Cross-Border Bankruptcy Issues

Maja Zerjal Fink represents clients in distressed situations, corporate reorganizations, distressed investment litigation, and insolvency proceedings in the United States and across the globe.

Recognized by the American Bankruptcy Institute in its 40 Under 40 Class of 2020, Law360 (2020), Super Lawyers (2020) and The Legal 500 (2019) as a "Rising Star," Ms. Zerjal Fink has been involved in some of the largest reorganization cases in the United States, including the restructuring of Puerto Rico's outstanding debt load of more than $74 billion. She has represented clients in a number of high-profile restructurings, including Hertz, Cineworld, Caesars Entertainment Operating Corporation, MF Global Holdings, Seadrill Partners, Penn Virginia Corporation, Rotech Healthcare, SIGA Technologies, Breitburn Energy Partners, Trident Microsystems, and Phoenix Brands. Ms. Zerjal also represented B. Endeavour Shipping Co. in its Chapter 15 case and has advised clients in several cross-border matters. Her experience includes representations of private equity sponsors, debtors, foreign debtors and representatives, statutory and ad hoc committees, lenders, bondholders, trade creditors, landlords, and equity holders in bankruptcy proceedings and in-court and out-of-court restructurings.

Ms. Zerjal Fink writes extensively on restructuring topics, including in Bloomberg Law and Debtwire. She is also a member of the Editorial Board of International Corporate Rescue, a corporate restructuring and insolvency journal, where more than 30 of her articles were published.

Ms. Zerjal Fink maintains an active pro bono practice and has been awarded a Pro Bono Star award by Human Rights First for her work in asylum cases. She is also an active member of the Harvard Law School Association and serves on its Executive Committee and the Board of the New York City chapter.

Douglas E. Deutsch is a partner with Clifford Chance US LLP in New York, where his practice focuses on representing secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, and unofficial and official creditors’ committees in chapter 11 cases and out-of-court restructurings. He is a regular speaker and writer on bankruptcy law topics.

Mr. Deutsch previously served as ABI’s Vice President-Education and co-chaired a number of ABI conferences. He received his B.S. from Drew University and his J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the ABI Law Review. After graduation, he clerked for the Western District of Texas and then worked as an associate at a Texas law firm. He subsequently returned to St. John’s to obtain his LL.M. and was awarded the first American Bankruptcy Institute Scholarship.

Ryan Preston Dahl is a partner in the Business Restructuring group of Ropes & Gray LLP in New York and has experience representing publicly and privately held debtors, distressed investors and financial sponsors in special situations, out-of-court restructurings and distressed acquisitions, and in-court chapter 11 processes through prepackaged, prearranged and traditional restructurings. His practice also includes a broad range of transactional and litigation matters across a number of industries, including automotive, technology, retail, media, gaming, manufacturing, professional services and financial services.

Most recently, Mr. Dahl was named among Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Global Restructuring & Insolvency Lawyers in 2020 and Turnarounds & Workouts’ “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers” for 2018. He also received the Rising Star award from Euromoney Legal Media Group and Law360’s 40 Under 40 award, also in 2018.

Mr. Dahl was previously recognized by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges for his participation in its Next Generation Program at the NCBJ’s 2017 annual conference. He regularly speaks on a variety of restructuring, executive compensation, corporate governance, and ethics-related topics at institutions and organizations, including the University of Michigan Law School, the University of Chicago Law School, the Insolvency Institute of Canada and the International Bar Association.

Mr. Dahl is a member of the Turnaround Management Association and the International Bar Association. He received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was elected Order of the Coif.

Mr. Morris is a Managing Director at HPS Investment Partners.

Prior to joining HPS in 2018, Mr. Morris was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where he held various roles in New York and London, including Head of EMEA Distressed Research and Co-Head of EMEA Distressed Trading.

Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Morris was a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch on the Global Distressed Trading and Investing desk in New York. Prior to that, Mr. Morris was a corporate restructuring attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, where he represented debtors, senior lenders, and distressed investors in complex corporate restructuring and cross-border transactions.

Mr. Morris holds a BA from Rutgers University and a JD from Rutgers Law School.

Evan Hollander, a Senior Partner in Orrick’s New York office, is a member of the firm’s Restructuring group.

Evan Hollander has over 25 years of experience representing debtors, secured creditors, holders of fulcrum securities, distressed asset acquirers, and independent directors in complex U.S. and cross-border restructuring matters. Mr. Hollander is equally comfortable in the courtroom as he is at the negotiating table and the boardroom, and has extensive experience crafting and implementing restructuring plans. He frequently writes on insolvency-related topics and routinely appears on panels at industry conferences.

Mr. Hilty is a Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Restructuring Group. He has been employed by the firm for more than 25 years and has advised companies, secured lenders, bondholders, and other creditor groups in out-of-court restructurings, prepackaged or prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcies, and unplanned Chapter 11 reorganizations.

In addition, Mr. Hilty has been involved in the financial restructuring of several European and Latin American-based companies advising both debtors and creditors, including designing and structuring out-of-court exchange offers and prearranged reorganizations in local European and Latin American jurisdictions. He is based in the firm’s New York office. In addition to assisting clients with financial restructuring services, Mr. Hilty has provided clients with a variety of other investment banking and valuation services, including debt financings for distressed and non-distressed companies, advising on the acquisition or sale of companies and/or operating divisions in a distressed and non-distressed environment, and raising debt and equity capital.

Mr. Hilty holds a B.S. in Commerce with a concentration in Finance from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.

Ira Herman concentrates his practice on restructuring and bankruptcy matters with emphasis on distressed public debt issues and distressed M&A.

Ira regularly advises lenders and other clients on the management of bankruptcy risk in their transactions; indenture trustees regarding defaulted public debt issues; and lenders regarding restructuring and bankruptcy, including distressed M&A transactions and inter-creditor issues. Additionally, he provides services on the debtors’ side, counseling financially distressed entities and their management on restructuring challenges pertaining to corporate governance issues, and litigating corporate governance matters, such as breach of duty in good faith and dealing. As a court appointed mediator, Ira has been able to facilitate the resolution of controversies involving U.S. and non-U.S. parties concerning bankruptcy and commercial law issues.

In addition to his restructuring and bankruptcy practice, Ira has been providing support to for-profit and nonprofit entities concerning data privacy and cybersecurity issues.

Ira serves on the editorial advisory board of the Lexis Practice Advisor Journal. In 2017, Ira was appointed to the Bankruptcy Law360 editorial advisory board. He has authored “Anticipating and Managing Bankruptcy Risk,” a series of articles prepared for the Financial Restructuring & Bankruptcy module of Lexis Practice Advisor?, and chapter 28, titled “Bankruptcy,” in the treatise Negotiating and Drafting Office Leases (2017, Law Journal Press).

During law school, Ira served as an articles editor for the Boston University International Law Journal. While earning his bachelor’s degree, he served as editor-in-chief of The Polis, a political science journal.

Hon. Martin Glenn was sworn in as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York on November 30, 2006. He received his B.S. degree from Cornell University in 1968 and his J.D. degree from Rutgers Law School in 1971. He was an Articles Editor of the Rutgers Law Review. 

Judge Glenn was a law clerk for Hon. Henry J. Friendly, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, from 1971-72. From 1972 until his appointment to the bench, Judge Glenn practiced law with O'Melveny & Myers LLP, in Los Angeles from 1972-85 and in New York from 1985-06, focusing on complex civil litigation, including securities, RICO, financial and accounting fraud, and unfair competition. 

 Judge Glenn is an member of the American Law Institute, a Trustee of the Federal Bar Council and member of its Program Committee. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, having previously served on its Federal Courts Committee and Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Conduct. He is a member and former Co-Chair of the Advisory Group to the New York State-Federal Judicial Council. For more than 25 years, Judge Glenn has taught trial advocacy for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. He has also lectured and written articles on numerous topics.