Katherine R. Catanese assists troubled companies facing critical points in their businesses in solving problems related to financial distress and restructuring. She also represents investors and other parties in fraud-based litigation arising in the insolvency space. She is a partner in the firm’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group, as well as a member of the Bankruptcy and Health Care Restructuring sub team.

Katie effectively and efficiently handles various cross-border fraud matters. She represents companies, investors, and hedge funds — both onshore and offshore — in bankruptcy ligation including involuntary bankruptcies and Chapter 15 bankruptcies. In this regard, she is skilled in litigating jurisdiction, fraudulent transfer, alter ego, and related litigation involving the intersection between U.S. and offshore entities. 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 and is liquidating the remaining hedge fund assets. 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 assists companies with maximizing the value of their assets through both in- and out- of court asset sales. During COVID, she represented a prominent seafood restaurant chain in avoiding a bankruptcy filing through a successful out of court distressed asset sale.

She also focuses her practice on helping creditors solve problems related to all aspects of distressed debt. Recently, this has included representing numerous customers in cryptocurrency bankruptcies. Katie also represents debtors, lenders, and strategic buyers in Article 9 sales and assignments for the benefit of creditors, including a retail catalog company buying distressed assets from apparel company; Chadwick’s of Boston, a 75-year old family owned seafood wholesale business through an out of court sale of its assets; a lender fund through an Article 9 sale of a rock quarry in New York; and a private real estate fund which purchased distressed nursing home assets and then sold these assets through a bankruptcy and then, later,a receivership.

Katie is experienced in bankruptcy appeals, and she successfully persuaded a federal appeals court to affirm the dismissal of a “rogue” bankruptcy petition by the ousted former board of directors of a scandal-plagued Chinese clean energy company. See In re Sino Clean Energy (Sino v. Seiden), 901 F.3d 1139 (9th Cir.

2018). In that regard, she 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. These cases often involve Cayman and BVI litigation and negotiations as the subsidiaries of these companies are often located there.

Katie also focuses on for profit schools and higher education restructurings, generally, with an emphasis on fraud investigation and intervention. She is building a practice focusing on representing higher education institutions, lenders, and private equity funds in all forms of litigation related to their business and financial restructuring of these schools.

She also represents banks and trustees of bank holding companies, including litigation related to procurement of tax refunds and disputes with the FDIC over refund ownership.

Awards and Recognition

 Selected for inclusion to Law Leaders (2024) (top 10% attorneys in the nation)

 Selected for inclusion to the New York Metro Super Lawyers list in the field of Bankruptcy: Business (2021, 2022)

 Featured on the Path to the Practice by Foley & Lardner Episode 10 Podcast (2020)

 Recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading U.S. Bankruptcy and Restructuring Lawyers (2020, 2022)

 Recognized as “40 Under 40” by American Bankruptcy Institute in the field of insolvency (2018)

Affiliations

 Former visiting professor teaching research and writing at Thomas M. Cooley Law School  Member, International Women’s Restructuring and Insolvency Confederation (IWIRC)

 Board Member, American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI)

 Board Member, Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors (AIRA)  Member, Turnaround Management Association (TMA)

 Former member, ABA Task Force on Attorney Discipline

 Lifetime member, Michigan State University alumni association  Former member, Michigan State University Law Alumni Board

Education

 Michigan State University (J.D., cum laude, 2004)  Clerk for Honorable David L. Jordan

 Major: Psychology

Admissions

 New York  Michigan