KEN KANSA is a partner in the Restructuring group. Ken represents clients in a wide range of in-court and out-of-court restructuring matters, with particular areas of experience in representing corporate clients in connection with their restructuring proceedings, mass tort-driven restructuring proceedings and cross-border insolvency matters. His public and non-public representations have included providing strategic advice and long-term restructuring advice for companies in addressing their liabilities; negotiating, drafting and implementing chapter 11 plans of reorganization; drafting and negotiating sale documents and requests for court approval of section 363 asset sales; negotiating and securing court approval of debtor-in-possession financing facilities; preparing companies for chapter 11 filings and advising companies in connection with numerous bankruptcy-related real estate, tax and corporate issues.
Ken’s representative public engagements include:
- Yarway Corporation: Representation of valve manufacturer in reorganizing and establishing a $300 million trust to resolve its asbestos-related liabilities through chapter 11 proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
- Lee Enterprises, Incorporated: Representation of publicly traded newspaper publisher and media company and its affiliates in prepackaged chapter 11 proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, involving the consensual restructuring of over $1 billion in secured debt.
- Tribune Company: Representation of Tribune Company and its affiliated debtors in their chapter 11 proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, involving the restructuring of over $13 billion in funded debt.
- Chicago National League Ball Club, LLC: Representation of owner of the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball franchise in connection with its disposition of a majority interest in the Chicago Cubs business and concurrent commencement of a chapter 11 case in order to facilitate that disposition.
- Federal-Mogul Corporation/T&N Limited: Representation of Federal-Mogul Corporation, T&N Limited and 155 of their affiliates in connection with their U.S. chapter 11 proceedings and English-law administration proceedings, which involved the restructuring of funded debt in excess of $4 billion, asbestos liabilities estimated in excess of $9 billion and U.K. pension liabilities estimated by U.K. pension authorities to be in excess of $2 billion. The Federal-Mogul chapter 11 proceedings were among the largest chapter 11 proceedings ever commenced in the United States, and the concurrent administration of its U.K. subsidiaries was one of the largest in the history of the United Kingdom.
- General Motors Corporation: Representation of a syndicate of pre-bankruptcy lenders in connection with a $90.7 million secured claim relating to a synthetic lease facility entered into by General Motors Corporation, which commenced a chapter 11 case in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in June 2009.
- System Software Associates, Inc.: Representation of provider of ERP software in its chapter 11 proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and related section 363 sale of substantially all of its assets.
- Northwestern Steel & Wire Company: Representation of Illinois-based steel and wire company in its chapter 11 proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
- Ken has also spoken to various professional organizations on restructuring and insolvency-related matters, including those relating to the administration of cross-border insolvency proceedings, equipment lease financing and similar issues.
Ken is listed in Who’s Who Legal: Restructuring and Insolvency for 2017. He sits on the Advisory Board for the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences at Cleveland State University. Ken is also a frequent speaker to professional organizations and on CLE matters for restructuring and insolvency, including those relating to the treatment of commercial leases in bankruptcy proceedings, the administration of cross-border insolvency proceedings, equipment lease financing and similar issues.