Overview
Patrick Venter is a restructuring associate in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Experience
Representative Matters
NPC International — Representing a consortium of bidders led by Flynn Restaurant Group LP, the largest restaurant franchisee in the United States, in their stalking horse bid to purchase certain assets of NPC International, Inc. and its debtor affiliates through a Chapter 11 sale under section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. NPC, which operates more than 1,300 Pizza Hut and Wendy’s restaurants across the United States, filed voluntary Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in July 2020. Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement, which was approved by the Court in January 2021, the Flynn consortium will acquire over 925 of NPC’s Pizza Hut restaurants, approximately half of NPC’s 393 Wendy’s locations, and substantially all of NPC’s shared services assets for $552.55 million.
PES Holdings, LLC — Representing PES Holdings, LLC in its Chapter 11 cases initiated in July 2019, four weeks after a catastrophic explosion at PES’s Girard Point refining complex that resulted in a permanent shutdown of PES’s refining operations. Following this event, PES worked quickly to obtain access to $100 million of new DIP financing from its term loan lenders and negotiated consensual cash collateral usage with its working capital lender to finance its Chapter 11 cases. In Chapter 11, PES pursued a competitive sale process for the refinery site and a claim under its $1.25 billion property insurance policy. The process culminated in a $225.5 million equity sale to Hilco Redevelopment Partners under a Chapter 11 plan. The Chapter 11 plan and sale were approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in February 2020, less than 8 months after the catastrophic explosion.
RGN-Group Holdings, LLC — Representing RGN-Group Holdings, LLC, and approximately 100 other debtor affiliates (Regus) in their Chapter 11 cases filed in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Regus offers a network of on-demand office and co-working spaces, and ancillary service and support, to a variety of clients across a host of industries in over 1,000 locations in the United States and Canada.
Frontier Communications Corporation — Representing Frontier Communications Corporation and its 103 debtor subsidiaries in their prearranged Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. With over $17.5 billion in outstanding funded debt, Frontier’s Chapter 11 cases were among the largest filed in 2020. Frontier, together with its subsidiaries, have over 4 million customers, and 18,000 employees across 29 states. The company’s prearranged plan, which was confirmed in approximately four months, effected a balance sheet restructuring that will reduce the company’s outstanding funded debt by over $10 billion, carries broad stakeholder support and proposes unimpairment of all general unsecured creditors.
Parker Drilling Company — Representing 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.
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.
Energy Future Holdings Corp. — Representing Energy Future Holdings Corp. and its affiliates (collectively, "EFH") in their Chapter 11 cases pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. EFH — the largest generator, distributor and certified retail provider of electricity in Texas — is the product of the largest leveraged buy-out in history. With over $49 billion in liabilities and $36 billion in assets, EFH's Chapter 11 case is the largest operating Chapter 11 case ever filed in Delaware and one of the largest Chapter 11 cases filed in history.
Prior Experience
Summer Associate, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, 2015
Legal Intern, Eaton Vance, 2014
Consultant, FTI Consulting, 2011–2013
Summer Analyst, Barclays Capital, 2010
More
Thought Leadership
Publications
"Mergers, Acquisitions, and Buyouts," Wolters Kluwer (November 2019) (Contributing Editor)
“Hitting a Moving Target: Why Brick and Mortar Retail is Alive and Well,” New York Law Journal (2017) (Co-Author)
Bankruptcy Reform in Saudi Arabia: Bridging Islamic Law and Modern Bankruptcy? 34 The Bankruptcy Strategist (2016)
Whistleblowers’ Delight: An Evaluation of the Third Circuit Decision in Foglia v. Renal Ventures, 56 B.C. L. Rev. 195 (2015)
Seminars
James H.M. Sprayregen & Patrick Venter, The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same: The Unintended Consequences of Overregulation and the Growth of Financial Disintermediation, American Law Institute's Young Scholars Medal Conference, New York University School of Law (Keynote Speech, April 4, 2017)
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2016Massachusetts
- 2017New York
Courts
- United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Education
- Boston College Law SchoolJ.D.
cum laude
2016Managing Editor, Boston College Law Review - Villanova UniversityB.S., Economics & International Business
cum laude
2011Teaching Assistant (Intermediate Microeconomic Theory)