Chad J. Husnick, P.C.

Kirkland & Ellis advised Nine Energy Service, Inc., a leading onshore completion solutions provider, on an agreement with its debtholders on a comprehensive recapitalization transaction designed to strengthen its capital structure and support the Company's long-term financial health. To implement the transaction, Nine Energy Service, Inc. and certain of its U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries have filed a voluntary, prepackaged Chapter 11 case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The Company's operations outside the U.S. and Canada are not included in the filing. Read the transaction press release The Kirkland team included restructuring lawyers Chad Husnick and Ross Fiedler; capital markets lawyers Matt Pacey and Lanchi Huynh; debt finance lawyer Mary Kogut; and transactional lawyer James Kelly.

Feb 4

1 min

Kirkland represented WeWork Inc. (NYSE: WE), a global flexible space provider, on a comprehensive restructuring of its capital structure through a series of transactions with an ad hoc group of noteholders representing more than 60% of the company’s public notes, a third-party investor and affiliates of SoftBank Group Corp., which will be implemented through certain exchanges of WeWork’s existing unsecured notes for new debt and equity securities and the issuance of new secured notes for cash. Collectively, the transactions will reduce WeWork’s net debt by approximately $1.5 billion at closing, extend a significant maturity wall from 2025 to 2027, and result in new funding and new and rolled capital commitments of more than $1 billion once completed. The multidisciplinary effort was led by capital markets partners Sharon Freiman, Sophia Hudson, Jennifer Lee, Tim Cruickshank and Zoey Hitzert; corporate partners Sarkis Jebejian, Keri Schick Norton and Tobias Schad; restructuring partners Josh Sussberg, Chad Husnick and Joshua Altman; debt finance partner Rachael Lichman; tax partners Sara Zablotney and Adam Kool; capital markets associates Alborz Tolou, Asher Qazi, Michael Perez, Kyle Unice, Pratik Das, Devansi Reshamwala, Ryan Paulish, Abdullah Khan, Sharon Foster and Jacob Levy; corporate associates Jimin He, Frank Liu, Stephen Hong, Natalia Halista and Jonathan Carter; restructuring associates Peter Candel and Alan McCormick; debt finance associates Purun Cheong, Jacob Ruby and Jina Chung; and tax associates Alee Jamel and Kris Kania.

Mar 17

1 min

Kirkland & Ellis is pleased to announce that restructuring partner Chad Husnick was elected to membership in the National Bankruptcy Conference (NBC), alongside two other conferees. The NBC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, self-supporting organization of approximately 60 lawyers, law professors and bankruptcy judges whose primary purpose is to advise Congress on the operation of bankruptcy and related laws and any proposed changes to those laws. Formed in the 1930's at the request of Congress to assist in the drafting of major Depression-era bankruptcy law amendments, the NBC has been a resource to Congress on every significant piece of bankruptcy legislation since that time. Practitioners from leading law firms throughout the country who have been involved in most of the major corporate reorganization cases of the last three decades are extended an invitation to join. “It is an honor to be a part of such a prestigious group,” Mr. Husnick said. “I look forward to working with the other members of the NBC to fulfill the organization’s mission of continually improving the nation’s bankruptcy laws.” Mr. Husnick is based in Kirkland’s Chicago office, and regularly represents debtors, creditors, equity holders and other stakeholders in all aspects of corporate liability management, restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings. He has been recognized as a leading restructuring attorney by the American Bankruptcy Institute, The American Lawyer, Chambers USA, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Chicago Lawyer, Law360, the Legal 500 U.S. and Turnarounds & Workouts.

Dec 1

1 min

Education technology group Anthology got approval Friday for a revised Chapter 11 reorganization plan that includes a deal with unsecured creditors partially paid for by the settlement of a prepetition suit against a lender. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alfredo R. Perez approved the plan after counsel for Anthology said it had resolved all formal and informal objections to the reorganization. Anthology filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas in September with $1.8 billion in debt and a restructuring support agreement that would see it sell some of its assets and then reorganize the remaining business. In November, Judge Perez approved the sale of parts of Anthology's assets to fellow education technology group Encoura LE LLC for $50 million, and other parts to Ellucian Co. LLC for $70 million. Under the terms of the plan sent out for a creditor vote in December, super-priority secured lenders will have the choice of receiving a share of 99% of the reorganized company's equity or a $59.4 million cashout pool, while other senior secured lenders will receive the remaining equity or a $2 million cash pool. Other creditors would share in any cash unclaimed by the first-lien lenders. Anthology submitted a revised plan Thursday, incorporating a settlement with the unsecured creditors committee that counsel for the company said it reached Monday. The revised plan allows creditors with under $10,000 in claims to join a convenience class entitled to a 15% recovery. The recovery will be funded by a $1.7 million cash pool, with any leftover funds going to general unsecured creditors. General unsecured creditors will also receive half of any estate litigation proceeds, including a $4 million settlement of prepetition litigation against lender Vector Capital Credit also included in the revised plan. An Anthology affiliate had filed suit against Vector prior to the Chapter 11 alleging breach of a loan agreement, and Vector in turn had claimed the agreement required Anthology to indemnify it for its defense costs in the suit. The debtors are represented by Chad J. Husnick, Charles B. Sterrett and Melissa Mertz of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Charles A. Beckham Jr., Arsalan Muhammad, Kourtney Lyda, Re'Necia Sherald and Charles M. Jones II of Haynes Boone. The committee is represented by Jeff Prostok, Deirdre Brown and Martin Sosland of Vartabedian Hester & Haynes LLP and Rachael L. Ringer, Natan M. Hamerman and Jennifer R. Sharret of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP. Vector is represented by Jed I. Bergman, Trevor J. Welch, Jonathan H. Friedman, Shai Schmidt, George L. Santiago, Esther Hong and Rich Ramirez of Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes LLP and Ken Green, Aaron M. Guerrero and Bryan Prentice of Bonds Ellis Eppich Schafer Jones LLP. The case is In re: Anthology Inc., case number 4:25-bk-90498, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Jan 23

2 min

Oilfield services provider Nine Energy Services filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Texas bankruptcy court Monday with a prepackaged plan to cut $320 million of its $388 million in debt with an equity swap. In its filings, the company said it had reached an agreement with the holders of 70% of its senior notes on the deal, while the provider of its asset-based loan facility had agreed to provide $125 million in Chapter 11 financing that will convert into a $135 million exit facility. "We look forward to emerging from this process with a healthier financial foundation, well-positioned to offer comprehensive well solutions for many years to come," CEO Ann Fox said in a statement released Monday. The Houston-based company was founded in 2013 and has approximately 1,100 employees, according to its filings. It provides services for oil and gas drillers, including pouring cement to line well shafts and providing metal tubing for wells. The company's current funded debt consists of $219.5 million in senior notes and a $68.5 million asset-based facility, according to its filings. The notes debt is the remaining amount owed on $400 million in notes the company had taken out in 2018 to acquire Magnum Oil Tools International, it said. Magnum owned a number of proprietary technologies that were considered critical to Nine Energy's long-term success, but the company has since faced difficulties servicing the debt, Chief Financial Officer Guy Sirkes said in a declaration filed Monday. Since then, the company's liquidity has been strained by the sharp drop in oil demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the volatility of the energy market in the years since then, which combined with an unfriendly capital market has made refinancing impossible, Sirkes said. As a result, the company began to look at restructuring options and began talks with an ad hoc noteholder group in November, he said. The result was a restructuring support agreement with the holders of 70% of the note debt to support a plan that will convert the note debt to 100% of the equity of a reorganized Nine Energy, he said. The asset-based loan lender also agreed to provide $125 million in debtor-in-possession financing consisting of $56.5 million in new money and a rollup of the prepetition ABL debt. The DIP facility will convert into a $135 million ABL facility post-bankruptcy. The debtor has retained Moelis & Co. as its investment banker and FTI Consulting as its financial adviser. Nine Energy is represented by John J. Kane, Kyle Woodard, JaKayla J. DaBera and Michael P. Ridulfo of Kane Russell Coleman Logan PC, and Chad J. Husnick and Ross J. Fiedler of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The case is In re: Nine Energy Service et al., case number 4:26-bk-90295, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Feb 2

2 min