John R. Luze

Company Representations

• Learfield Communications, LLC ⁠— Representation of Learfield Communications, LLC and its affiliates, a leading media and technology company in the college sports market, in a nearly $1 billion out-of-court restructuring with unanimous support from Learfield’s existing lenders and equity sponsors. The transactions substantially delevered Learfield’s balance sheet and provided access to significant new money equity investments, strengthening Learfield’s financial and liquidity positions.
• Benefytt Technologies, Inc. — Representation of Benefytt Technologies, Inc. and certain of its affiliates (“Benefytt”) in their prearranged Chapter 11 cases filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Benefytt markets and sells Medicare and private health insurance products to individuals, policy administration platforms to insurance carriers, and technology systems to insurance agents. The widely-supported restructuring support agreement (“RSA”) contemplates restructuring approximately $606 million in funded debt. Benefytt expects to consummate the transactions set forth in the RSA to emerge from Chapter 11 on an expedited timeline.
• Envision Healthcare Corp. — Representation of Envision Healthcare Corp. and 216 of its affiliates in the commencement of pre-arranged Chapter 11 cases. Envision is a leading national medical group that employs or partners with more than 21,000 clinicians and provides care to patients across the U.S., with nearly 30 million patient visits each year. The debtors confirmed two Chapter 11 plans of reorganization (on account of its two credit silos) that resulted in a deleveraging of more than $7 billion, more than $2 billion in exit financing, and laid the groundwork for the operational separation of the debtors’ physician services and ambulatory surgery center business lines, all on a substantially consensual basis.
• Nautical Solutions, L.L.C. — Representation of Nautical Solutions, L.L.C. and its affiliate (together, “Nautical”) in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Headquartered in Cut Off, Louisiana, Nautical operates a fleet of offshore service vessels to provide support services in the Gulf of Mexico, Guyana, and Brazil. Only 37 days after filing for Chapter 11, Nautical successfully confirmed its joint prepackaged plan with the support of 100% of Nautical’s secured creditors and equity holders. Nautical emerged from Chapter 11 on February 24, 2023. The restructuring involved a reduction of approximately $115 million in senior secured indebtedness and the reinstatement of equity interests in Nautical.
• Altera Infrastructure L.P. — Representation of Altera Infrastructure L.P. and certain of its affiliates (“Altera”), a leading international midstream services provider to the oil and gas industry, in pre-arranged Chapter 11 cases filed in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Operating a fleet of 41 vessels, Altera supplies critical infrastructure assets to its customers primarily in offshore regions of the North Sea, Brazil, and the East Coast of Canada. Altera filed for Chapter 11 with a restructuring support agreement (“RSA”) that is widely supported by Altera’s equity sponsor, Brookfield, and a super-majority of its bank lenders. The RSA contemplates, among other things, addressing more than $1 billion of secured and unsecured holding company debt, $400 million of preferred equity, and $550 million of secured asset-level bank debt, and a comprehensive reprofiling of Altera’s bank loan facilities to better align cash flow with debt service obligations.
• IPC Systems, Inc — Representation of IPC Systems, Inc, a leading global provider of secure, compliant communications and networking solutions for the global financial markets, in a comprehensive out-of-court restructuring. The transaction reduced IPC’s leverage by over $400 million, extended its debt maturity schedule by 5 years, and provided $125 million of new capital. 
• Oasis Petroleum Inc. — Representation of Oasis Petroleum Inc. and its affiliates in prepackaged Chapter 11 cases filed in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to restructure approximately $2.3 billion in debt obligations. Oasis is a Houston, Texas based company that operates in the upstream and midstream oil and gas sectors. Oasis also operates a midstream business segment and holds a majority interest non-debtor subsidiary Oasis Midstream Partners LP, which is a publicly traded master limited partnership. The Chapter 11 plan equitizes more than $1.8 billion of unsecured debt and provides for committed DIP to exit financing.
• Ascena Retail Group, Inc. ― Representation of Ascena Retail Group, Inc. and its affiliates in their prearranged Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of Virginia. At the time of its filing, Ascena was a leading specialty retailer for women and girls fora collective of seven brands, including Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lou & Grey, Lane Bryant, Cacique, Catherines, and Justice, and over 2,800 stores, approximately 37,000 employees, and $1.6 billion in funded debt. Ascena entered Chapter 11 with a restructuring support agreement designed to preserve its going concern business and allowed it to engage in a marketing process that resulted in a sale of Catherines’ assets for $40.8 million, Justice assets for $71 million, and the Lane Bryant and Premium Brands’ assets, including Ann Taylor, LOFT, and Lou & Grey, for $540 million. Ascena ultimately confirmed its Chapter 11 plan with the support of its term lenders and general unsecured creditors.
• McDermott International, Inc. ― Representation of 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.
• Windstream Holdings, Inc., — Representation of 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.
• Gastar Exploration Inc. ― Representation of Gastar Exploration Inc., and its wholly-owned subsidiary Northwest Property Ventures LLC, in their prepackaged Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Gastar is a publicly-traded oil and natural gas exploration and production company headquartered in Houston, Texas with assets concentrated in the STACK shale play in Oklahoma. The company’s prepackaged restructuring proposes to address nearly $600 million in funded-debt and preferred equity obligations, including the elimination of more than $300 million in funded-debt and preferred equity obligations, and provides for $100 million in committed financing to fund the Debtors’ business in and upon emergence from Chapter 11.  
• Seadrill Limited ― Representation of Seadrill Limited and certain of its direct and indirect subsidiaries in their multi-jurisdictional restructuring of approximately $20 billion of contract and debt obligations. Seadrill is a leading global provider of offshore contract drilling services and employs nearly 4,000 individuals across 22 countries and five continents. Seadrill's pre-arranged Chapter 11 cases, one of the largest filings in 2017 based on asset size, resulted in the re-profiling of approximately $6 billion of secured debt, eliminated approximately $3.5 billion of unsecured bond and contractual obligations, and facilitated a capital investment of more than $1 billion. In the months preceding Chapter 11, Seadrill also consummated a series of ring-fencing transactions that successfully prevented its non-consolidated businesses from also having to commence Chapter 11 cases. Seadrill and its debtor subsidiaries confirmed their Chapter 11 plan with near universal consensus in approximately 7 months and emerged from Chapter 11 in less than 10 months.
• BCBG Max Azria Global Holdings, LLC ― Representation of BCBG Max Azria Global Holdings, LLC, and certain of its subsidiaries, in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. BCBG is a well-known and respected name in high-end women’s apparel and accessories and has historically operated more than 550 stores spread across all fifty states, Canada, Europe, and Japan. In 2018, the Turnaround Management Association recognized the successful restructuring of BCBG Max Azria Group, LLC with its “Large Company Turnaround of the Year Award.”
• Penn Virginia Corporation ― Representation of Penn Virginia Corporation in its prearranged Chapter 11 restructuring in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Company filed for Chapter 11 with a support agreement with all of its secured debt and a supermajority of its unsecured debt regarding a transaction that will reduce the company’s long term debt from approximately $1.2 billion to approximately $128 million. Penn Virginia is an independent oil and gas company engaged in the exploration, development, and production of oil, NGLs, and natural gas. The company’s operations are focused on oilfields primarily in the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas, with additional properties in the Granite Wash in Oklahoma and the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania.
• C&J Energy Services ― Representation of C&J Energy Services, a leading provider of well construction, well completions, well support and other complementary oilfield services to oil and gas exploration and production companies, in its prenegotiated Chapter 11 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. With nearly 5,000 employees, C&J services include directional drilling, cementing, hydraulic fracturing, cased-hole wireline, coiled tubing, rig services, fluids management services and other special well site services. C&J eliminated approximately $1.4 billion in debt from its balance sheet, substantially deleveraging its capital structure and strongly positioning the company for long-term success.
• Southcross Holdings LP ― Representation of Southcross Holdings LP and its subsidiaries (including Southcross Energy Partners, L.P., a master limited partnership), which provides gas gathering, compression, treating, processing and NGL fractionation and transportation services and had more than $1.4 billion in funded debt and preferred equity obligations. Southcross implemented the restructuring through a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the privately-held holding company―the first sponsor-backed prepackaged bankruptcy in the oil and gas industry. This 15-day bankruptcy was one of the shortest Chapter 11 reorganization cases in U.S. history.
• Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation ― Representation of Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation and its subsidiaries, an independent exploration and production company engaged in the acquisition, development and production of natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil, primarily in the States of West Virginia and Ohio, in its Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

Creditor and Investor Representations

• The Hertz Corporation ― Representation of Knighthead Capital Management, LLC and Certares Opportunities LLC in their successful $5.916 billion purchase of Hertz, one of the largest car rental companies in the world, out of its Chapter 11 cases, following a multi-month competitive auction. The transaction resulted in a recovery to existing equityholders of more than $8.00 per share, payment in full to all creditors, and an implied plan enterprise value of $6.929 billion.
• Ditech Holding Corporation ― Representation of an ad hoc committee of secured term lenders in the Chapter 11 cases of Ditech Holding Corporation in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Ditech was one of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers and ultimately addressed more than $2 billion in debt obligations through a number of court approved sale transactions. 
• Proserv Group ― Representation of Oaktree Capital Management and KKR Credit Advisors as first lien lenders in an out-of-court exchange transaction. Proserv, based in Aberdeen, Scotland, is an energy services company offering marine technology services across the full life-of-field to its global customers. The transaction resulted in the consensual equitization of more than $500 million in funded debt and a $50 million new capital injection.
• Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. ― Representation of an ad hoc committee of unsecured noteholders in an out-of-court exchange transaction. Northern Oil & Gas is a leading non-operating oil and gas exploration and production company with assets located in Bakken and Three Forks plays in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana. The exchange transaction addressed nearly $500 million in unsecured bond obligations through a conversion to new second lien secured notes and common equity.
• Bonanza Creek Energy, Inc. ― Representation of an ad hoc committee of unsecured noteholders in the prepackaged Chapter 11 cases of Bonanza Creek Energy, Inc. in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Bonanza Creek is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with assets located primarily in Colorado and Arkansas. Bonanza Creek’s prepackaged restructuring addressed its more than $1 billion in funded-debt obligations, including more than $800 million in unsecured note obligations.
• EIG Partners — Representation of EIG as the largest creditor in Intervention Energy’s Chapter 11 proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
• Smart & Final Stores ― Representation of grocery chain, a portfolio company of Ares Capital, in its acquisition of 33 grocery stores from affiliates of Haggen, Inc. in their Chapter 11 auction and sale process.