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Lauren R. Kanzer
Lauren R. Kanzer
Partner — Restructuring & Reorganization
Partner — Restructuring & Reorganization

Lauren R. Kanzer

Lauren R. Kanzer
New York

The Grace Building
1114 Avenue of the Americas
32nd Floor
New York, New York 10036

Lauren R. Kanzer

Experience Highlights

  • Riverstone Holdings LLC, its portfolio company, Talen Energy Corporation (TEC), and TEC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Cumulus Growth Holdings LLC in the chapter 11 cases of TEC’s wholly-owned subsidiary Talen Energy Supply, LLC, which involved key settlements that paved the way for a consensual reorganization of Talen’s legacy power generation business and the Cumulus data center and cryptomining growth initiatives and allowed Riverstone to retain material equity positions in both TEC and Cumulus Growth

  • Rockall Energy and its subsidiaries in a chapter 11 sales process in which substantially all of the company’s operating assets were sold to Formentera Partners Fund I, LP pursuant to a prepackaged chapter 11 plan with a dual-track sale and back-stop equitization process that was confirmed within 83 days of commencing the chapter 11 cases

  • Unit Corporation, a diversified, publicly-traded energy company engaged in oil and natural gas exploration and production, contract drilling, and midstream services, and its affiliates in connection with its prearranged chapter 11 cases deleveraging the company by approximately $650 million in a debt-for-equity transaction with its subordinated noteholders

  • Bonanza Creek Energy in a merger to acquire HighPoint Resources Corporation that was valued at approximately $376 million, and included a registered exchange offer, consent solicitation, and simultaneous registered solicitation of a prepackaged plan of reorganization under Chapter 11, which was followed by two subsequent out-of-court mergers and acquisitions by the combined company, resulting in a company with total expected enterprise value of $4.5 billion

  • Riverstone Holdings as sponsor in the prepackaged chapter 11 cases of its portfolio company UTEX Industries, a leading sealant manufacturer

  • Cloud Peak Energy in the sale of substantially all their operating assets to an affiliate of the Navajo Nation as part of its Chapter 11 cases involving approximately $350 million in funded debt and over $750 million in total liabilities

  • An ad hoc group of convertible noteholders in the prepackaged chapter 11 case of Global Brokerage, Inc.

  • Private equity firms including Sixth Street, Riverstone, TPG, Kayne Anderson, and Quantum Energy Partners in connection with special situation investments, strategic alternatives, risk mitigation, and liability management transactions

  • Rockall Energy and its subsidiaries in a chapter 11 sales process in which substantially all of the company’s operating assets were sold to Formentera Partners Fund I, LP pursuant to a prepackaged chapter 11 plan with a dual-track sale and back-stop equitization process that was confirmed within 83 days of commencing the chapter 11 cases

  • Upstream E&P company in the approximately $215 million distressed sale of substantially all of their assets in Sublette County, Wyoming (Pinedale Field) to a strategic buyer with the consent of the company’s lenders, who cancelled all debt in excess of the purchase price in connection with the out-of-court transaction

  • Publicly-traded energy services company in connection with evaluating various liability management alternatives resulting in an out-of-court capital raise and settlement of material litigation, and effectively positioning the company for a strategic combination

  • Unit Corporation, a diversified, publicly-traded energy company engaged in oil and natural gas exploration and production, contract drilling, and midstream services, and its affiliates in connection with its prearranged chapter 11 cases deleveraging the company by approximately $650 million in a debt-for-equity transaction with its subordinated noteholders

  • Cloud Peak Energy in the sale of substantially all their operating assets to an affiliate of the Navajo Nation as part of its Chapter 11 cases involving approximately $350 million in funded debt and over $750 million in total liabilities

  • Harvey Gulf International Marine, a Jones Act regulated marine transportation company, in all aspects of its complex balance sheet restructuring involving approximately $1.3 billion in senior secured funded debt, and effectuated through prepackaged chapter 11 cases

  • Energy XXI, a publicly-traded offshore energy E&P company, in connection with its chapter 11 cases which reduced the company’s funded debt by approximately $3.0 billion

  • Bellatrix Exploration Ltd., a Canadian exploration and production company, in connection with its out-of-court restructuring transaction and private up-tier exchange offer

  • Sundevil Power Holdings LLC, a merchant power company, in connection with the sale of its power block assets in its chapter 11 case filed in Delaware

  • Sbarro, the largest mall-focused Italian restaurant concept in the world, in connection with its prepackaged chapter 11 cases as well as the company’s restructuring in 2011, in which the company reduced its total funded debt by nearly 70%, from approximately $400 million to approximately $130 million

  • An ad hoc group of convertible noteholders in the prepackaged chapter 11 case of Global Brokerage, Inc.

  • An asset management company in connection with its purchase of subrogation claims against PG&E Corp

  • A private equity firm and its affiliates in their capacity as stakeholders in Exco Resources chapter 11 cases

  • Vitol Group in connection with its analysis of liability management considerations in multiple confidential situations

  • Sixth Street in the refinancing of Northern Oil & Gas, Inc.’s first lien credit facility and subsequent uptier exchange offer of unsecured notes

  • A private equity firm in its capacity as significant stakeholders in the Optim Energy chapter 11 cases

  • Affiliates of private equity firm as secured lenders in the chapter 11 liquidation of Coldwater Creek

  • Bonanza Creek Energy in a merger to acquire HighPoint Resources Corporation that was valued at approximately $376 million, and included a registered exchange offer, consent solicitation, and simultaneous registered solicitation of a prepackaged plan of reorganization under Chapter 11, which was followed by two subsequent out-of-court mergers and acquisitions by the combined company, resulting in a company with total expected enterprise value of $4.5 billion

  • Confidential bidders in connection with Extraction Oil & Gas, Nine Point Energy, and Sable Permian Resources chapter 11 sales processes

  • TPG Pace Energy Holdings, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company and affiliate of TPG, in the $2.66 billion acquisition of oil and gas assets from EnerVest, while EV Energy Partners, an EnerVest subsidiary, was in chapter 11

  • Riverstone Holdings as sponsor in the prepackaged chapter 11 cases of its portfolio company UTEX Industries, a leading sealant manufacturer

  • Riverstone Holdings in the out-of-court restructuring of its portfolio company, Dynamic Industries, a leading fabricator and brownfield contractor to the global oil, gas, and energy industries

  • American Infrastructure MLP Funds in the out-of-court restructuring of its portfolio company, Agspring

  • Quantum Energy Partners in connection with the out-of-court restructuring and sale of Midstream Energy Holdings

Credentials

  • Fordham University School of Law, J.D. cum laude, 2013 (Member, Fordham Law Review )
  • Boston University, B.S. Communications magna cum laude, 2007
  • Judicial Extern to The Honorable Kenneth M. Karas, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Summer 2011
  • Legal 500 U.S., Finance: Restructuring (including Bankruptcy): Corporate, 2022
  • The Best Lawyers in America© (BL Rankings, LLC), “Ones to Watch,” Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law and Corporate Law (New York), 2023 and 2024
  • New York
  • Southern District of New York