Our highly regarded interdisciplinary team counsels clients on their rights both before and after a bankruptcy filing against counterparties to commodities contracts and all types of derivatives. Our full range of services includes advising on the termination of derivative transactions, collateral liquidation, claim calculation and claim allowance and the structuring of complex energy and commodities transactions to address counterparty bankruptcy risk.
Our engagements in this area include the following representations:
- Commodity forward and swap counterparties in negotiating protections for continuing prepetition transactions and new post-petition transactions. Representative cases include: Talen Energy, Philippine Airlines, Ultra Petroleum, Halcon Resources, Fieldwood Energy, Sandridge Energy, Hawaiian Airlines, Calpine Energy, and Mirant.
- Credit default swap and hedge counterparties: including a financial institution with billions of dollars in claims against several hedge funds arising out of the termination of their swaps during the COVID-19 pandemic; a financial institution in the workout of its exposure on credit default swaps to Ambac, Syncora, Bluepoint, MBIA, CIFG, FGIC, and ACA; three financial institutions in the restructuring of interest rate swap agreements with the owner of a power generating facility in Arkansas; a group of financial institutions in the workout of their exposure under commodities hedges with the owner of a copper mine under construction in Mexico.
- Intermediation provider to a refinery in bankruptcy, resulting in a full recovery for our client and successful transition to a replacement counterparty during the bankruptcy.
- Customers in commodity broker liquidations, in connection with disputes over the scope of customer property, formulation and allowance of customer claims, and the workout of margin debt owed by a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
- Physical commodity suppliers in bankruptcies of their customers, including defense of preference and fraudulent conveyance actions, utility designation, and assertion and litigation of claims (including section 503(b)(9) priority claims).
- Derivative counterparties in the Lehman Brothers and Enron derivative claim mediation protocols.
