Ron E. Meisler

Mr. Meisler’s company-side representations of note include:

• Atlas Resource Partners, L.P., an upstream oil and gas Master Limited Partnership with approximately $1.5 billion in funded debt obligations, in connection with its 30-day prepackaged Chapter 11;
• Blue Bird Bus Company, one of the world’s leading bus manufacturers, in connection with its restructuring;
• Comdisco, Inc., formerly a leading multibillion-dollar leasing and technology company, in connection with its Chapter 11 case;
• Delphi Corporation in connection with the restructuring of more than $22 billion in liabilities;
• Eagle Food Centers, Inc., formerly a regional grocery store chain with $600 million in revenues, in connection with its Chapter 11 liquidation;
• Globalstar, Inc., a leading satellite telecommunications company, in connection with its out-of-court exchange;
• McLeodUSA Incorporated, a regional multibillion-dollar competitive local exchange carrier, in connection with its Chapter 11 prepack;
• Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. in its Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The restructuring included a support agreement under which Deerfield Private Design Fund III, L.P. and Deerfield Private Design Fund IV, L.P., the lenders under Melinta’s senior credit facility, would acquire Melinta by exchanging $140 million of secured claims arising under its senior credit facility for 100% of the equity to be issued by the reorganized company;
• Montgomery Ward & Co., formerly a multibillion-dollar national retailer, in connection with its Chapter 11 liquidation;
• a multinational industrial manufacturer and auto supplier in connection with its out-of-court debt restructuring;
• Pennfield Corporation, a regional supplier of animal nutrition and services, in connection with its restructuring;
• Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. in its Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, including its sale of substantially all of its assets to Bausch Health Companies Inc. under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code;
• The Singer Company N.V., a leading multibillion-dollar global manufacturer of appliances and sewing machines, in connection with its restructuring;
• Titan Energy, LLC in its out-of-court restructuring;
• Triangle USA Petroleum Corp., an upstream oil and gas company focused on the Williston Basin with approximately $700 million in funded indebtedness, in connection with its Chapter 11 restructuring, which entirely refinanced its reserved based lending facility, equitized approximately $400 million of unsecured notes and raised approximately $150 million through a rights offering;
• the out-of-court restructurings of various upstream oil and gas companies; and
• WeWork in an $8 billion transaction in which SoftBank provided financing to the company and acquired a majority of its outstanding shares through a tender offer.

His representations of purchasers and distressed investors include:

• APTIM in connection with a contested credit bid acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Juniper Specialty Products in the Chapter 11 and 7 proceedings before the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas;
• Black Diamond Capital Management, L.L.C. in multiple transactions, including:
  • as lender to and potential purchaser of SpeedCast International Ltd. in its Chapter 11 cases in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Following a hotly contested plan process, the court halted the confirmation hearing and reopened the auction to provide Black Diamond with an opportunity to bid, ultimately resulting in a favorable settlement for Black Diamond;
  • securing approval from the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York of the sale of Empire Generating to an entity controlled by Black Diamond and confirmation of a related “no impairment” plan of reorganization over the objection of certain minority lenders;
  • its acquisition of the assets of White Birch Paper Company as part of White Birch’s cross-border restructuring;
  • its acquisition of the assets of automotive supplier GST AutoLeather, Inc.; and
  • its secured loan to HGIM Holdings, LLC, a marine transportation company specializing in offshore supply and vessel support for deepwater operations;
• affiliates of Blackstone Capital Partners in connection with a proposed acquisition of a power company;
• Callidus Capital Corporation in connection with the restructuring of its secured loan to global automotive supplier JD Norman Industries, Inc.;
• Equity Group Investments LLC in connection with subordinated financings to a subsidiary of Emmis Communications Corporation and in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of MiddleBrook Pharmaceuticals, Inc.;
• a family office and private investment firm in connection with a potential plan sponsorship of certain funds that filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware;
• Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. in the structure and formation of a joint venture for the $125 million acquisition of a portfolio of multifamily properties in the southeastern U.S.;
• Health Evolution Partners and affiliates in connection with the Chapter 11 of its portfolio company MacKeyser Holdings, LLC, including with respect to originating a DIP loan;
• Hermitage Management LLC and PPM America, Inc. in the acquisition of Spanish Trail Country Club Inc. via a credit bid, as part of Spanish Trail’s Chapter 11 case;
• Iconical Investments II LP, in connection with its secured loan, DIP loan and the $75 million disposition of Rdio, Inc., to Pandora Media, Inc.;
• Key Safety Systems, Inc. (KSS) in connection with its $1.6 billion cross-border acquisition of substantially all of the global assets (other than assets related to phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate (PSAN) airbag inflators) and operations of Japan-based Takata Corporation through a complex series of cross-border M&A and restructuring transactions, including Chapter 11 proceedings, a civil rehabilitation bankruptcy proceeding in Japan, and recognition proceedings in the U.S. and Canada. KSS was granted the protection of a channeling injunction to shield KSS from tort claims arising on account of Takata’s manufacturing and sale of PSAN airbag inflators. Following the transaction, KSS emerged as the world’s second-largest airbag manufacturer;
• a multibillion-dollar fund in connection with its proposed acquisition of Akorn, Inc.;
• Norwest Equity Partners in connection with its acquisition of certain affiliates of Clover Technologies Group, LLC;
• second-lien lenders and certain third-lien lenders in the Chapter 11 prepackaged restructuring of Entegra Power Group, LLC;
• Silver Point Capital, L.P. in connection with multiple matters, including its secured loan to and proposed acquisition of the Standard Register Company and its secured loan to and divestiture of Nautic Global Group, Inc.;
• The Washington Group in connection with its DIP loan and proposed acquisition of substantially all the assets of Dominion Diamond through a CCAA (Canadian bankruptcy);
• Zell Credit Opportunities Master Fund, L.P. in the debt-for-equity swap in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Delta Petroleum Corporation; and
• Ziff Brothers Investments in connection with the Weinstein Company out-of-court restructuring.

Mr. Meisler also has extensive experience regarding the intersection of U.K. pension law and U.S. bankruptcy law, and in that regard has advised a Fortune 500 company regarding mitigation of U.K. pension regulatory risk. He previously represented the Reader’s Digest U.K. pension trustee and the Visteon U.K. pension trustee, respectively, in each of the Reader’s Digest and Visteon Chapter 11 cases. In addition, Mr. Meisler has extensive experience with respect to U.S.-defined benefit pension plans and has solved complex issues and negotiated resolutions with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in connection with numerous pension plans (both large and small). His experience also includes advising executives and boards in connection with troubled companies, including the representation of Antonio Perez, the former CEO of Kodak, in connection with Kodak’s Chapter 11 case. Mr. Meisler also was among the partners leading the representation of the unsecured creditors’ committee of AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines, in the company’s Chapter 11 case.

Mr. Meisler repeatedly has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Best Lawyers in America, which named him its 2022 Chicago Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law Lawyer of the Year. He also was recognized as Highly Regarded by IFLR1000 in 2019, named to Lawdragon 500’s inaugural Leading Global Restructuring & Insolvency Lawyers Guide in 2020 and twice named one of the country’s Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers by Turnarounds & Workouts magazine. Additionally, in 2020 Mr. Meisler was named as a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He is a frequent guest lecturer on topics of distressed transactions and bankruptcy law at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and the Wharton School of Business.