Katten has added a new partner, Michaela Crocker, to its Insolvency and Restructuring practice in Dallas. She is the 10th attorney to join the practice this year and the third this month.
Crocker, who helps clients navigate some of the most complex Chapter 11 cases, also is the latest partner addition to Katten’s Dallas office, which opened in 2018 with seven partners and has since expanded to more than 40 attorneys.
“Michaela is known as a talented attorney whose sophisticated, business-minded approach gets to the root of what distressed companies need. She has a great deal of experience and is an excellent addition to our team,” said John Sieger, chair of Katten’s Insolvency and Restructuring practice.
Crocker regularly represents debtors, creditors, Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 trustees, and creditors’ committees with a range of insolvency matters. She is particularly skilled at advising clients in the retail, telecommunications and energy sectors and has managed plan negotiations, asset sales, debtor-in-possession financing, leases and executory contracts, preference and fraudulent transfer matters, and bankruptcy appeals.
More specifically, Crocker has represented, among many others, the debtors in the liquidation of one of the largest retail furniture chains in the state of Texas; and the Chapter 11 trustee of a holding company that owed non-debtor operating subsidiaries engaged in telecommunications and media businesses in the United States, Virgin Islands, Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Crocker formerly was of counsel in the Business Restructuring & Reorganization practice at Jones Day. Prior to that, she served as career law clerk to the chief bankruptcy judge for the Northern District of Texas, where she worked closely with bankruptcy judges nationally. Earlier in her career, Crocker spent 12 years at Vinson & Elkins LLP.
Earlier this month, John Mitchell, formerly with Akerman LLP, and Terence Banich, formerly co-chair of the Bankruptcy Litigation practice group at Fox Rothschild LLP, joined Katten’s Insolvency and Restructuring practice in Dallas and Chicago respectively.
Katten’s Insolvency and Restructuring practice was much more in demand during the first half of 2020 than during the same period in 2019 as the practice continues to take on key roles in some of the most noted bankruptcy cases. The practice generally represents debtors, independent directors, key creditor constituencies and stakeholders in major Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 cases throughout the country.
