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Conor McNamara’s practice focuses on all aspects of corporate restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings, including advising public and private companies, boards, financial sponsors, and distressed investors in complex out-of-court liability management transactions, distressed acquisitions, and in-court chapter 11 proceedings. Conor’s experience spans a broad range of industries, including oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, metals & mining, industrials, retail, and trucking.
Experience
- Represented Shoes For Crews, a leading producer of non-slip shoes, in a sale to a group of its secured lenders through voluntary chapter 11 proceedings and in obtaining approximately $30 million in DIP financing from the secured lenders acquiring the business.
- Represented Yellow Corporation and certain of its subsidiaries (“Yellow”) in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. With its family of brands, including YRC, Reddaway, Holland, and Yellow Logistics, Yellow was a storied trucking and logistics company with a 100-year history and one of the largest less-than-truckload networks in North America. Yellow entered Chapter 11 with approximately $1.2 billion in prepetition funded debt. Yellow secured a $1.525 billion stalking horse bidder for its owned real estate assets and, through its Chapter 11 cases, conducted a marketing and sale process for some or all of its real estate and rolling stock assets, followed by an orderly liquidation of any remaining assets.*
- Represented Carlson Travel, Inc. and 37 of its affiliates (“CWT”) in the fastest cross-border prepackaged restructuring transaction to date. On November 12, 2021, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas entered an order confirming CWT’s prepackaged chapter 11 plan of reorganization, just 18 hours after commencing bankruptcy proceedings. CWT is a leader in business travel management with over 12,000 employees and operations in 140 countries and territories around the world. As a result of the restructuring, CWT eliminated almost $900 million of its $1.6 billion of debt, secured access to $775 million of exit facilities and a $350 million equity investment, and preserved the entirety of its worldwide employee base.*
- Represented Le Tote, Inc., Lord & Taylor LLC, and their affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Le Tote, an eight-year-old venture-backed fashion rental subscription service, acquired the 193-year-old department store chain Lord + Taylor from Hudson’s Bay Company in late 2019. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the secular decline in traditional retail, significantly constrained the Company’s liquidity. The Company used the Chapter 11 process to pursue value- maximizing transactions for both the Le Tote and Lord + Taylor businesses.*
- Represented Denbury Resources Inc. and 17 of its affiliates in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Denbury is an independent oil and natural gas company headquartered in Plano, Texas, with onshore production and development activities in the Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountains regions. Denbury is the only United States-based public company of scale with a primary focus on sustainable carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery. With approximately $2.5 billion in funded debt, Denbury entered bankruptcy with a Restructuring Support Agreement that carries broad creditor support and provides for a comprehensive financial restructuring that will equitize all $2.1 billion of Denbury’s notes and committed debtor-in-possession and exit financing from Denbury’s existing lenders.*
- Represented Javelin Oil & Gas, LLC in connection with the Sanchez Energy Corporation bankruptcy and the restructuring of certain midstream contracts and related litigation.*
- Represented Akorn, Inc. and certain subsidiaries (“Akorn”), a specialty generic pharmaceuticals company with approximately $861.7 million of funded indebtedness, in their Chapter 11 cases filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.*
- Represented Sheridan Holding Company I, LLC and certain affiliates in the first one-day Chapter 11 case in Texas history in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Sheridan I obtained confirmation of its prepackaged Chapter 11 plan of reorganization by video conference on March 24, 2020, one day after Sheridan I filed for Chapter 11. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Sheridan I is the first of three series of Sheridan oil and natural gas investment funds. Sheridan I’s prepackaged equitization restructuring eliminated approximately $470 million of funded debt and left general unsecured creditors unimpaired.*
- Represented Sheridan Holding Company II, LLC, and certain affiliates in their prepackaged Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Sheridan II is the second of three series of Sheridan oil and natural gas investment funds. Sheridan II’s prepackaged restructuring addressed over $1.1 billion of funded debt obligations through an equitization which had near universal creditor support and left general unsecured creditors unimpaired.*
- Represented One Call Corporation and certain of its affiliates in connection with their out-of-court restructuring. One Call is a leader in ancillary services for the workers’ compensation industry. The restructuring transaction reduced One Call’s funded debt through a consensual equitization of nearly $1 billion of junior debt, reduced its annual interest expense by approximately $90 million, and eliminated all near-term maturities. The restructuring was facilitated by a $375 million investment led by existing lenders KKR and GSO Capital Partners.*
- Represented Blackhawk Mining LLC and its affiliates in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Blackhawk is a leading metallurgical coal producer based in Lexington, Kentucky, and has operations primarily in West Virginia and Kentucky. Blackhawk employs more than 2,800 employees. Blackhawk entered Chapter 11 to implement a prepackaged plan of reorganization that will eliminate approximately $650 million of the Company’s nearly $1.1 billion in prepetition funded debt.*
- Represented TPG Capital, L.P. and Leonard Green and Partners, L.P. as stockholders and Board directors in Savers, LLC and its affiliates’ out-of-court deleveraging transaction.* Savers is a for-profit, thrift retailer that offers a wide range of clothing, accessories, and household goods in its stores across the United States, Canada, and Australia. The transaction resulted in the consensual, out-of-court equitization of $300 million in funded debt and refinancing of $700 million in secured debt, and an equity investment of $165 million.*
- Represented Things Remembered, Inc. and its affiliates, one of the nation’s leading multi-channel personalized apparel and accessory retailers, in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. As of its Chapter 11 filing, Things Remembered operated approximately 420 stores and kiosks in the U.S. and Canada. Things Remembered sold its go-forward business to a strategic buyer that preserves its online business, up to 1,400 jobs, and approximately 178 brick-and-mortar stores.*
- Represented American Tire Distributors, Inc., one of the largest independent suppliers of replacement tires, in its prearranged Chapter 11 cases. The restructuring of American Tire’s approximately $2.6 billion in funded debt includes a three-year maturity extension and conversion of approximately $1.1 billion of bonds to equity. Existing equity holders are to receive 5% of the new equity, plus warrants for additional equity. The restructuring has the support of a majority of all holders of funded debt and leaves general unsecured creditors unimpaired.*
*Prior to joining Ropes & Gray