” and that “he’s a superb bankruptcy lawyer.”


Bradford J. Sandler

Jennifer Selendy is a founding partner of Selendy Gay Elsberg. Ms. Selendy’s leadership has been recognized by Corporate Counsel, which named her 2020’s “Managing Partner of the Year,” and the New York Law Journal, which lists her among 2020’s "Distinguished Leaders." National Law Journal named Jennifer one of 2022's Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar, a small and highly selective list. Crain’s has twice named her one of the “100 Notable Women in Law.”

Ms. Selendy represents both plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes disputes. In her plaintiffs practice, she is increasingly called on to help clients in disputes related to so-called liability management transactions, such as uptiering transactions, when they are seeking to vindicate their rights as creditors by going to trial. Ms. Selendy also specializes in complex defense work and is frequently tapped for sensitive internal and governmental investigations into antitrust, financial misconduct, and employment-related matters. She has represented private equity and investment companies in precedent-setting litigation, represents renewable energy companies and related interests in cutting edge litigation aimed at protecting competition in power generation for the benefit of consumers, and has extensive expertise in bankruptcy disputes.


Jennifer Selendy

Paul Silverstein is a Partner and Co-head of the Business Practice Group of Hunton Andrews Kurth. He has served multiple terms as a member of legacy Andrews Kurth's Policy Committee, Executive Committee and head of its bankruptcy/corporate restructuring practice.

Mr. Silverstein is a seasoned expert in the bankruptcy/financial restructuring and distressed investing space.

His practice includes the representation of official and ad hoc creditors and stockholders committees, significant strategic and financial investors and debtors/issuers in complex Chapter 11 reorganizations and out-of-court restructurings. He also regularly represents post-reorganization litigation trusts and similar vehicles. He is experienced in the representation of purchasers and sellers of assets, claims and equity interests in distressed and special situations, both strategic and financial, and represents activist investors in both proxy contests and related matters. He has been profiled in multiple publications as a leading corporate restructuring lawyer.


Paul Silverstein

Clifford J. White III is the former head of the Justice Department’s United States Trustee Program (USTP), known as the “watchdog” of the bankruptcy system. Before retiring in 2022, Cliff served as the USTP’s Director for 17 years. During his tenure, the USTP implemented key provisions of the comprehensive Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Prevention Act of 2005 and the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019. He also developed new enforcement strategies to uphold chapter 11 requirements limiting executive bonuses, policing professional conflicts of interest and fees, and scrutinizing improper third-party releases and other controversial practices. Cliff received two Presidential Rank Awards, the highest awards given to career government senior executives, from President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. Cliff currently serves as Managing Director for Bankruptcy Compliance at American Infosource, a Texas-based financial technology firm that provides data management and business process services to the banking and lending industry.


Clifford J. White III

The views of our Contributors should not be attributed to their respective firms or the Creditor Rights Coalition. In addition, the Coalition may take positions as part of its Advocacy efforts that do not necessarily reflect the view of Contributors and should not be attributed to any Contributor.

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The Academics Speak Up on Purdue Pharma

Purdue Pharma is the gift that keeps on giving. This is our third installment on the twists and turns this case has taken through the Courts. You can read our first installment here, and our second here.

All bets came off the table when the Supreme Court decided to reshuffle the deck by taking on the appeal of the 2nd Circuit’s decision. Not only did SCOTUS take the unusual step of taking on this big ticket issue in BK cases but it also stopped the lower court’s decision in its tracks putting the breaks on the entire enchilada. We decided to consult with our expert Academic Contributors for our inaugural feature the Academics Speak Up to get their takes on the latest developments.

We are excited to bring you the varying perspectives of Prof. Tony Casey, Prof. Samir Parikh and Prof. Ralph Brubaker.

Read on, you won’t be disappointed.

Copyright © 2023 Creditor Rights Coalition. All rights reserved.

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