Overview
Dan Latona is a restructuring partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He concentrates on all aspects of corporate restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings.
Experience
Representative Matters
Boston Medical Center: Represented Boston Medical Center, one of the oldest and most renowned nonprofit hospital systems in the U.S. (BMC), in its successful acquisition of two Boston-area safety net hospitals, Good Samaritan and St. Elizabeth’s, from bankrupt Steward Healthcare System LLC. The transaction was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas and closed on October 1, 2024.
Ideal Protein of America, Inc.: Represented Ideal Protein of America and its Debtor affiliates in their Chapter 15 proceedings in the United States and proceedings commenced in Canada under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). Ideal Protein, a Québec-based company, provides a comprehensive weight loss protocol and associated nutritional products that assist customers to lose weight and make sustainable lifestyle changes. Ideal Protein intends to use the Chapter 15 and CCAA processes to run a competitive sale and investment solicitation process to maximize enterprise value.
SiO2 Medical Products, Inc.: Represented SiO2 Medical Products, Inc. and certain of its affiliates in their prearranged Chapter 11 cases filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. SiO2 is a material life sciences company that holds 245 patents, including its flagship technology that combines the best of glass and polymers without the drawbacks of either. SiO2 filed for Chapter 11 with a restructuring support agreement supported by 100% of its first lien lenders. The restructuring support agreement contemplates a $60 million new-money postpetition financing facility and equitization of the first lien lender’s DIP claims and first lien claims in exchange for 100% of the equity of the reorganized company, subject to a marketing process seeking higher and better proposals. The proposed restructuring will reduce the Company’s secured debt by nearly $250 million.
Celsius Network LLC: Represented Celsius Network LLC and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Celsius is one of the largest and most sophisticated cryptocurrency-based finance platforms in the world and provides financial services to institutional, corporate, and retail clients across more than 100 countries. With over $5.5 billion in liabilities, Celsius is the largest cryptocurrency Chapter 11 filing to date.
Washington Prime Group Inc.: Represented Washington Prime Group Inc. and eighty-eight of its affiliates (“WPG”) in their prearranged Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. WPG owns, develops, and manages retail real estate across the United States, including enclosed and open air retail properties, with a portfolio comprising material interests in 102 shopping centers across the United States. As of the petition date, WPG had approximately $3.9 billion of funded debt.
Katerra Inc.: Represented Katerra Inc. and its subsidiaries in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Katerra is an innovative and eco-conscious construction company with facilities across the globe that develops, manufactures, and markets products and services in the commercial and residential construction spaces. Katerra commenced its Chapter 11 cases with the goal of facilitating a marketing and sale process for its assets to maximize value and creditor recoveries.
Form Technologies, Inc.: Represented Form Technologies, Inc., a leading global group of precision component manufacturers, in a $1.2 billion comprehensive recapitalization and debt exchange transaction that eliminated approximately $240 million of total funded debt, including full repayment of Form Technologies’ second lien term loan, partial repayment of the first lien term loan, and an amendment and 3.5-year maturity extension of the $733 million the company’s first lien revolver and term loan debt. The transaction was funded through the proceeds of a $300 million new money preferred equity investment from its existing equity holders and certain of its lenders.
Frontera Generation Holdings LLC: Represented Frontera Generation Holdings LLC and five of its affiliates in their prearranged Chapter 11 cases filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Frontera owns and operates the only U.S.-based power plant that sells all of its 526MW/year power production to the Mexican wholesale market. The restructuring, which had nearly-universal lender support, enabled Frontera to obtain $70 million of new liquidity through a DIP-to-exit facility, slash more than $850 million of its $944 million debt load, and pay its trade claims in full.
Central Security Group, Inc.: Represented Central Security Group, Inc., one of the nation’s largest providers of home and business security and automation, in an out-of-court debt-for-equity exchange that significantly improved the Company’s overall capital structure, eliminating approximately $250 million (more than 50%) of the Company’s funded debt and including a new $25 million revolving credit facility commitment. The out-of-court transaction was executed after the Company successfully solicited support from 100% of its first lien and second lien lenders.
Selecta Group B.V: Represented Selecta Group B.V (“Selecta”), which employs 10,000 employees, is the world’s largest provider of vending machines, coffee and convenience food distribution in over 475,000 points of service in 16 foreign countries. The Chapter 15 proceeding filed in the Southern District of Texas is part of a comprehensive restructuring strategy to deleverage Selecta’s balance sheet, increase liquidity, extend maturity dates on its revolver and its 3 tranches of senior secured notes and to change the governing law for its funded debt obligations from New York to UK law. The overall restructure involves out-of-court arrangements with the revolving credit facility lenders and liquidity facility lenders, a new equity investment by the private equity owner, a formal Scheme of Arrangement in the UK and a US Chapter 15 proceeding to implement the foreign proceeding in the United States.
Jason Industries, Inc.: Represented Jason Industries, Inc. and its subsidiaries in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Jason is a publicly-traded global industrial manufacturing company that provides mission critical components and manufacturing solutions—including brushes, polishing buffs, compounds, and seating products—to customers across a wide range of end markets, industries, and geographies. On June 24, 2020, Jason solicited and filed its prepackaged Chapter 11 cases with the support of over 87% of its first lien lenders under a restructuring support agreement. If approved, the prepackaged plan will deleverage Jason’s balance sheet by approximately $250 million and leave general unsecured claims unimpaired.
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.
Neiman Marcus Group LTD LLC: Represented Neiman Marcus Group LTD LLC and affiliates in their pre-arranged Chapter 11 cases. The Company successfully completed its restructuring of over $5.5 billion of funded indebtedness in under five months. The restructuring plan was confirmed in September 2020, eliminated more than $4 billion of debt and more than $200 million of annual cash interest expense, and preserved more than 13,000 jobs. Neiman Marcus is the first retailer with over $5 billion of debt to reorganize under Chapter 11.
Pier 1 Imports, Inc.: Represented Pier 1 Imports, Inc. and its subsidiaries in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Pier 1 is a publicly-traded omnichannel retailer specializing in home furnishings and décor with 923 stores in the United States and Canada.
Clover Technologies Group, LLC: Represented Clover Technologies Group, LLC (“Clover”), a provider of aftermarket management services for mobile device carriers and historically operated as a collector and remanufacturer of printer cartridges, in connection with its restructuring of $650 million of term loan indebtedness. As part of its comprehensive restructuring, Clover sold its printer cartridge remanufacturing business for over $200 million, acquired an additional company for synergies with the remaining mobile device business, and entered into a restructuring support agreement for the equitization of the vast majority of the term loan indebtedness.
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc.: Represented Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. and certain of its affiliates in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Deluxe is a leading content creation-to-distribution company that provides digital media services to Hollywood studios, independent filmmakers, television networks, online content producers, and brands. The Deluxe Chapter 11 cases were filed with a prepackaged plan of reorganization that will consensually reorganize Deluxe by exchanging its secured debt for equity in the reorganized company.
Sungard AS Capital, Inc.: Represented Sungard AS Capital, Inc. and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, in the fastest Chapter 11 case in history. Sungard AS obtained confirmation in less than 19 hours on May 2, 2019. In addition, Sungard AS emerged from Chapter 11 faster than any company in history—staying in Chapter 11 for less than 48 hours. Sungard AS, a provider of availability and recovery services, had approximately $1.26 billion in funded debt at the commencement of its Chapter 11 cases and deleveraged by over $900 million upon emergence.
NRG REMA LLC: Represented NRG REMA LLC and its direct subsidiaries in Chapter 11 cases filed in the Southern District of Texas that are jointly administered with the GenOn Chapter 11 cases. REMA is a wholesale power generation company headquartered in Dallas, Texas that owns or operates 15 power plants throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The REMA cases were filed with a prepackaged plan of reorganization that will consensually restructure three leveraged lease structures.
iHeartMedia, Inc.: Represented iHeartMedia, Inc. and certain subsidiaries, one of the world’s leading global multi-platform media, entertainment, and data companies, in their Chapter 11 restructuring. iHeart is the largest radio broadcaster in the United States and specializes in radio, digital, outdoor, mobile, social, live events, on-demand entertainment and information services for local and national communities. The Company had consolidated debts of over $20 billion and the Chapter 11 cases, which are the largest of 2018 based on outstanding debt, restructured over $16 billion of that debt. In connection with its restructuring, iHeart reached an agreement with holders of more than $11 billion of its debt and its financial sponsors, reflecting widespread support across the capital structure, regarding a comprehensive balance sheet restructuring that reduced iHeartMedia’s debt by more than $10 billion.
Toys“R”Us, Inc.: Represented Toys “R” Us, Inc. and several of its direct and indirect subsidiaries in one of the largest ever retail Chapter 11 filings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division. Following implementation of a strategy to effect a successful wind-down of operations in the United States and going concern sales and/or reorganizations of operations throughout the world, including Asia, led efforts to construct and implement global settlement agreements amongst all stakeholders and five distinct Chapter 11 plans.
GenOn Energy, Inc.: Represented GenOn Energy, Inc. and certain of its affiliates in connection with their prearranged Chapter 11 cases filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. GenOn is a wholesale power generation company headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, with a focus on operations in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States—primarily operating in Pennsylvania and Maryland—and in California. Through the Chapter 11 cases, GenOn will restructure approximately $2.5 billion in funded indebtedness.
Payless ShoeSource, Inc.: Represented Payless ShoeSource, Inc. and certain of its affiliates in Chapter 11 cases pending in the United States bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Payless is the largest specialty family footwear retailer in the Western Hemisphere with nearly 4,400 stores across more than 30 countries. Payless is using Chapter 11 to exit unprofitable store locations and implement a pre-arranged restructuring plan supported by 2/3 of its lenders that will reduce its approximately $830 million in funded debt by nearly 50%. Payless has also filed for recognition of the U.S. Chapter 11 proceedings under Part IV of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Clerk & Government Experience
Honors Legal InternUnited States Securities and Exchange Commission, Division of Enforcement2015
Prior Experience
PNC Bank, 2012–2013
JPMorgan Chase, 2009–2012
More
Thought Leadership
Publications
Note, Reversing Course: Strengthening Consumer Protections for Reverse Mortgages, 23 Elder L.J. 417 (2016)
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2016Illinois
Education
- University of Illinois College of LawJ.D.summa cum laude2016
Managing Editor, The Elder Law Journal
Rickert Award for Excellence in Legal Writing
J. Nelson Young Award for Excellence in the Study of Tax Law
CALI Award for Excellence in Civil Procedure and Corporate Reorganizations
- DePaul University, Kellstadt Graduate School of BusinessM.B.A., Financial Analysiswith Distinction2010
- DePaul UniversityB.A., Political Sciencewith Honors2004