Meet Our Stakeholders

John R. Ashmead heads Seward & Kissel’s Corporate Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group. His experience spans workouts, chapter 11, liquidations, and foreign insolvency proceedings, where he represents trustees, agents, lenders, bondholders, creditor committees and other creditors, directors and special committees of boards, equity holders, buyers, and borrowers.

Examples of his recent representations include acting as lead counsel for: the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Fairmont San Jose and Furniture Factory Outlet chapter 11 cases; US Bank as indenture trustee and Committee Member in the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals chapter 11 cases; Wilmington Savings Fund Society as indenture trustee and Committee Member in the Intelsat chapter 11 cases; WSFS as DIP loan administrative agent and/or prepetition agent in the J.Crew, Pier 1, and Murray Metallurgical Coal chapter 11 cases; Carmin Reiss in her role as Trustee and Claims Administrator of the Insys Victims’ Restitution Trust; and the independent managers and special committee in the Payless chapter 11 cases.

Robert J. Gayda is a partner in Seward & Kissel’s Corporate Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group. Bob represents creditors’ committees, court-appointed examiners, lenders, lender groups, directors, special committees, distressed investors, and individual creditors in restructurings, whether in or out of court.

Select recent matters include representing unsecured creditors’ committees in the Fairmont San Jose, Furniture Factory Outlet, Papyrus, and Le Pain Quotidien bankruptcy cases, the independent managers/special committee of the board in Payless, Fairholme Capital in the Sears bankruptcy, US Bank in the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals cases, Merritt 7 Venture in Frontier Communications, and Borr Drilling in its acquisition of Paragon Offshore.

Mark D. Kotwick is a partner in Seward & Kissel’s Litigation Group. Mark represents clients in a wide variety of complex and sensitive matters, including those involving corporate trust disputes, securities litigation, banking and commercial controversies, trusts and estates disputes, employment law and bankruptcy and restructuring litigation. He has also led investigations in multiple bankruptcy cases with respect to potential estate claims against insiders and related third parties.

Mark’s select recent matters include representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 cases of Schurman Fine Papers (Papyrus); Administrative and Collateral Agent of secured loan facility of J. Crew Group, Inc.; debtors in the chapter 11 cases of Payless Holdings LLC; and Trustee of five Collateralized Loan Obligation structures with respect to the involuntary bankruptcy and successful restructuring of the collateral manager of the vehicles in the Acis Capital Management chapter 11 cases.

Ronald L. Cohen is senior counsel in Seward & Kissel’s Corporate Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group. Ron’s primary responsibilities are providing bankruptcy advice to secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, chapter 11 trustees, creditors committees, insurers, limited partners, and equity committees in major chapter 11 reorganizations.

Ron’s select recent matters include representing Wilmington Trust, N.A. in connection with the restructuring of Arch Coal, Inc. and certain financial institutions appointed to the official creditors’ committee for the Residential Capital, LLC chapter 11 cases.

Catherine V. LoTempio is an associate in Seward & Kissel’s Corporate Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group. Her practice focuses on providing bankruptcy advice to lenders, bondholders, creditor committees and members of creditor committees, corporate trustees and agents, borrowers, equity holders, investors, and other secured and unsecured creditors in chapter 11 reorganizations, out-of-court restructurings, and structured finance transactions.

Catherine has recently represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Fairmont San Jose, Furniture Factory Outlet, Papyrus, and Le Pain Quotidien bankruptcy cases, secured agents in the Skillsoft, J.Crew, and Pier 1 bankruptcy cases, indenture trustees/committee members in the Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, Intelsat, McClatchy, and Murray Energy bankruptcy cases, the independent managers in the Payless bankruptcy cases, and the second largest unsecured creditor in the Sears bankruptcy cases, among others.

Andrew J. Matott is an associate in Seward & Kissel’s Litigation and Corporate Restructuring & Bankruptcy Groups. As part of the Litigation Group, Andrew gained experience representing clients in both state and federal court in connection with complex commercial litigation, criminal prosecutions, regulatory inquiries, and bankruptcy matters.

Since joining the Corporate Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group in 2020, Andrew has focused primarily on providing bankruptcy advice to lenders, bondholders, creditor committees and members of creditor committees, corporate trustees and agents, borrowers, equity holders, investors, and other secured and unsecured creditors in chapter 11 reorganizations. Andrew has experience representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Fairmont San Jose, Furniture Factory Outlet, Papyrus, and Le Pain Quotidien bankruptcy cases.

Laura E. Miller is an associate in the Litigation Group. Laura’s practice has focused primarily on complex commercial litigation, government investigations, and regulatory inquiries. Laura has significant experience in maritime litigation arising from the collapse of the O.W. Bunker Group, as part of the team representing ING Bank N.V. as Security Agent in over two dozen lawsuits pending in the district courts and the Second, Fifth, and Eleventh Circuits.