Stephen Lerner is global chair of the Squire Patton Boggs Restructuring & Insolvency Practice Group. He has an extensive national and cross-border restructuring practice in which he represents debtors, distressed businesses, committees of unsecured creditors, secured and unsecured creditors, equity interest holders, boards of directors and acquirers of troubled businesses in Chapter 11 reorganization cases, Chapter 15 cross-border cases, Chapter 9 municipal restructurings and out-of-court restructurings throughout the United States, Europe and, most recently, in the United Arab Emirates, South America and India. Stephen is currently advising Blackjewel LLC, Hartshorne Mining Group and Ferrellgas in their complex restructuring efforts and recently completed the restructuring of Dana Gas PJSC, the largest regional private sector natural gas company in the Middle East, which was awarded the Middle East Restructuring of the Year in 2019 by the International Financial Law Review.
Stephen has led the representation of debtors or other leading parties in the Chapter 11 restructurings of AmFin Financial, Blackjewel LLC, Chrysler, EaglePicher, Energy & Exploration Partners, Enron, Ferrellgas, Lehman Brothers, Midway Gold, Optima Specialty Steel, Patriot Coal, Station Casinos, Veris Gold and WorldCom, among many others, and he represented the Court Appointed Expert in the City of Detroit’s historic Chapter 9 case. Stephen recently served as special counsel to the State of New Jersey in the out of court restructuring of Atlantic City and as lead restructuring advisor to Dana Gas PJSC, the largest independent gas company in the Middle East, in its US$700 million Islamic financing restructuring.
Stephen also led Squire Patton Boggs’ representation of the American College of Bankruptcy in filing an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in the significant Stern related case of Executive Benefits Insurance Agency v. Peter H. Arkison, Trustee of the Estate of Bellingham Insurance Agency, Inc.
