Andrew Devore focuses his practice on representing institutional investors, private equity funds, creditors committees, and other interested parties in financial restructuring and insolvency-related litigation. Andrew also has experience representing corporations and private equity sponsors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, out-of-court restructurings, and asset acquisitions.

Experience

  • Successfully represented the Mall of America in its petition for certiorari and on the merits at the U.S. Supreme Court in connection with lease assignment dispute arising out of the Sears bankruptcy, resulting in a unanimous opinion that Section 363(m) of the Bankruptcy Code is not a jurisdictional bar to appeals of sale and assignment orders.
  • Represents largest group of shareholder defendants, and serves as court-appointed liaison counsel for shareholders, in fraudulent conveyance litigation seeking to recover more than $1 billion in payments made in the leveraged buyout of The Jones Group (renamed Nine West). The actions involve more than a dozen separate cases that have been consolidated in the Southern District of New York.
  • Represents largest group of shareholder defendants, and serves as court-appointed liaison counsel for shareholders, in fraudulent conveyance litigation seeking to recover more than $8 billion in payments made in the leveraged buyout of the Tribune Company. The actions involve more than fifty separate cases that have been consolidated in the Southern District of New York, and resulted in precedent-setting rulings of the Second Circuit and the Southern District of New York regarding the scope of the Bankruptcy Code securities safe harbor.
  • Representing a New York based private equity firm and its limited partners in fraudulent conveyance litigation in Alabama in connection with a dividend recapitalization of a portfolio company.
  • Lead trial counsel for 1.5 lien indenture trustee for $250 million of notes issued by Momentive Performance Materials following remand by the Second Circuit in precedent-setting case on the determination of cramdown interest rates in chapter 11 bankruptcy.
  • Representing amici curiae law professors in connection with their submission to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the Purdue Pharma chapter 11 cases. 
  • Represented directors and officers in fiduciary duty litigation following bankruptcy of the portfolio company of a private equity firm.
  • Represented Elliott Management Corporation as the largest unsecured creditor in the chapter 11 cases of Energy Future Intermediate Holding Company LLC ("EFIH") and its affiliated debtors in litigation successfully opposing a proposed transaction for the sale of EFIH's equity interest in its regulated distribution subsidiary in favor of an alternative transaction.
  • Represented an ad hoc group of unsecured noteholders of GenOn Energy, Inc. and GenOn Americas Generation, LLC, wholesale power generation subsidiaries of NRG Energy, Inc., in litigation against NRG for fraudulent conveyance, usurpation of corporate opportunities, and other intercompany claims, and against certain former officers and directors for claims of breach of fiduciary duties, resulting in a prepetition settlement agreement with NRG and a pre-arranged bankruptcy filing to restructure approximately $2.5 billion of unsecured notes.
  • Represented the Indenture Trustee (both at trial and on appeal) for $4 billion of First Lien Notes in the chapter 11 case of Energy Future Intermediate Holdings LLC,. The bankruptcy case is the largest ever filed in the District of Delaware and is the seventh largest Chapter 11 case filed in history (by liabilities).
  • Represented the official committee of unsecured creditors in the chapter 11 case of Sabine Oil & Gas, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company which had approximately $2.6 billion in funded debt obligations. The cases involved complex legal issues relating to, among other things, an alleged fraudulent conveyance arising from a pre-bankruptcy merger between Forest Oil Corporation and Sabine Oil & Gas.
  • Represented an ad hoc group of holders of more than $40 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities issued by subsidiaries of Residential Capital, LLC in settling mortgage origination related claims for $8.7 billion, which settlement was litigated and ultimately incorporated into a consensual Chapter 11 plan (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.)
  • Lead trial counsel representing significant creditor in insurer rehabilitation proceedings of Ambac Assurance Corporation in Wisconsin state court.
  • Represented state agency in a $90 million products liability claim in federal district court against financially-troubled manufacturer of defective construction materials (D. Mass.).
  • Counsel to the representatives of the heirs of Howard Hughes in litigation in the Chapter 11 case of General Growth Properties, Inc., resulting in a $230 million recovery (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.).
  • Trial counsel for indenture trustee contesting contractual subordination of $330 million in debt in Chapter 11 proceedings of a casino gaming company (Bankr. D. Nev.).
  • Represented international restaurant franchisor as stalking horse bidder in acquiring more than thirty of its restaurants located across the U.S. from bankrupt franchisee to maintain continuous operations in expanding markets (Bankr. D. Del.).

Areas of Practice