Melissa Coakley

MELISSA COAKLEY serves as the leader of Sidley’s European restructuring team. She advises in respect of a broad range of stress- or distress-adjacent situations, including recapitalizations, restructurings, distressed M&A, and all connected issues, including emergency capital injections, liability management exercises, technical insolvency aspects, and contentious scenarios.

Melissa’s commercialism, high level of technical knowledge and strategic thinking has seen her acting across sectors (including infrastructure, retail, transport, telecommunications, manufacturing, oil and gas, financial services, and commodities), across geographies, engaging with differing regulatory environments and legal systems (including five years spent on secondment in the Middle East), and for a wide variety of stakeholders: corporate borrowers, funds, banks, insolvency officeholders, governments, private equity sponsors, and material trade creditors.

Melissa is consistently recognized by several leading industry ranking publications. She is ranked in Chambers UK 2026, Chambers Europe 2026, and Chambers Global 2026 for Restructuring/Insolvency, with clients noting that “Melissa is a superstar. She is super commercial and amazing to work with. She completely gets it. She’s five steps ahead all the time and understands what the clients want” and she is “an outstanding and pragmatic lawyer” and “is able to give complex solutions under pressure and in a short time.” She is also recognized in Legal 500 UK 2026 for Corporate Restructuring and Insolvency where she is described as “a class act who takes time to get to know her clients and leaves no stone unturned in finding creative solutions.”

Recent examples of Melissa’s work include advising:

• Two teams of independent turnaround executives in respect of the complex recapitalization of the Eagle Football Group, a high-profile international multi-club structure.
• Senior creditors in relation to ongoing high-profile English law litigation with respect to a recent European large-cap restructuring/ LME process.
• Harbour Energy plc in respect of the acquisition of Waldorf Energy (in administration), including in respect of Waldorf’s contested English and Scottish part 26A restructuring plan proceedings.
• A material creditor in respect of the TalkTalk restructuring and M&A process.
• The Super Senior RCF lenders to the Lowell GFKL Group in respect of its financial restructurings.
• Buy-side in respect of the strategic acquisition of Harland & Wolff, via a pre-packaged administration asset sale.
• Buy-side with respect to the distressed acquisition of the TiO2 business of Venator Materials plc, a pre-packaged administration asset sale.
• Fintech food delivery businesses Getir and Gorillas in respect of European exit arrangements, including an English Company Voluntary Arrangement to compromise leasehold liabilities.
• Certain super senior lenders and new money providers in relation to the restructuring of MGT Teesside (a biomass power project) and associated new money process implemented via part 26A restructuring plan.
• A prominent UK alt-net on a substantial capital raise and associated corporate governance structure amendments and contingency planning.
• Senior creditors to Gigaclear, in respect of its recapitalization and debt-to-equity transaction.
• Senior creditors in respect of the contested Guernsey administration and asset recovery process associated with the collapse of a high-profile international investment platform.
• Private credit lenders to the EnerMech Group (multinational oil and gas services) in relation to the restructuring of its financial debt.
• UK retailer Matalan on its 2023 comprehensive recapitalization and on its 2020 £50 million CLBILS liquidity raise and associated English scheme of arrangement.
• Communisis Group in relation to the Chapter 11 filing of its parent company and the subsequent pre-packaged administration sale of its UK and European businesses.
• A leading UK sponsor in relation to the complex private credit restructuring of a UK aerospace group.
• Certain key senior lenders to Vroon, a Dutch shipping group, in relation to the group’s cross-border restructuring process, including via a Dutch WHOA and English scheme.
• The Official Receiver and Special Managers in relation to the trading liquidation of a UK power station and associated litigation, a national interest case.
• Chrysoar/Harbour Energy in relation to its reverse takeover and associated restructuring of Premier Oil plc, utilizing a part 26A restructuring plan.
• The UK Department for Transport on the COVID-19 impact on the airline and airports sector, including in relation to the Virgin Atlantic part 26A restructuring plan, the first such plan implemented in the UK.
• A prominent European hedge fund in relation to the US$1 billion court-based UAE restructuring of JBF RAK, a multinational plastics manufacturer.
• The coordination committee of senior secured lenders in relation to the US$2 billion Nyrstar restructuring implemented via a mix of consensual arrangements and English schemes of arrangement.
• The liquidators of a tier-one regulated DIFC investment bank and deposit-taking institution on its complex wind-down and associated cross-border litigation, as part of the collapse of the Espirito Santos Financial Group.
• The ad-hoc committee of noteholders and new money providers with respect to the multijurisdictional restructuring of Abengoa SA. Involving US Chapter 11, Spanish Homologation and English CVA processes.
• Certain new money and trade finance providers to the Noble Group, in respect of its $3.2 billion financial restructuring implemented via an English scheme of arrangement and Bermudan provisional liquidation.
• Company side in respect of the Dubai World, Nakheel, Dubai Drydocks, Dubai Holdings International Group, Dubai International Capital, and Jumeirah Golf Estates restructurings (including involving Decree 57 Tribunal proceedings), as well as many other Middle Eastern restructuring or stress-linked mandates.

The above matters were handled prior to joining Sidley.

• Council member and director of the Insolvency Lawyers Association.
• Member of IWIRC and INSOL.