Preppy clothing chain J.Crew Group headlined the world of retail Monday as it announced that it filed for bankruptcy protection in Virginia federal court.
J.Crew’s Chapter 11 filing is the first out of a wave of major brand names expected to follow as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to keep retail’s doors shuttered. Some of the biggest Texas retailers anticipated to file for bankruptcy in the coming weeks include Dallas-based Neiman Marcus and JCPenney.
While J.Crew’s restructuring team is being led out of Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ New York office and Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Richmond office — the city where the company filed for Chapter 11 — a few Dallas-based attorneys from Weil are also working on the bankruptcy.
The Weil team includes litigation partner Paul Genender, litigation counsel Amanda Pennington Prugh and banking & finance associate Richard Riles. Genender, who heads Weil’s litigation practice in Dallas, has handled a number of notable bankruptcy litigation matters.
Most recently, Genender led a team (which also included Prugh) that represented Oklahoma-based Kingfisher Midstream in its bankruptcy litigation, including winning a hotly contested sale hearing in January. In the following two months, Genender led another team in the contested bankruptcy plan confirmation for Houston-based EP Energy Corp. In the same bankruptcy, Genender successfully led trials in November over backstop/plan support agreements.
While J.Crew is based in New York, the company currently is partially owned by TPG, which has co-headquarters in Fort Worth and San Francisco. In 2011, TPG and co-owner Leonard Green & Partners took J.Crew private in a $3 billion leveraged buyout. Reuters reports that their investments will now be wiped out.
Lazard is serving as J.Crew’s investment banker and AlixPartners is serving as restructuring advisor. The ad hoc committee, led by Anchorage Capital Group, is being represented by Milbank as legal counsel and PJT Partners as investment banker.