Overview
Catherine Lee focuses her practice on corporate and transactional matters. She represents debtors, creditors and other parties in interest across various industries and in connection with in- and out-of-court restructurings, workouts and other commercial issues. Catherine’s experience includes representing large domestic and international companies in chapter 11 and chapter 15 proceedings.
Results
- Represented Wellpath Holdings, Inc. and certain of its affiliates in their chapter 11 cases in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Wellpath is the leading provider of healthcare to vulnerable patients in challenging clinical environments and had debt obligations of approximately $650 million as of the chapter 11 filing. The representation included a court-approved sale of Wellpath’s Recovery Solutions division for a purchase price of $395 million and the reorganization of Wellpath’s Corrections business. Wellpath filed its chapter 11 cases with a restructuring support agreement signed by 85% of its first-lien lenders and more than 80% of its second-lien lenders, through which Wellpath secured an approximately $326 million debtor-in-possession financing facility. McDermott negotiated and Wellpath issued, upon exit, a $135 million first lien takeback credit facility and $50 million equity investment from a group of first- and second-lien lenders
- Represented Yellow Corporation and certain of its subsidiaries, including YRC, Reddaway, Holland, and Yellow Logistics, in their chapter 11 cases in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, securing a $1.525 billion stalking horse bidder for Yellow Corporation’s owned real estate assets*
- Represented Québec-based Ideal Protein of America and its debtor affiliates in their chapter 15 proceedings in the United States and proceedings in Canada under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), the former which resulted in Ideal Protein running a competitive sale and investment solicitation process to maximize enterprise value*
- Represented SiO2 Medical Products, Inc. and certain of its affiliates in their prearranged chapter 11 cases in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. As a result of the proposed restructuring, SiO2’s balance sheet was substantially deleveraged*
- Represented Nielsen & Bainbridge, LLC (d/b/a NBG Home) and 13 of its affiliates in their prearranged chapter 11 cases in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas*
- Represented Invacare Corporation and its subsidiaries in their prearranged chapter 11 cases in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Invacare discharged approximately $300 million in funded-debt obligations and unsecured liabilities, raised $75 million of new equity capital, secured $40 million of exit financing and positioned its business for long-term success*
- Represented Altera Infrastructure L.P., a leading international midstream services provider to the oil and gas industry, and certain of its affiliates in their prearranged chapter 11 cases in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas*
- Represented Service King Paint & Body LLC, the third largest operator of auto body collision repair facilities in the US, and certain of its affiliates in an out-of-court restructuring transaction involving a $200 million raise in new capital, a reduction of $500 million in net indebtedness and an extension of remaining existing funded debt maturities*
- Represented Riverbed Technology, Inc. and three of its affiliates in their prepackaged chapter 11 cases in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, eliminating approximately $1.1 billion of Riverbed’s funded debt and raising $100 million in new capital*
- Represented Dunn Paper Holdings, LLC and its affiliates and subsidiaries in connection with an out-of-court restructuring by which an ad hoc group of first lien lenders comprising all of the company’s approximately $380 million of funded debt consensually foreclosed upon substantially all of Dunn’s assets and assumed majority ownership of Dunn*
- Represented Carlson Travel, Inc. (d/b/a CWT) and 37 of its affiliates in the fastest cross-border prepackaged restructuring transaction to date. (The Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas entered an order confirming CWT’s prepackaged chapter 11 plan of reorganization just 18 hours after the bankruptcy proceedings began.) As a result of the restructuring, CWT eliminated almost $900 million of its $1.6 billion of debt, secured access to $775 million of exit facilities and a $350 million equity investment, and preserved the entirety of its worldwide employee base*
- Represented Just Energy Group Inc., a leading Ontario-based retail consumer company specializing in electricity and natural gas commodities; energy efficiency solutions; and renewable energy options, in its chapter 15 proceedings in the United States to recognize proceedings that began in Canada under the CCAA. The insolvency proceedings successfully culminated in a Canadian-court approved and US-court recognized sale transaction that preserved operations, hundreds of jobs, critical regulatory approvals and key commodity supplier relationships*
- Represented Chesapeake Energy Corporation and 40 of its subsidiaries in their chapter 11 cases in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas*
*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott.
Credentials
Education
The University of Iowa College of Law, JD, with high distinction, Order of the Coif, 2020
University of Nebraksa-Lincoln, BS, with honors and distinction, 2016
Admissions
Illinois
Courts/Agencies
US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Languages
English
