About Lucy F. Kweskin

Clients rely on Lucy Kweskin’s robust experience and industrious work ethic to guide them in all stages of corporate restructurings across a wide range of industries. With a proactive approach, Lucy focuses her practice on lenders but also advises stakeholders across the capital structure, including debtors, distressed acquirers, official committees of unsecured creditors, litigation financiers and landlords, through complex insolvency and reorganization scenarios. With her commitment to providing comprehensive service, Lucy works closely with mergers and acquisitions (M&A), finance and litigation teams to address the client's needs from all angles.

Trusted adviser with demonstrated success in unique bankruptcy matters

Lucy has counseled major companies in both in-court and out-of-court restructuring matters and is highly experienced in corporate aspects of restructuring, including forbearance agreements, foreclosures, restructuring support agreements, debtor-in-possession financing, 363 sales and Chapter 11 plans. In addition, she often litigates bankruptcy-related disputes concerning valuation, make-whole claims, inter-creditor issues, fraudulent transfers, recharacterization, veil piercing and breaches of fiduciary duty.

Lucy is a Lecturer of Law at Columbia Law School, teaching a seminar entitled "Advanced Bankruptcy: Deals and Issues in the Current Environment." During law school, Lucy served as a judicial intern for US Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert E. Gerber. Prior to law school, she worked at Deutsche Bank.

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Practice Focus

  • In-court and out-of-court corporate restructurings
  • Representing secured lenders
  • Litigating bankruptcy-related disputes
  • Counsel in 363 sales and Chapter 11 proceedings

Representative Experience

  • Represented the administrative agent and collateral agent under the $100 million DIP facility and $1.2 billion exit facility in connection with the Chapter 11 cases of a major owner of malls and shopping centers across more than 100 locations across the United States. *
  • Represented an off-priced luxury retailer and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases, in which the debtors successfully liquidated and closed their retail locations, sold their intellectual property assets for 10 times more than the pre-auction “stalking horse” bid, became among the first Chapter 11 debtors to sell a participation interest in a sizeable business interruption insurance claim from the effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic, and entered into a global settlement resolving the estates’ claims against their equity owners, cumulatively resulting in material distributions to general unsecured creditors. *
  • Represented first-lien lender in the 2020 Chapter 11 cases of an apparel company, in which plan of reorganization resulted in issuance to client of convertible second-lien notes that convert to majority equity ownership. *
  • Represented new money DIP lender in Chapter 11 case of a medical technology company, who provided critical financing to bridge to a 363 sale of substantially all assets, where despite COVID-19, sale was approved by the Bankruptcy Court and consummated in under 60 days, and DIP loan was repaid in full. *
  • Represented last-out first-lien prepetition lender, DIP lender and credit bid acquirer in Chapter 11 case of a dental services organization providing management services to 150 dental practices in 16 states. *
  • Represented first-lien lender in connection with a contested cash collateral hearing and successful credit bid acquisition related to the Chapter 11 case of a television broadcasting company. *
  • Represented ad hoc group of private credit lenders holding more than $300 million of first-lien term debt of a coal mining company and its subsidiary in connection with the company’s Chapter 11 cases, which featured a credit bid purchase with a strategic operating partner, litigation to address material legacy labor liabilities, and other environmental, surety, reclamation and regulatory issues. *
  • Represented multi-employer pension plan in the Chapter 11 cases of a major owner/operator of casino entertainment services, including litigation regarding violations of the automatic stay and withdrawal liability. *
  • Represented the creditors' committee in the bankruptcy cases of an energy company with substantial environmental liabilities, where the committee jointly proposed and confirmed a Chapter 11 plan creating a litigation trust to assert $12 billion in litigation claims against former parent company. *
  • Represented ad hoc group of private credit lenders holding more than $80 million of first-lien term debt in connection with the first Chapter 11 case of a company providing seismic data solutions to the global oil and gas industry, which involved litigation over a heavily-contested priming DIP loan from a group of unsecured bondholders leading to a refinancing at par plus accrued. *
  • Represented private credit lender holding more than $200 million of first-lien term debt in connection with an out-of-court restructuring of a privately owned information technology software company. *
  • Represented numerous defendants in connection with fraudulent transfer litigation in an energy company. *
  • Represented ad hoc group of first-lien private credit lenders in connection with Chapter 11 cases of a digital production company, including make-whole litigation. *
  • Represented a publicly-traded life settlements and alternative investments company in connection with their Chapter 11 cases, including confirmation of a Chapter 11 plan to resolve over $2 billion in debt, including bonds held by 26,000 individual bondholders, which was supported by over 99 percent of voting constituencies. *
* Experience prior to Katten

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