Recent Confirmation Developments

Fred B. Ringel is the co-chair of Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck, P.C.’s Business Finance and Restructuring Department in New York and has more than 35 years of experience representing virtually all constituencies in complex chapter 11 cases throughout the U.S. He also has trial experience litigating various bankruptcy issues.

Mr. Ringel recently completed a three-day bench trial leading to the successful resolution of a client’s multi-million dollar mortgage claim where the mortgagee claimed that the operative documents were forged. Recently, he completed a 10-day trial leading to the successful confirmation of three chapter 11 plans where title to several apartment buildings was contested by the former owners, who alleged that several of the operative documents, including the deeds, were forged and that the properties were subject to a constructive trust. He also confirmed the plan in West End Financial Advisors LLC, a difficult and complex chapter 11 case of 18 affiliated hedge funds that were involved a Ponzi scheme, and Sonix Medical Resources Inc., a group of diagnostic imaging centers in the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area.


Mr. Ringel has experience counseling secured lenders as acquirers in chapter 11 and 7 cases and has experience representing landlords in many of the large national retail chapter 11 cases in the last three decades. He represented more than 35 shopping center owners in the Kmart Corp. chapter 11 bankruptcy in Chicago and recently represented several bidders acquiring leases from A & P in its second chapter 11 case. He has also represented landlords in dozens of other national retail cases, such as Circuit City, Deb Shops, Linens n’ Things, Radio Shack, Brookstone and Coldwater Creek. He has also defended adversary proceedings seeking to recover preferences and fraudulent conveyances, and has experience representing investors in “Ponzi” scheme cases who have been sued by trustees seeking to “claw back” funds paid to them.

Mr. Ringel received his B.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.

Roopesh Shah is a senior managing director of Evercore’s Restructuring and Debt Advisory Group in New York, which he joined in 2017. He has worked on numerous restructuring assignments, advising companies, creditors and other parties on refinancings, exchange offers, consent solicitations, amendments, out-of-court restructurings, chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganizations, distressed mergers and acquisitions, ? 363 asset sales and cross-border restructuring issues. He also has been involved in numerous DIP and exit financings for companies in chapter 11 and several “rescue” financings for distressed clients.

Mr. Shah’s client engagements include work for Alcatel-Lucent, Arcapita, Associated Materials, ATU, California Resources, Catalina Marketing, Chesapeake Energy, Chicago Bridge & Iron, Claire’s Stores, Cobalt International Energy, Comverse Technologies, Edcon, Frontier Communications, hibu, Imtech, Isola, Keystone Automotive, MACH Gen, McDermott, Movie Gallery, Norske Skog, Pfleiderer, Sea Island, Select Staffing, Selecta, Sequana, Serta, Spectrum Brands, Syncreon, Targus, Toys “R” Us, Tronox, Vanguard Resources, Wastequip, Windstream, Zekelman Industries and The Yellowstone Club. Prior to joining Evercore, he was the global head of Goldman Sachs’ Restructuring Finance and Advisory Group, a director in the Restructuring Group of Miller Buckfire & Co. and a vice president in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of Wasserstein Perella & Co.

Mr. Shah received his B.S. in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, with concentrations in finance, marketing and information technology.

Robert D. Gordon is a partner in the firm’s Restructuring and Bankruptcy Practice. He represents and provides strategic counsel to distressed companies, significant creditor constituencies, and other parties-in-interest in complex and high-stakes corporate and public-sector restructurings. Currently, Mr. Gordon is serving as counsel to the Official Committee of Retirees in the restructuring proceedings for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, representing the interests of approximately 160,000 public-sector retirees, owed approximately $58 billion in connection with the funding of their accrued pensions.

Before joining the firm in 2017, Mr. Gordon served as special restructuring counsel to the Detroit Retirement Systems in the City of Detroit’s landmark Chapter 9 bankruptcy case. With extensive knowledge of bankruptcy law and how it can affect corporations and governmental entities, Mr. Gordon provides insight and informed guidance to parties confronting insolvency issues and distressed situations.

In addition to his central role in the public-sector bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the City of Detroit, Mr. Gordon has played key roles in numerous private-sector restructurings arising out of a broad range of industries, including automotive, real estate, gaming, hospitality, retail, manufacturing, aviation, and telecommunications. Among his clients are distressed companies, creditors’ and retirees’ committees, pension systems, secured and unsecured creditors, distressed-asset investors, lessors, trustees and liquidating agents. He is able to achieve superior results for his clients by simultaneously bringing creativity and pragmatism to engagements while deftly leveraging legal positions. He provides both effective transactional advice from a creditors’ rights perspective and skilled litigation representation, including in fraudulent transfer actions, preference actions, and other commercial and bankruptcy-related litigation, and has argued cases before numerous courts.

Mr. Gordon is also currently serving as a federal court-appointed receiver in a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action involving an international Ponzi scheme. He is also a member of the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers (NAFER).

Mr. Gordon has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America in the area of Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law every year from 2010 to the present. He is a frequent speaker on, among other topics, municipal bankruptcy, including its potential impact on retiree benefits. He is also a member of the firm’s Hiring Committee.

Aparna V. Yenamandra is a restructuring associate in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Her representative matters including representing Charming Charlie, a Houston-based specialty retailer focused on fashion jewelry, handbags, apparel, gifts and beauty products, in its chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware; Linn Energy, LLC and its affiliates in its chapter 11 cases filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas; Aspect Software Inc., a leading provider of software and technology solutions for customer care centers worldwide, in its prearranged restructuring; and Energy Future Holdings Corp. and 70 of its affiliates in their prearranged chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Ms. Yenamandra received her B.A. cum laude in economics and political science in 2009 from New York University and her J.D. magna cum laude in 2012 from Villanova University School of Law, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and an associate editor of the Villanova Law Review.

Christopher S. Sontchi is a judge on the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. He was appointed in 2006 and his current term will expire in 2020.

Sontchi served as a law clerk to Hon. Joseph T. Walsh in the Delaware Supreme Court. He was a member of the law firm of Ashby & Geddes, PA, where he represented a wide variety of nationally-based enterprises with diverse interests in most of the larger chapter 11 reorganization proceedings filed in Delaware.

Judge Sontchi obtained his Bachelor of Arts Phi Beta Kappa with distinction in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Later he earned his J.D. at the University of Chicago. Sontchi is also a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Widener University in Wilmington, Delaware.

Rachel C. Strickland is a partner with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York and co-chairs its Business Reorganization and Restructuring Department, where she advises distressed companies and financial and strategic investors in complex chapter 11 cases, bankruptcy acquisitions and out-of-court restructurings. She is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Over the past year,

Ms. Strickland has continued to represent a variety of clients, including an ad hoc group of noteholders of Remington Outdoor Co. in its chapter 11 restructuring, an ad hoc group of lenders of Windstream Holdings, an ad hoc group of senior lenders of HCR Manorcare, an ad hoc group of lenders of LBI Media, and senior lenders to Fallbrook Technologies Inc. in its chapter 11 restructuring. She also has been instrumental in a number of chapter 11 cases addressing valuation disputes, including LightSquared Inc. and Smurfit-Stone Corp., in both of which she negotiated successful settlements for her clients.

Ms. Strickland has been recognized by Turnarounds & Workouts for her lead role representing the debtors in the precedent-setting restructuring of Momentive Performance Materials, which was also featured in the publication’s listing of the most successful restructurings. She is ranked as a leading Bankruptcy and Restructuring Law practitioner in New York by Chambers USA (2009-18), and in 2018, she was invited to become part of the Thirtieth Class of Fellows of the American College of Bankruptcy.

Ms. Strickland received her B.A. in 1994 from Michigan State University and her J.D. in 1998 from New York University School of Law.