Katie R. Catanese is a bankruptcy and restructuring attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP. She focuses her practice on representation of post-confirmation trusts and trustees. She also focuses her practice on representation in investors and managers in hedge funds in onshore and offshore accounts in bankruptcy ligation including involuntary bankruptcies and Chapter 15 bankruptcy. In this regard, she assisted in filing an involuntary petition for a group of hedge fund creditors and then assisted in procuring a settlement in that bankruptcy that resolved over a dozen lawsuits in the U.S. and offshore. See In re Stillwater Asset Backed Offshore Fund, Ltd., 485 B.R. 498 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2013) (where the court granted the involuntary petition against an offshore fund whose creditors were offered ineffective DIKs).

She also focuses her practice on representation of court appointed receivers in Chinese reverse merger cases where the U.S. entity has “gone dark” and returned to China leaving their U.S. investors without recourse.

Ms. Catanese also focuses her practice on representation of banks and trustees of bank holding companies, including litigation related to procurement of tax refunds and disputes with the FDIC over refund ownership. These cases often involve Cayman and BVI litigation and negotiations as the subsidiaries of these companies are often located there.

She further emphasizes indenture trustee representation, including representation of U.S. Bank as the indenture trustee for certain bonds in the American Airlines, Samson Resources (oil and gas) and Peabody Energy (coal) bankruptcies. She has extensive experience in the representation of trustees regarding resolution and objection to bankruptcy claims, pursuit of fraudulent transfer and preference actions as well as litigation related to bad faith bankruptcy filings, Ponzi schemes, and 363 sales.

She also has particular knowledge of individual and business Chapter 7’s and individual Chapter 11’s. Finally, she is experienced with e-discovery in bankruptcy cases.

Finally, she is building a practice focusing representing for profit schools in all forms of litigation related to their business and financial restructuring of these schools, including representation of private equity in the higher education space.

Ms. Catanese is a member of the Bankruptcy and Health Care Restructuring sub team at Foley. She is also the women’s retention coordinator for Foley’s Women’s Network in the New York office.

Prior to joining Foley, Ms. Catanese was an associate at Allard & Fish, P.C., where she represented corporate debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, and trustees in all aspects of bankruptcy litigation, including Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases.

Recognition
Ms. Catanese was selected for inclusion in the 2014 New York Super Lawyers – Rising Stars® list.

Publications

• “Labor Considerations in Higher Education Restructurings,” American Bankruptcy Institute, October 2017, co-author
• “Arbitration and Bankruptcy: A Tug of War,” The Review of Banking & Financial Services, July 2017, co-author
• "The For Profit School: a Bankruptcy Trend Worth Watching,” Law360, June 18, 2015
• “Nonrecourse Claimants Have a Claim in Bankruptcy,” Law 360, Dec. 11, 2013, co-authored with Derek Wright
• "When is an Executory Contract a Financial Accommodation Agreement?" American Bankruptcy Institute, ABI 18th Annual Northeast Bankruptcy Conference, July 21-24, 2011, co-author
• “Radlax—‘An Easy Case’,” Law 360, July 10, 2012, co-authored with Douglas E. Spelfogel
• “Absolute Assignment of Rents: Maybe Yes, Maybe No,” Michigan Lawyers Weekly, June 13,2011, co-authored with Victor Vilaplana and Ann Marie Uetz
• “Implications Of In Re Rahim,” Law 360, Feb. 7, 2011, co-authored with Ann Marie Uetz
• “Philadelphia Newspapers: Consideration of Fairness?,” Law 360, May 20, 2010, co-authored with Douglas E. Spelfogel
• “Philly Papers Ruling to Reshape Lending?,” The Bulletin, May 21, 2010, co-authored with Douglas E. Spelfogel
• “The Future of SPEs In Light of General Growth,” Law 360, Feb. 9, 2010, co-authored with Keith Owens
• "Working Paper: Best Practices for Debtors’ Attorneys," Task Force on Attorney Discipline (Best Practices Working Group, Ad Hoc Committee on Bankruptcy Court Structure and Insolvency Processes, American Bar Association, Business Law Section) Business Lawyer, Vol. 64, No. 1, 2008, co-authored with David W. Allard and others
• "The Means Test Part III: Keeping Up With Dismissals Under BAPCPA," ABI Journal, Vol. XXVI, No. 3, 2007, co-authored with David W. Allard
• "The Means Test Part II: Deductions: More Ambiguity in the Era of Means Testing," ABI Journal, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, 2007, co-authored with David W. Allard
• Quoted in: In re Zaporski, 366 B.R. 758, 765 (Bankr. E.D. Mich., 2007)
• "The Means Test: Seeing Clearly the CMI," ABI Journal, Vol. XXVI, No. 1, 2007, co-authored with David W. Allard

Presentations
Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (“APSCU”), “Call to Arms: Department of Defense Suspensions and Related Actions,” March 23, 2016