Awards and Recognitions

Alan has been ranked by Chambers USA for more than a decade, is recognized in the “Hall of Fame” by The Legal 500 and has received the Lifetime Achievement Award by New York Law Journal. Recognized as a Band 1 practitioner by Chambers Global, Alan is praised as “a statesman of the Bankruptcy Bar whose senior experience shows in the quality of his work and  is known as “one of the most respected veterans of the industry.” Alan was also named in Lawdragon’s “500 Leading US Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyers,” he is recognized as a leading lawyer by IFLR1000 and he was chosen by his peers for The Best Lawyers in America in bankruptcy and creditor-rights law. He is one of only five practitioners in the country to be recognized as a “Most Highly Regarded Individual” by Who’s Who Legal for restructuring and insolvency.

Alan’s work has consistently received industry recognition. His work on Gulfport Energy’s chapter 11 cases was recently recognized as the “Corporate Turnaround (Large)” winner for The Turnaround Atlas Awards 2022. Alan’s role as U.S. counsel to EnQuest plc in connection with its $1.8 billion cross-border restructuring was recognized by The American Lawyer’s Global Legal Awards as “Global Finance Deal of the Year: Insolvency and Restructuring (U.K.),” and the previous year, his role as U.S. counsel to the Winding-up Board of Glitnir Bank hf in the former Icelandic bank’s chapter 15 case was recognized as “Global Finance Deal of the Year: Private Restructuring.” Alan’s work on the restructuring of Charter Communications was recognized as “Stand Out” (top tier) by the Financial Times’ “US Innovative Lawyers 2010.” In connection with his representation of the California Public Utilities Commission in the Pacific Gas & Electric Company chapter 11 case, The American Lawyer named Alan one of its Dealmakers of the Year in 2003.

Alan is also a prolific writer and speaker on industry topics. He contributes annually, with Paul, Weiss restructuring partner Elizabeth McColm, a chapter of the International Comparative Legal Guide (ICLG) To Corporate Recovery and Insolvency. Alan co-authors a similar contribution to the annual Restructuring & Insolvency publication by Getting the Deal Through and to Debt Restructuring published by Oxford University Press. He also co-authored, with Paul, Weiss restructuring partner Brian Hermann, the “USA” chapter of the inaugural edition of The Strategic View-Corporate Restructuring, published by the Global Legal Group.

Alan is a Conferee of the National Bankruptcy Conference, a non-profit, non-partisan organization formed in the 1930s to assist Congress in the drafting of major bankruptcy law amendments. He is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the International Insolvency Institute. Alan has also served as the Second Circuit Regent of the American College of Bankruptcy and was the Chair of the Committee on Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from 2005 to 2008. He mediates bankruptcy-related disputes and lectures on bankruptcy-related topics for local, national and international organizations.

COMPANY EXPERIENCE

• Madison Square Boys & Girls Club, Inc. in its restructuring efforts to address claims arising under the New York Child Victims Act
• Bumble Bee Foods, one of the world’s largest branded shelf-stable seafood providers, and its affiliates, as lead U.S. counsel in the successful going-concern sale of its businesses for $928 million through coordinated chapter 11 cases and Canadian restructuring proceedings
• A Greek shipping company in connection with its contingency planning strategy and the resolution of certain disputes with its stakeholders
• David’s Bridal, the nation’s leading bridal and special occasion retailer, in an out-of-court recapitalization transaction which provided for $55 million of new capital from existing lenders and the exchange of more than $275 million in existing term loan debt into new preferred and common equity securities
• Certain subsidiaries of CGG S.A. in their prenegotiated chapter 11 cases by which the company and its subsidiaries equitized approximately $2 billion of unsecured debt through concurrent restructuring proceedings in France and the United States
• Aluminum maker Noranda in its chapter 11 case
• U.S. counsel to EnQuest, the largest U.K. independent oil producer in the U.K. North Sea, in a restructuring of the company’s approximately $1.8 billion of debt obligations through proceedings in the United Kingdom and the United States
• Boart Longyear, a Utah-based global supplier of drilling services, drilling equipment and performance tooling, in its recapitalization by Centerbridge Partners, a New York-based private equity firm
• Restaurant franchisor Quiznos in its out-of-court restructuring and recapitalization
• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and its affiliates in their prepackaged chapter 11 cases involving the restructuring of over $3 billion in debt

CREDITOR-SIDE EXPERIENCE

• An ad hoc committee of unsecured noteholders in the prearranged chapter 11 cases of Gulfport Energy, an independent, natural gas-weighted exploration and production company and one of the largest producers of natural gas in the contiguous United States. Gulfport’s chapter 11 plan facilitated a comprehensive operational restructuring and discharged more than $1.2 billion of debt, resulting in the ad hoc committee receiving substantially all of the equity of the reorganized company
• An ad hoc group led by The Baupost Group, L.L.C. in acquiring more than $7.5 billion in claims against Westinghouse Electric Company LLC and its affiliates and subsequently negotiating the Westinghouse plan that centered on a $4 billion asset sale. Pursuant to the Plan, the ad hoc group took ownership of W Wind Down Co., the entity responsible for resolving all claims in the Westinghouse chapter 11 cases
• Certain funds advised or otherwise managed by Oaktree Capital Management in their capacity as holders of David’s Bridal’s term loans and unsecured notes in the negotiations, implementation and consummation of a prepackaged chapter 11 plan to right-size the company’s balance sheet and rationalize operations. Oaktree was the company’s single largest creditor
• Silver Point Capital, as postpetition and senior prepetition lender, in the restructuring of TridentUSA and its affiliates, the leading national provider of bedside diagnostic and related health care services, including its chapter 11 cases
• An ad hoc committee of senior secured noteholders of Tops Holding LLC and Tops Markets II Corporation, a leading upstate New York-based supermarket chain with approximately 170 locations, in Tops’ chapter 11 cases
• An unofficial committee of noteholders of Tidewater, a leading provider of offshore service vessels in the global energy industry, in a restructuring of the company’s approximately $2 billion of debt pursuant to a prepackaged chapter 11 plan
• The ad hoc committee of first lien debtholders of Texas Competitive Electric Holdings Company in the chapter 11 case resulting from the largest leveraged buyout in history
• U.S. counsel to the ad hoc committee of senior noteholders of Pacific Exploration and Production (n/k/a Frontera Energy), a multinational group of companies with substantial oil and gas holdings in South America, in a restructuring implemented through proceedings in Canada, the U.S. and Colombia
• Senior secured lenders to SquareTwo Financial Corporation, a purchaser and manager of charged-off consumer and commercial accounts receivables, in the company’s prepackaged chapter 11 case
• The second lien agent in the chapter 11 case of Sabine Oil & Gas Corporation, an oil and natural gas company engaged in the acquisition, development, exploitation and exploration of oil and natural gas properties onshore in the United States
• The senior secured lenders to Australian-based Nine Entertainment, an Australian media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media, in the restructuring of more than AU$2 billion of debt by means of a scheme of arrangement under which the lenders became the principal equity holders of the reorganized company
• Silver Point Capital, as DIP and senior prepetition lender agent, in the Hostess Brands chapter 11 case
• The senior lenders and chapter 11 plan sponsors of Aliante Casino
• Oaktree Capital in:
  • The chapter 11 cases of Excel Maritime and TMT Procurement, international shipping companies
  • as lender and plan sponsor in the chapter 11 case of Aleris International, a global producer and seller of aluminum rolled products
• Deutsche Bank and Crédit Agricole as agents for lending syndicates to Genco Shipping & Trading Limited, an international ship-owning company, in Genco’s chapter 11 case
• The unofficial committee of first lien noteholders of Exide Technologies, a multinational producer of stored energy products, in Exide’s chapter 11 case
• The unofficial committee of bondholders of Charter Communications, one of the largest cable service providers, in Charter’s unprecedented “reinstatement” plan under chapter 11, permitting the fourth largest cable television operator to emerge from chapter 11 with $8 billion less debt on its balance sheet and $2.5 billion of capital newly invested by our clients

OTHER REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE

• California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in the chapter 11 cases of PG&E Corporation and its primary operating subsidiary, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, California’s largest investor-owned public utility and the largest public utility in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy with a reported $71.4 billion in assets and $51.7 billion in liabilities. Alan also represented CPUC in PG&E’s previous bankruptcy proceedings, including related litigation and appeals, from which PG&E emerged in 2003
• Northwest Fiber, the purchaser, in the sale under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code of equity interests in certain of telecommunications provider Frontier Communications' subsidiaries that conduct Frontier’s business in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $1.4 billion
• The County of Westchester in the chapter 11 case of Standard Amusements, the would-be operator of the Playland amusement park
• The Winding-up Board of Glitnir hf in the former Icelandic bank’s chapter 15 case, which recognized and enforced Glitnir’s composition and related transactions under Icelandic law
• A state regulatory board in the chapter 11 reorganization of the New York Racing Association
• U.S. counsel to the UK Pensions Regulator

Alan chairs the Board of Trustees of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and also serves on the boards of the NYU School of Law Foundation, Bennington College, the Battery Conservancy, New Music USA and Tectonic Theatere Project. He received Catholic Renewal’s “St. Francis Service Award” in 2014 and UJA-Federation of NY’s “Professor Lawrence P. King Award” in 2018.