Texas Lawbook note: Weatherford International filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Judge David Jones is overseeing the matter.
Lawyers from Hunton Andrews Kurth and Latham & Watkins are advising Weatherford in the proceedings.
The HuntonAK team is based in Houston and led by partner Tad Davidson. Ashley Harper, an associate, is playing a significant role. The group also includes partner David Zdunkewicz and associates Joseph Rovira, Edward Clarkson, Joshua Karam and Amanda Thienpont.
Davidson and Harper are also counsel in the Monitronics bankruptcy.
While Latham’s bankruptcy team is being led by lawyers in New York, it includes a deep bench of Houston attorneys. Corporate partners Ryan Maierson and John Greer and associates Ryan Lynch, Om Pandya, Drew Tengler-West and Ashlynn Royal; finance partner Craig Kornreich, counsel Natalie McFarland and associates Allison Childs, Brian Flynn, Annie Kwan, Hillarie James, Matthew Snodgrass and Kristin Oglesby; and tax associate Jared Grimley are assisting.
Here is more from the Houston Chronicle’s L.M. Sixel:
The oilfield services company Weatherford International filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, after struggling to assimilate the companies it bought during a quest for growth, taking on too much debt and fighting to recover from falling oil prices in 2014 that hammered the energy industry.
Weatherford, which got its start in 1941 and had grown to become the nation’s fourth-largest oil field services provider, reported to the bankruptcy court in Houston that it had as much as $10 billion in liabilities, including $7.5 billion in unsecured bond debt. Weatherford said in its bankruptcy filing that it could not determine the value of the debt from its other largest creditors.
The other debts involve litigation expenses, according to the bankruptcy filing.
For more on this story, please visit the Houston Chronicle.