“As a leader at MoFo, I help shape a culture of collaboration that puts clients first.
Jennifer Marines serves as global vice chair of Morrison Foerster, co-chair of the firm’s global Business Restructuring + Insolvency Group, a member of the Woman’s Strategy Committee, and a member of the Firm’s Finance and Benefits Committee. She has extensive experience in representing chapter 11 debtors, creditors, investors, and other parties in interest in all aspects of complex corporate restructurings, including chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, and distressed acquisitions.
Jennifer has built a highly successful and peer-recognized practice in the restructuring and work-outs space, routinely representing companies and their boards in navigating complex distressed situations. Jennifer also has extensive experience advising official committees of creditors, negotiating and structuring financings and other commercial transactions, and representing clients seeking to purchase businesses and related assets out of chapter 11 proceedings.
Experience
- In re Columbia Pulp I, LLC. Counsel to the receiver of Columbia Pulp I, LLC, one of North America’s first producers of wheat straw pulp, which is used as sustainable feedstock for paper and packaging products. Columbia Pulp entered receivership upon an action of the trustee for the holders of the company’s senior secured bonds in order to pursue a restructuring of approximately $240 million in secured debt.
- In re CalPlant I Holdco, LLC (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to CalPlant I Holdco, LLC and CalPlant I, LLC in their chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. CalPlant is nearing completion of the world’s first manufacturing plant capable of producing medium-density fiberboard using rice straw as feedstock. CalPlant filed for chapter 11 in October 2021 to conduct a marketing process for substantially all of its assets and/or restructure approximately $380 million in secured debt.
- In re Real Industry, Inc./Real Alloy Recycling, Inc. (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to Real Industry, Inc. and Real Alloy Recycling, Inc., as well as their affiliated debtors, in their chapter 11 cases. Real Industry was a holding company with approximately one billion dollars in tax attributes. Real Alloy, the subsidiary of Real Industry, is a large-scale recycler of aluminum with operations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. The debtors collectively filed for chapter 11 to restructure their $401 million in funded debt obligations and approximately $75 million in other obligations. Real Alloy closed a sale of all its assets and operations in May 2018, preserving 2,000 jobs and critical business relationships.
- In re Sungevity, Inc., et al. (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to Sungevity, Inc. and its affiliates in their chapter 11 cases. Prior to a section 363 sale of substantially all of its operations, Sungevity was one of the largest private residential solar installation companies in the United States. Sungevity filed with approximately $185 million in prepetition debt and exited chapter 11 in late 2017 pursuant to an unprecedented structured dismissal, which allowed the company to exit its chapter 11 cases in an orderly manner while preserving the majority of cash left in the estate for distribution to former employees.
- In re Maxus Energy Corporation, et al. (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to Maxus Energy Corporation and four affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 cases, which addressed over $12 billion in claims, predominantly in connection with environmental liability relating to the country’s largest superfund site: the Passaic River and related bodies of water. The Maxus chapter 11 cases concluded in July 2017 following confirmation of an innovative chapter 11 plan supported by over 99% of creditors.
- In re HOVENSA LLC (Bankr. D.V.I.). Counsel to HOVENSA LLC, once owner of one of the ten largest oil refineries in the world, in its chapter 11 case. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, HOVENSA had approximately $2 billion of prepetition indebtedness, exclusive of significant legacy liabilities primarily in the form of environmental obligations, pension obligations, and retiree benefits.
- In re Residential Capital, LLC, et al. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.). Counsel to Residential Capital and its affiliates, comprising one of the largest residential real estate finance companies at the time of its chapter 11 filing, with assets and liabilities each in excess of $15 billion. The debtors’ business was comprised primarily of loan servicing and origination. Residential Capital was the largest bankruptcy filing of 2012 and the case represents the first time ever that a mortgage servicer was able to successfully continue servicing and originating mortgages in bankruptcy and be sold as a going concern.
- In re Innkeepers USA Trust (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.). Counsel to Innkeepers, a hotel REIT that owned and operated approximately 75 hotels across the nation, with over 10,000 rooms under management, in its chapter 11 reorganization involving approximately $1.6 billion of indebtedness.
- In re Chemtura Corporation (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.). Counsel to Chemtura Corporation, one of the largest publicly traded specialty chemical companies in the United States, as a debtor in possession in its chapter 11 reorganization. Chemtura, which employs more than 4,000 people worldwide, has operations in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
- In re Charter Communications, Inc. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.). Counsel to Charter Communications, which at the time was the third-largest cable operator in the United States, with more than $21 billion in debt, as debtor in possession in its prearranged bankruptcy proceedings.
- In re Motor Coach Industries (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to Motor Coach Industries, the leading U.S. bus manufacturer, as debtor in possession in its chapter 11 case.
- In re Regent Communications, et al. (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to a plan sponsor in the prearranged chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Regent Communications and its affiliates, which are the owner and operator of radio stations in mid-sized markets across the United States.
- In re Lazy Days’ R.V. Center, Inc., et al. (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to Lazy Days’ R.V. and its affiliates as debtors in possession in connection with their prepackaged chapter 11 cases. At the time of the filings, the companies comprised the single largest recreational vehicle dealership in the world.
- In re Ad Hoc Group of Constitutional Bondholders of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Counsel to an ad hoc group of holders of bonds issued and/or guaranteed by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (constitutional debt) in connection with the first restructuring proceeding under the newly enacted Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act. Working in coordination with other holders of constitutional debt, the ad hoc group has engaged in targeted litigation and efforts to negotiate a plan for the Commonwealth’s restructuring, while simultaneously defending attempts to invalidate more than $6 billion of the Commonwealth’s $18 billion of outstanding constitutional debt.
- In re United Parcel Service, Inc. Counsel to United Parcel Service, Inc., and its affiliates and subsidiaries, including Coyote Logistics, LLC, in various bankruptcy and state court insolvency proceedings throughout the country.
- In re Nuveen Real Estate/The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. Counsel to Nuveen Real Estate/The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) in the chapter 11 cases of Washington Prime Group Inc. and CBL Properties.
- In re Valaris plc, et al. (Bankr. S.D. Tex.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of Valaris plc and its affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 cases. Valaris is a leading provider of offshore drilling services to the international oil and gas industry. It currently operates the industry’s largest modern offshore drilling fleet of 67 rigs, maintaining drilling operations in nearly every major offshore market spanning 24 countries. Valaris’s customers include many of the leading national and international oil companies, in addition to numerous local and independent offshore exploration and production companies. The company listed total assets of approximately $13 billion and total debts of approximately $7.85 billion in its first day filings.
- In re Murray Energy Holdings Co., et al. (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of Murray Energy Holdings Co. and its affiliated debtors, in its chapter 11 bankruptcy. Murray filed for chapter 11 protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio in October 2019 after struggling with deteriorating coal prices, decreased demand for coal, increased use of renewable energy sources, and regulatory burdens. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, Murray was the largest privately owned coal company in the United States, with approximately US$2.5 billion in annual revenues and nearly 5,500 employees.
- In re Windstream Holdings, Inc., et al. (Bankr. S.D. N.Y.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of Windstream Holdings, Inc., and its affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 case. Windstream is a leading provider of advanced network communications, technology, broadband, security, entertainment, and core-transport solutions to both consumer and business customers across the United States. Windstream had approximately $5.6 billion in prepetition obligations at the time of its filing.
- In re Cloud Peak Energy, et al. (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of Cloud Peak Energy, one of the largest coal producers and suppliers in the United States, and certain of its subsidiaries, in its filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
- In re Westmoreland Coal Company, et al. (Bankr. S.D. Tex.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of Westmoreland Coal Company and affiliated debtors. Westmoreland is the sixth-largest coal-mining enterprise in North America. After conducting an exhaustive investigation to reveal unencumbered assets and following weeks of negotiations with the company and the company’s secured lenders, the Committee supported independent plan processes for two distinct debtor groups that kept the company operating, preserved jobs and pensions, and provided value for unsecured creditors.
- In re Avaya Inc. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors for international telecom company Avaya Inc. and its affiliated debtors. Avaya had more than $6 billion of secured debt at the time of its filing and was saddled with significant pension underfunding liabilities for its domestic and certain foreign affiliates.
- In re Armstrong Energy, Inc. (Bankr. E.D. Mo.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of leading coal producer Armstrong Energy, Inc. Armstrong Energy had over $410 million in prepetition obligations at the time of its filing.
- In re SunEdison Inc. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.). Special counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of SunEdison Inc, a renewable energy company that built and operated solar power plants and wind energy plants. SunEdison restructured over $16.1 billion in debt through its chapter 11 cases.
- In re Peabody Energy, Inc., et al. (Bankr. E.D. Mo.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of Peabody Energy, the world’s largest privately owned coal producer, and 153 of its subsidiaries, which collectively held $10.1 billion in prepetition debt.
- In re Walter Energy Inc., et al. (Bankr. N.D. Ala.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of Walter Energy, Inc. and its affiliates. Walter, a major producer of metallurgical coal, struggled as a result of the precipitous fall in the price of metallurgical coal in recent years and eventually was forced to seek bankruptcy protection in July 2015 in an effort to restructure its more than $3.1 billion in debt.
- In re Patriot Coal Corporation (Bankr. E.D. Va.). Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Patriot Coal Corporation, a leading producer and marketer of metallurgical and thermal coal in the eastern United States, with approximately 2,900 active employees at the time of filing, approximately $791 million in prepetition funded debt, and significant legacy liabilities (primarily in the form of retiree benefits, pension obligations, and environmental obligations).
- In re Energy Future Holdings Corp., et al. (Bankr. D. Del.). Counsel to the official committee of TCEH unsecured creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Texas power company Energy Future Holdings Corp. and its affiliates, which filed for bankruptcy in April 2014. This is the 10th-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, with the debtors holding approximately $40 billion in debt.
- In re NewComm Wireless Services, Inc. (Bankr. D. P.R.). Counsel to the largest unsecured creditor in the chapter 11 cases of NewComm Wireless Services, a licensed CDMA wireless carrier operating in Puerto Rico.
- In re Winterhawks Sports Group LLC. Counsel to Winterhawks Sports Group LLC in its acquisition of the Portland Winter Hawks and its league franchise rights out of chapter 15 proceeding in Oregon.