Neda Davanipour

Lakeland Tours, LLP — Represented Lakeland Tours, LLP d/b/a WorldStrides (“WorldStrides”) and certain of its affiliates in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. WorldStrides is a provider of educational travel experiences both domestically and abroad and filed for Chapter 11 to restructure more than $768 million of funded indebtedness after the worldwide shutdown of travel due to COVID-19 negatively impacted their businesses during their peak tour operating season.

APC Automotive Technologies Intermediate Holdings, LLC — Represented APC Automotive Technologies Intermediate Holdings, LLC and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. APC is a leading supplier of undercar replacement parts in the automotive aftermarket and the only true full-line underbody supplier for brake, chassis, and exhaust replacement parts. Following entry into a restructuring support agreement with its key stakeholders, APC commenced its Chapter 11 cases with a prepackaged plan of reorganization that will reduce its more than $430 million in indebtedness by $290 million by exchanging its term loan debt for equity.

Akorn, Inc. — Represented Akorn, Inc. and certain subsidiaries (“Akorn”), a specialty generic pharmaceuticals company with approximately $861.7 million of funded indebtedness, in their Chapter 11 cases filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

McDermott International, Inc. — Represented McDermott International, Inc. and 225 of its subsidiaries and affiliates, including 107 foreign domiciled entities, in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of Texas. McDermott is a premier, global upstream and downstream engineering, procurement, construction, and installation company and employs over 42,000 individuals across 54 countries and six continents. McDermott’s prepackaged Chapter 11 cases were confirmed in less than 60 days and contemplated a transaction that re-equitized the company, deleveraged over $4 billion of funded debt, preserved an unprecedented $2.4 billion in prepetition letters of credit, left trade claims unimpaired, and included a sale of McDermott’s Lummus technology business for $2.725 billion. McDermott emerged from Chapter 11 only five months after the petition date.

Furie Operating Alaska, LLC — Represented private equity / creditor investment fund in connection with a term loan facility and debtor in possession financing facility in the Chapter 11 cases of Furie Operating Alaska, LLC, Cornucopia Oil & Gas Company, LLC, and Corsair Oil & Gas LLC.

Windstream Holdings, Inc., — Represented Windstream Holdings, Inc., and its debtor subsidiaries in their Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Windstream is a leading provider of advanced network communications, technology, broadband, entertainment and security solutions to consumers and small businesses in 18 states. In bankruptcy, Windstream commenced litigation to recharacterize a $3.5 billion spin-off and master lease of certain telecommunications network assets. That litigation resulted in an innovative settlement that provided over approximately $1.2 billion in net present value and billions of dollars of improvement to Windstream’s telecommunications infrastructure. Windstream also confirmed a Chapter 11 plan or reorganization that addresses more than $5.6 billion in funded debt obligations, provides for a $750 million equity rights offering, and positions Windstream to achieve its long-term goals.

Parker Drilling Company — Represented Parker Drilling Company and certain of its affiliates in connection with their prearranged Chapter 11 restructuring in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Parker is a leading international provider of contract drilling and drilling-related services and rental tools. Parker, together with its non-debtor affiliates, has operations in approximately 19 countries worldwide and employs over 2,400 employees. Parker’s prearranged plan of reorganization carries broad stakeholder support and proposes to reduce Parker’s funded-debt obligations by approximately $375 million and provide Parker with $95 million in fully-committed new equity capital upon emergence from Chapter 11.  

Westmoreland Coal Company — Represented Westmoreland Coal Company and certain of its affiliates (collectively, “Westmoreland”) in their Chapter 11 proceedings before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Westmoreland is the sixth largest North American coal producer, maintaining domestic coal operations in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Texas, New Mexico, and Ohio, and Canadian coal operations in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. At the time the cases were filed, Westmoreland had funded debt obligations of approximately $1.4 billion. Westmoreland is pursuing a sale of its mining operations and commenced its Chapter 11 cases with a restructuring support agreement entered into with a substantial majority of its key lender constituents.

Cenveo, Inc. — Represented Cenveo, Inc. and its domestic subsidiaries in their prearranged Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Cenveo, Inc. is a leading global provider of print and related resources headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut with a worldwide distribution platform. Cenveo commenced its Chapter 11 restructuring in connection with its entry into a Restructuring Support Agreement with noteholders representing over 50% of its first lien debt and related agreements with certain of its prepetition secured creditors to provide up to $290 million in debtor-in-possession financing. These agreements permitted Cenveo to expeditiously complete its reorganization.

Philadelphia Energy Solutions — Represented PES Holdings, LLC in its prepackaged Chapter 11 restructuring in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Headquartered in Philadelphia, PES owned and operated the largest oil refining complex on the U.S. Eastern seaboard. The refining complex, which spans 1,300 acres and has capacity to refine 335,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was in continuous operation since the 1860s. PES’s prepackaged plan of reorganization carried universal stakeholder support and commitments for over $260 million of new capital, and provided PES with substantially reduced debt service obligations upon emergence. PES obtained confirmation of its plan in March 2018.

EV Energy Partners, L.P. — Represented EV Energy Partners, L.P., and certain affiliates in their prepackaged Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Headquartered in Houston, EVEP is a master limited partnership engaged in acquiring, producing and developing oil and natural gas properties with approximately $640 million in funded debt obligations at the time of filing. Before filing for chapter 11 to implement its restructuring, the company negotiated a restructuring support agreement with 100 percent of the lenders under its reserve-based revolving credit facility and holders of approximately 70 percent of its unsecured notes, locking in support for a comprehensive restructuring of the company’s balance sheet.

Summer Associate, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, New York, 2016