Brett Pearlman is counsel in the firm’s finance group, where he focuses on the credit opportunities practice. Brett is also a member of Ropes & Gray’s liability management cross-practice group. Brett focuses his practice on special situations direct lending, workouts, restructurings, and liability management transactions. He has extensive experience in various financing transactions, including asset-backed, unitranche, second lien, PIK-holdco, mezzanine, debtor-in-possession, and rescue financing. Brett works with sponsored and non-sponsored companies, leveraging his extensive network of sponsor, bank, direct lending, hedge fund, advisory, and intermediary relationships.
Prior to joining Ropes & Gray, Brett was a principal at an independent investment firm focused on providing financing solutions to middle-market companies. Before that, he served as a senior vice president at a global private equity firm, overseeing its private debt portfolio of over 150 companies and serving as a director on several portfolio company boards across various asset classes. Brett began his legal career as an associate in the banking and finance practice group of an international law firm headquartered in New York City.
Experience
- Representing Hooters of America, LLC, an iconic casual dining and sports entertainment chain, and its affiliated debtors in their pending chapter 11 cases involving the restructuring of approximately $380 million of funded debt. Hooters’ chapter 11 cases are the first whole business securitization filings of their kind and are supported by $40 million of debtor-in-possession financing and a Restructuring Support Agreement with near unanimous support from its key stakeholders.
- Represented an ad hoc group of bondholders of Exela Technologies, a business process automation company, in connection with the restructuring of the company’s $1.3 billion of funded debt and the provision of $185 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing ($80 million new money and $105 million roll-up loans).
- Represented Trinseo PLC and its subsidiaries in connection with a transaction support agreement to, among other things, (i) redeem its existing $115 million 2025 Senior Notes with the proceeds of a new super holdco term loan, (ii) enter into a new $300 million super-priority revolving credit facility and (iii) exchange at least $330 million of 2029 Senior Notes for new 2029 Second Lien Senior Secured Notes at a discount to par, providing at least $49 million of discount capture.
- Represented flooring company Empire Today in a liability management and financing transaction that received the support of more than 99% of the company’s lenders and enabled the company to obtain significant incremental liquidity and extend its existing debt maturities.
- Represented a group of noteholders in connection with the provision of $100 million of new first lien debt financing and the exchange of $420 million of convertible notes into second lien secured convertible notes with Luminar, a global automotive technology company, reducing Luminar’s debt by $148 million and providing it with a maturity extension.