Catherine Jun

Catherine Jun is special counsel in the Finance and Bankruptcy Practice Group in the firm's Chicago office.

Areas of Practice

Catherine’s practice focuses on all aspects of corporate restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings.

She previously worked for another major law firm in their restructuring group. Prior to entering law, Catherine worked as a reporter for newspapers in Michigan, New Jersey, and Seoul, South Korea.

Experience

• Alpha Media Holdings LLC – Representing Alpha Media Holdings LLC and 15 of its subsidiaries in their prearranged chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.  Alpha Media is the largest privately-held radio broadcast and multimedia company in the United States, which owns or operates more than 200 radio stations that provide local news, sports, music, and entertainment to a weekly audience of more than 11 million listeners in 44 communities across the United States.  Alpha Media’s prearranged chapter 11 cases were confirmed in just over 60 days and contemplated transactions that eliminated all of the Debtors’ prepetition funded debt obligations and provided the debtors with more than $120 million of exit financing.

• Neiman Marcus Group — Representing the liquidating trustee, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of Texas, in the resolution of over 2,800 general unsecured claims in accordance with the debtors’ chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
• Valaris plc — Representing Valaris plc and 89 of its subsidiaries in their prearranged Chapter 11 cases. Valaris, which is incorporated in the United Kingdom, is the world’s largest offshore driller by fleet size, owning 67 drilling rigs and operating in every major offshore hydrocarbon basin throughout the globe. Valaris filed Chapter 11 with a restructuring support agreement and backstop commitment agreement to fully equitize all $7.1 billion of its prepetition funded debt, consisting of an unsecured revolving credit facility and 15 series of unsecured notes.
• Pier 1 Imports, Inc. — Represented 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 was a publicly-traded multi-channel 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.
• Blackhawk Mining LLC — Represented Blackhawk Mining LLC and its affiliates in their prepackaged Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Blackhawk is a leading metallurgical coal producer based in Lexington, Kentucky, and has operations primarily in West Virginia and Kentucky. Blackhawk employs more than 2,800 employees. Blackhawk entered Chapter 11 to implement a prepackaged plan of reorganization that will eliminate approximately $650 million of the Company’s nearly $1.1 billion in prepetition funded debt.
• Things Remembered, Inc. — Represented Things Remembered, Inc. and its affiliates, one of the nation’s leading multi-channel personalized apparel and accessory retailers, in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. As of its Chapter 11 filing, Things Remembered operated approximately 420 stores and kiosks in the U.S. and Canada. Things Remembered sold its go-forward business to a strategic buyer that preserves its online business, up to 1,400 jobs, and approximately 178 brick-and-mortar stores.
• GST Autoleather, Inc. ― Represented GST Autoleather, Inc., a supplier of leather upholstery to nearly every major automaker, in its Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The Company obtained a commitment from its senior secured lenders for a $40 million debtor-in-possession facility, the proceeds of which will be used to fund ongoing business operations while pursuing a court-supervised going concern sale. GST has operations in North America, China, South Korea, Europe, and South Africa.
• Toys“R”Us, Inc. — Represented Toys “R” Us, Inc. and several of its direct and indirect subsidiaries in one of the largest ever retail Chapter 11 filings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division. Following implementation of a strategy to effect a successful wind-down of operations in the United States and going concern sales and/or reorganizations of operations throughout the world, including Asia, led efforts to construct and implement global settlement agreements amongst all stakeholders and five distinct Chapter 11 plans.
• Ameriforge Group, Inc. — Represented Ameriforge Group, Inc. and its affiliates in their pre-packaged Chapter 11 cases that were filed and confirmed in Houston, Texas. Ameriforge is a leading global provider of technology, services, and fully-integrated manufacturing capabilities to the oil and gas, general industrial, aerospace, and power generation industries. The prepackaged plan of reorganization was unanimously accepted by all voting creditors and resulted in the deleveraging of Ameriforge’s balance sheet by approximately $680 million (over 90% of its funded debt).
• SandRidge Energy, Inc. — Represented SandRidge Energy, Inc., an oil and natural gas company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in its prearranged Chapter 11 cases. Sandridge filed with a restructuring support agreement signed by holders of more than two-thirds by principal amount of its $4.1 billion of funded debt.
• Midstates Petroleum Company, Inc. — Represented Midstates Petroleum Company, Inc. in its prearranged Chapter 11 restructuring in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The Company filed for Chapter 11 with a support agreement with a supermajority of lenders in all three of its secured debt tranches regarding a transaction that will equitize more than 90 percent of the Company’s $2 billion in funded debt. Midstates is an independent exploration and production company focused on the application of modern drilling and completion techniques in oil and liquids-rich basins in the onshore U.S. The Company’s operations are focused on oilfields in the Mississippian Lime play in Oklahoma.
• Harkand Gulf Contracting, Ltd. ― Represented the foreign representatives of Harkand Gulf Contracting, Ltd. and its debtor affiliates in their Chapter 15 cases for recognition of insolvency proceedings in the United Kingdom. Headquartered in London, England, and Aberdeen, Scotland, Harkand Gulf Contracting, Ltd. and its affiliates (both debtor and non-debtor) were providers of subsea capabilities and services to the offshore oil and gas industry.

Honors

‘Large Company Turnaround of the Year Award’ for service as lead restructuring counsel to Alpha Media, Turnaround Management Association’s Chicago/Midwest Chapter, 2021

Articles

Finance & Bankruptcy Law Blog Posts

• "Sheppard Mullin and M3 Partners Weigh In on the Potential Drivers of the Next Restructuring Cycle for the ABI Journal," January 4, 2022

Cannabis Law Blog

• "The Cannabis Conundrum: Can Cannabis Companies File Chapter 15?," May 20, 2022
• "Restructure This! Episode 3: Canada: Cannabis Boom or Bust?," February 16, 2022

Books

Media Mentions

Memberships

American Bar Association

Chicago Bar Association