Restructuring Litigation

Akin represents clients in litigation involving complex restructurings, including bankruptcy matters and other situations involving stressed and distressed companies. Our litigators work seamlessly with our financial restructuring and special situations practices to advise clients in connection with a broad range of litigation scenarios.

Akin’s restructuring litigation practice has significant experience handling bankruptcy adversarial proceedings and insolvency litigation. We appear frequently in courts across the country on behalf of both debtors and creditors, including official creditors’ committees, ad hoc committees and individual creditors, such as investment funds and institutional investors.

Our restructuring litigation team is nimble and experienced in tackling fast-moving cases that often require quick analyses of complicated capital structures, novel legal issues, financial transactions, expedited discovery and contested hearings and trials.

We have represented clients successfully in numerous contentious situations, including claims allowance and estimation, interpretation and enforcement of financial instruments, contested confirmation and section 363 sale hearings, fraudulent conveyance, preference and clawback actions, breach of fiduciary duty actions and valuation disputes.

Our experience encompasses all of the key jurisdictions in the United States, and extends to bankruptcy court appeals in district courts, circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Representative matters

Chesapeake Energy: Counsel to Franklin Advisors in the chapter 11 restructuring of $9 billion in liabilities of Chesapeake Energy, the second largest producer of natural gas in the United States, including a contested valuation proceeding in connection with plan confirmation.
Dean Foods: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Southern Foods Group LLC formerly d/b/a Dean Foods, a food and beverage company and the largest processor and direct-to-store distributor of fresh fluid milk and other dairy products in the United States, including in connection with a contested sale hearing and investigation into potential estate causes of action.
First Energy: Counsel to the company, an electric utility that services roughly one million residential, commercial and industrial customers, in connection with contested and litigated aspects of its chapter 11 restructuring.
Nine West Holdings: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Nine West Holdings Inc. in connection with multibillion-dollar claims for breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent conveyance and illegal stock repurchases and dividends against pre-petition board, sponsor and lenders arising from take-private leveraged buyout transactions.
Purdue Pharma: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Purdue Pharma LP, the maker of opioid-based drug OxyContin, including in connection with claims asserted by states, municipalities, Native American tribes, hospitals, insurance carriers, personal injury plaintiffs, putative plaintiff classes and others relating to Purdue’s sale and marketing of OxyContin, as well as potential estate claims for fraudulent conveyance and breach of fiduciary duty, among others.
Sanchez Energy: Counsel to the company, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production, in connection with contested and litigated aspects of its chapter 11 restructuring.
Sears: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 restructuring of $5.6 billion in liabilities of Sears involving a contested sale hearing, as well as counsel to the litigation trust in connection with an investigation and prosecution of fraudulent transfer, breach of fiduciary duty and other claims.
Travelport: Counsel to an ad hoc group of secured term loan lenders of Travelport Worldwide Ltd., a technology and payment solutions provider for the travel industry, in connection with New York state court fraudulent transfer litigation.
Tribune: Counsel to the Tribune Litigation Trustee, who asserted innovative claims against officers and directors and expansive fraudulent transfer claims to clawback billions of dollars in payments made to thousands of former shareholders, ultimately achieving a landmark $200-million settlement with the directors and officers, and more than 700 additional settlements with former shareholders of Tribune.

Our experience encompasses all of the key jurisdictions in the United States, and extends to bankruptcy court appeals in district courts, circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Representative matters

Chesapeake Energy: Counsel to Franklin Advisors in the chapter 11 restructuring of $9 billion in liabilities of Chesapeake Energy, the second largest producer of natural gas in the United States, including a contested valuation proceeding in connection with plan confirmation.
Dean Foods: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Southern Foods Group LLC formerly d/b/a Dean Foods, a food and beverage company and the largest processor and direct-to-store distributor of fresh fluid milk and other dairy products in the United States, including in connection with a contested sale hearing and investigation into potential estate causes of action.
First Energy: Counsel to the company, an electric utility that services roughly one million residential, commercial and industrial customers, in connection with contested and litigated aspects of its chapter 11 restructuring.
Nine West Holdings: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Nine West Holdings Inc. in connection with multibillion-dollar claims for breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent conveyance and illegal stock repurchases and dividends against pre-petition board, sponsor and lenders arising from take-private leveraged buyout transactions.
Purdue Pharma: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Purdue Pharma LP, the maker of opioid-based drug OxyContin, including in connection with claims asserted by states, municipalities, Native American tribes, hospitals, insurance carriers, personal injury plaintiffs, putative plaintiff classes and others relating to Purdue’s sale and marketing of OxyContin, as well as potential estate claims for fraudulent conveyance and breach of fiduciary duty, among others.
Sanchez Energy: Counsel to the company, an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production, in connection with contested and litigated aspects of its chapter 11 restructuring.
Sears: Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 restructuring of $5.6 billion in liabilities of Sears involving a contested sale hearing, as well as counsel to the litigation trust in connection with an investigation and prosecution of fraudulent transfer, breach of fiduciary duty and other claims.
Travelport: Counsel to an ad hoc group of secured term loan lenders of Travelport Worldwide Ltd., a technology and payment solutions provider for the travel industry, in connection with New York state court fraudulent transfer litigation.
Tribune: Counsel to the Tribune Litigation Trustee, who asserted innovative claims against officers and directors and expansive fraudulent transfer claims to clawback billions of dollars in payments made to thousands of former shareholders, ultimately achieving a landmark $200-million settlement with the directors and officers, and more than 700 additional settlements with former shareholders of Tribune.