(NEW YORK) Katten announced today that the firm was named a winner by The M&A Advisor in two categories of the 14th annual Turnaround Awards, known as one of the restructuring and distressed investing industry's benchmarks for excellence.
"It gives us a great pleasure to recognize Katten and bestow upon them our highest honor for distressed investing and reorganization firms and professionals," said Roger Aguinaldo, founder of The M&A Advisor. "Katten is a representative of those that reached the pinnacle of the distressed investing, bankruptcy and reorganization industry for 2019 and earned these honors by standing out in a group of very impressive candidates."
Katten's Insolvency and Restructuring practice garnered awards for:
- Utilities Deal of the Year for negotiating a comprehensive settlement agreement on behalf of Corpus Christi Alumina LLC, ending years of contentious litigation, which included an 11-day bench trial in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas before the Honorable David R. Jones, by granting various property and contractual rights to Gregory Power Partners LLC, thus allowing it to restart its power plant in Corpus Christi, meet the needs of its Texas customers and provide an influx of jobs to the local economy.
The Katten team was led by Steven J. Reisman and Theresa A. Foudy and included partners Shaya Rochester and Evan S. Borenstein.
- Sec. 363 Sale of the Year (valued at $50 million or more) for negotiating and closing the private Bankruptcy Code Section 363 sale of Sizmek Technologies, Inc.'s most valuable asset — the AdServer business — to Amazon.com, Inc. under an expedited timeline, following a contested hearing at which multiple witnesses testified, ultimately benefitting Sizmek, its secured and unsecured creditors, as well as its numerous employees who received offers to join Amazon as a condition of the sale, and its customers and vendors who were able to continue receiving or providing services without interruption.
The Katten team was led by Steven J. Reisman, Cindi M. Giglio, Jerry L. Hall and Peter A. Siddiqui. The full Katten team spanned across multiple practices areas and included partners James J. Calder, Angelo Ciavarella, Jill E. Darrow, Karen B. Dine, Christopher B. Ferenc, Jeff J. Friedman, Doron S. Goldstein, Julie L. Gottshall, Michelle A. Gyves, Christopher Hitchins, Philip A. Nemecek, Anthony L. Paccione, Michael M. Rosensaft and Brian Sodikoff; special counsels Tatiana B. Berger and Janet R. Widmaier; associates Zachary Denver, Kathryn Jarvis, Rebecca Kinburn, Alison Yuko Krieser, Lindsay Lersner, Weston Michael Love, Edward Matzner, Jake A. Nussbaum, Emma Phillpot, Rhodri Preece, Michael Rosella, Jessica L. Schauwecker, Gregory W. Segal, Andrew R. Skowronski, Grace A. Thompson, Laura D. Waller, Brigitte Weaver and Allison E. Yager; and trainee Sara Thomas Arano.
The nominations, representing over 240 participating companies, were judged by an independent panel of industry experts. The awards will be presented in March at a gala during the 2020 Distressed Investing Summit held in Florida.
