Overview
Alex Warso is a restructuring associate in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Experience
Representative Matters
- Navient Solutions LLC ― Represented Navient Solutions LLC in securing dismissal of an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding filed in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Navient is a leader in education loan management and business processing solutions for education, healthcare, and government entities. The Bankruptcy Court dismissed the involuntary case just two weeks after it commenced.
- Covia Holdings Corporation ― Representing Covia Holdings Corporation and certain of its affiliates in connection with Covia’s prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Covia provides diversified mineral-based and material solutions for global energy and industrial markets. As of its Chapter 11 filing, Covia’s funded debt totaled approximately $1.6 billion, including approximately $1.56 billion in secured term loan indebtedness. Prior to filing for Chapter 11 protection, Covia entered into a restructuring support agreement (RSA) with an ad hoc term lender group that collectively holds a majority of Covia’s term loan indebtedness that lays the groundwork for a comprehensive financial and operational restructuring of Covia that will reduce its go-forward leverage and fixed costs by more than $1 billion through a partial equitization of Covia’s prepetition term loan indebtedness and a strategic rationalization of its railcar fleet and distribution terminal network.
- Whiting Petroleum Corporation ― Representing Whiting Petroleum Corporation and certain of its affiliates (collectively “Whiting”) in connection with Whiting’s prearranged Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Whiting is a Denver-based publicly traded independent exploration and production company with an oil focused asset base, employing approximately 500 employees and with funded debt of approximately $3.4 billion as of the Chapter 11 filing. Whiting entered into a restructuring support agreement with its unsecured noteholders, which contemplated a Chapter 11 plan that would provide 97% of the reorganized equity to noteholders and other holders of general unsecured claims, while still providing a recovery to existing equityholders in the form of the remaining 3% of reorganized equity. Through the deal reached with Whiting’s lenders and noteholders, Whiting will delever its balance sheet by eliminating over $2.7 billion of funded debt.
- Pier 1 Imports, Inc. ― Representing 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.
- 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.
- Z Gallerie, LLC ― Representing Z Gallerie, LLC, a leading specialty retailer focused on fashion and art-conscious home décor with retail locations across the United States and a significant e-commerce platform, in its Chapter 11 case in Delaware.
- EXCO Resources, Inc. — Representing EXCO Resources, Inc. in its Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. EXCO Resources, Inc. is an oil and natural gas exploration, exploitation, acquisition, development and production company headquartered in Dallas, Texas with principal operations in Texas, North Louisiana and the Appalachia region. EXCO listed approximately $1.4 billion of funded debt obligations at the time of filing.
- Gastar Exploration Inc. ― Represented 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.
Credit, Sponsor and Investor Matters
- I Squared Capital Advisors (US) LLC (“I Squared”) ― Representing I Squared in connection with its $2.13 billion purchase of the infrastructure business of GTT Communications, Inc. and its affiliates (“GTT”), and GTT’s subsequent prepackaged Chapter 11 cases. I Squared entered into a restructuring support agreement with GTT and its creditor groups to consummate the infrastructure business sale, with distribution of proceeds and prepackaged Chapter 11 cases to restructure GTT’s balance sheet.
- Boart Longyear ― Represented Centerbridge Partners in connection with the reorganization of Boart Longyear Limited and its subsidiaries, an Australian publicly-traded Centerbridge portfolio company, pursuant to Australian schemes of arrangement and corresponding U.S. Chapter 15 cases. One of the world’s leading providers of drilling services, drilling equipment, and performance tooling for mining and drilling operations, the company resolved its commodities and COVID-19-driven balance sheet issues by equitizing nearly all of its outstanding $900 million in funded debt, as well obtaining shareholder authorization for a members’ scheme to redomicile in Canada.
Clerk & Government Experience
Law ClerkHonorable Laurie Selber SilversteinUnited States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware2017–2018
Law ClerkHonorable Lena Mansori JamesUnited States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina2015–2017
InternHonorable Jack B. SchmettererUnited States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois2014
More
Thought Leadership
Publications
Contributing Editor of the Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law & Practice
Seminars
Western Empirical Legal Studies Conference, UCLA, March 2015, Is Education Bankrupting? Student Debt and its Impact on Bankruptcy Filers
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2016Illinois
Education
- University of Illinois College of LawJ.D.cum laude2015Administrative Editor, Elder Law Journal
- Swarthmore CollegeB.A., Political Science & Economics2011