Melissa Mertz
Melissa represents significant parties including secured and unsecured creditors, official or ad hoc creditors’ committees, bondholders and investors, as well as companies, their sponsors and boards of directors, in complex Chapter 11 bankruptcies and out-of-court restructurings, distressed investments, special situation lending and other strategic transactions.
Her work spans industries and sectors including technology, media and communications, health care, energy and financial services, and often involves highly regulated entities.
Melissa provides end-to-end counsel and representation, assessing claims and liabilities, crafting initial strategies, coordinating with diverse parties and constituencies, governmental entities and transaction counterparties, and drafting and negotiating key bankruptcy and restructuring documents, interparty arrangements and a variety of financing and transactional agreements. She handles day-to-day case management and communications with clients, colleagues and counsel. Melissa also advises on risk mitigation and management, corporate governance, compliance obligations and regulatory considerations in restructuring and bankruptcy-related transactions.
Prior to joining the firm, Melissa worked as an associate in the restructuring practice of a leading global law firm, representing key parties in complex domestic and cross-border restructuring and insolvency matters, including headline-making restructurings in automotive, technology, cryptocurrency and health care.
During law school, Melissa served as a junior law clerk to the Hon. Jack B. Weinstein, Senior Judge for the Eastern District of New York, through the Alexander Fellows Program, a competitive program that places students as full-time clerks with federal judges for a semester. She also interned with the Public Utilities Division of the Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey and with the New Jersey Superfund Branch of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Experience & capabilities
Selected matters
A leading provider of education technology in restructuring over $1.7 billion in funded debt through a “Bruno’s” transaction and consummation of two third-party asset sales under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.*
The largest distribution network of replacement tires across North America in a going-concern sale of its business under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code, eliminating approximately $1.5 billion in debt.*
A leading technology workforce development company in a comprehensive out-of-court transaction that included a recapitalization and exchange of existing secured debt, providing for the exchange of nearly $1.2 billion in secured debt obligations for 100% of the equity interest in the debtor and the infusion of more than $200 million of new capital into the business.*
A leading e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars in a liability management exercise supported by approximately 90% of the debtor’s existing noteholders, deleveraging the balance sheet by $1.2 billion and reducing its interest expenses by $430 million a year for the next two years through a series of transactions, including an exchange offer, extension of maturities, at-the-market equity raise and equity investment.*
One of the world’s largest oncology care providers in its landmark multinational restructuring of approximately $1.7 billion in funded debt liabilities through a reorganization of its business in Australia, Spain and the UK and a “toggle” feature in the Chapter 11 plan, providing for the equitization or the sale of all of the US business.*
One of the largest cryptocurrency platforms at the time of filing in one of the first restructurings in the industry.*
(*Indicates work done prior to joining the firm.)
Background
Education
- J.D., Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 2020
- BS, cum laude, Environmental Policy, Institutions and Behavior, Rutgers University, 2017
Bar Admissions
