Innovations in Financing Chapter 11 Cases from the Petition to the Effective Date

Jonathan W. Young is a partner with Locke Lord LLP in Boston and co-chairs the firm’s Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Insolvency Practice Group. He regularly advises investors, lenders, directors, equity sponsors and portfolio companies in connection with their rights and obligations relative to financial distress, insolvency and bankruptcy situations. He also advises trustees, receivers and other fiduciaries charged with reorganizing, restructuring or liquidating financially distressed entities.

Mr. Young handles a wide range of complex commercial litigation matters — at both the trial and appellate level — with a particular focus on insolvency, bankruptcy and secured lending issues. While he has handled engagements in a wide range of industries, he has experience in private equity, advertising and media, technology and telecommunications, life sciences, audit and accounting and insurance. Mr. Young served as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee from 2014-16. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third and Sixth Circuits.

Mr. Young has been listed in Chambers USA for Restructuring and Insolvency since 2013, The Best Lawyers in America for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/ Insolvency and Reorganization Law since 2021, Global Restructuring Review 100 since 2019, and Illinois Super Lawyers for Bankruptcy since 2009. He received his B.A. cum laude in 1986 from Yale University and his J.D. in 1990 from Northwestern University School of Law.

Angela M. Libby is a restructuring partner with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP in New York, where she advises debtors, creditors, banks, hedge funds, lenders, asset-purchasers and other strategic parties in a wide range of corporate restructuring matters, including prepackaged and traditional bankruptcies, out-of-court workouts, debtor-in-possession and exit financing transactions, asset sales, bankruptcy litigation, cross-border insolvencies and liability-management transactions.

A 2019 ABI “40 Under 40” honoree, Ms. Libby was named a 2021 “Rising Star” in energy by Law360, and Turnarounds & Workouts listed her among 2020’s “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers.” In addition, she was one of only three recipients nationwide of the 2019 IFLR “US Rising Star Award” and was featured in Global Restructuring Review’s inaugural “Women in Restructuring” report.

Ms. Libby received her A.B. in history and religion from Dartmouth College and her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was an AnBryce Scholar.

Mark B. Joachim is a shareholder with Polsinelli in Washington, D.C., where he focuses on acquisition, recapitalization and other leveraged financings; rescue financings; cash-flow and asset-based financings; debtor-in-possession, exit and cross-border financings; multitranche, unitranche and mezzanine financings; and restructurings, workouts and bankruptcies. He has more than 25 years of experience representing clients on complex financing arrangements.

In the restructuring arena, Mr. Joachim regularly represents distressed businesses, boards of directors, special committees, independent directors, debtor-in-possession lenders, distressed-debt investors, official committees, and ad hoc groups of creditors in connection with bankruptcy proceedings and out-of-court restructurings. His background includes representing first- and second-lien senior lenders, mezzanine investors, and equity sponsors and borrowers in senior debt, mezzanine and private-equity financing arrangements. He has successfully closed dozens of leveraged finance transactions for lenders utilizing cash-flow, asset-based and hybrid structures.

Mr. Joachim is a member of the Turnaround Management Association and is an associate editor of the ABI Journal. He received his B.A. in 1989 in political science and philosophy from Stony Brook University and his J.D. in 1992 with distinction from Hofstra University School of Law, where he is managing editor of the Hofstra Law Review.

Barbara J. Houser is the chief bankruptcy court judge for the Northern District of Texas. Judge Houser was sworn in by Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King as the first female bankruptcy judge in the Northern District on January 20, 2000.

Upon graduation from law school, Judge Houser joined Locke, Purnell, Boren, Laney & Neeley in Dallas and became a shareholder in 1985. She joined Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay PC in 1988 as the shareholder in charge of the Dallas office and remained there until she was sworn in as a bankruptcy judge on Jan. 20, 2000.

Judge Houser was named President-Elect of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, her term began on Oct. 21, 2009.

Judge Houser was born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in 1954 and was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1978. She received her B.S. degree with honors in 1975 from the University of Nebraska and her law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1978.

William L. Wallander is a partner and practice group leader of the Restructuring & Reorganization Practice Group of Vinson & Elkins LLP in Dallas, and he has more than 20 years of experience in complex restructuring and reorganizations across a broad spectrum of clients and industry lines. He represents debtors, agents and lending groups, bondholder and noteholder groups, funds and committees, and has also served as an expert witness in bankruptcy court in connection with class-action securities litigation. His industry experience includes aerospace, agriculture, chemicals, commodities, construction, defense, energy (upstream, midstream, downstream, renewables), derivatives, financial services, health care, hotel, legal, manufacturing, mining, mortgage finance, power, public finance, commercial real estate, retail, shipping, technology and transportation.

Mr. Wallander is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas’s Bankruptcy Section (for which he serves as chair-elect), the New York Bar Association and the Dallas Bar Association’s Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section, ABI, the Texas Bank Association, the Texas Bar College and the Turnaround Management Association. He is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, a Life Fellow of the Dallas Bar Foundation, and a member of the Chancellor’s Council and Littlefield Society of the University of Texas.

Mr. Wallander is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Tenth Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, Western and Southern Districts of Texas and the District of Arizona. He has been listed in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, Texas Super Lawyers, Euromoney and Who’s Who Legal in Texas for insolvency and reorganization law.

Mr. Wallander received his B.A. magna cum laude in political science and economics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1984 and his M.B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Phoenix in 2001.