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Peter R. Morrison
Partner
Peter Morrison has a broad and versatile corporate, litigation and finance practice built on extensive experience representing and counselling clients in the corporate insolvency, distressed lending and investing, restructuring and bankruptcy contexts, including in complex chapter 11 cases throughout the country. His clients include debtors, creditor’s committees and secured and unsecured creditors in reorganizations and liquidations nationwide. He also represents receivers and secured creditors in receiverships and foreclosure proceedings. Peter has significant bankruptcy litigation experience centered on the prosecution and defense of preference actions, fraudulent transfers, dischargeability contests, declaratory judgment actions, director and officer liability suits and tax litigation.
Peter’s insolvency and restructuring practice is bolstered by his banking and debt finance experience, which has included the negotiation, documentation and management of secured and unsecured loan transactions, including securitizations, syndicated credit facilities, unitranche facilities, split collateral pool transactions and bridge financings.
Peter is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, Turnaround Management Association and the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. He has served on the 2017-2019 planning committees for the William J. O’Neill Great Lakes Regional Bankruptcy Institute and the 2020 planning committee for ABI’s Midwest Regional Bankruptcy Seminar.
Peter has been consistently recognized in Ohio Super Lawyers – Rising Stars, after being selected by his peers as a top up-and-coming Ohio lawyer 40 years of age or younger, or in the practice of law for less than 10 years.
Restructuring & Insolvency
- Counsel to a dental services organization winding down operations in over 30 locations and disposing of all assets through an out-of-court process.
- Representing monoline insurers both in and out of court in various matters related to distressed issuers of municipal and private debt.
- Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 cases of In re Optima Specialty Steel, Inc.
- Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 cases of Santa Fe Gold Corporation.
- Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 cases of Constellation Enterprises, LLC.
- Representing a receiver in the successful receivership and sale of all of the assets of a medical supplements company.
- Counsel to the debtors and debtors in possession in the Chapter 11 cases of In re Midway Gold US Inc.
- Counsel to the debtors and debtors in possession in the Chapter 11 cases of Atna Resources, Inc.
- Representing a debtor bank holding company through all aspects of a Chapter 11 reorganization, including the negotiation of a consensual plan of reorganization, the prosecution and defense of litigation matters with the FDIC and former business and joint venture partners, and the examination of the preference and fraudulent transfer exposure in an effort to maximize estate assets.
- Successfully representing a secured lender through the plan confirmation process in the highly contested bankruptcy of an industrial automotive supplier.
- Restructuring the complex secured debt of a national commercial real estate contractor.
- Successfully defending a major technology supplier in a preference action initiated by the liquidating trustee for a chain of Southern US grocery stores.
- Successfully defending an Asia-based parts supplier in a preference action initiated by the liquidating trustee of an automotive systems company in Michigan.
- Defending a multimillion dollar fraudulent transfer and breach of fiduciary duty suit against the former officers and directors of a debt servicing company.
- Representing an unsecured supplier in the bankruptcy of a major mining company, which included securing critical vendor status and engaging in a thorough preference exposure analysis.
- Representing the secured creditor through the negotiation of the use of cash collateral and ultimately the sale of the debtor in the bankruptcy of an alternative energy components supplier.
- Advising on bankruptcy matters related to true sale and non-consolidation in the issuance of public and private debt instruments.
- Preparing an extensive collateral audit for a hotel to assist in the reorganization process.
Banking and Debt Finance
- Representing first-out lender in a US$88 million syndicated unitranche loan in the healthcare real estate space.
- Representing a borrower oil and natural gas company in the negotiation and documentation of a US$130 million syndicated credit facility, including the formation and addition of new companies.
- Representing the lead agent in connection with a US$350 million secured syndicated credit facility for a Tier 1 automotive supplier.
- Representing a US-based specialty chemicals company in a US$200 million trade receivables securitization as part of a multi-tiered US$2 billion acquisition financing package.
- Representing a regional natural gas supplier in a US$135 million syndicated revolving credit facility designed to assist it in entering into the crude oil market.
- Representing the lead agent in connection with a US$67 million secured syndicated credit facility for a major national sports franchise.
- Representing the lead agent in connection with a US$105 million secured syndicated credit facility for an international supplier of industrial mouldings and extrusions.
- Representing the lead agent in connection with a US$100 million secured syndicated credit facility for an industrial bearing company, which included securing and releasing collateral in Italy, Netherlands and Slovak Republic.
Education
- Case Western Reserve University, J.D., cum laude, Order of the Barristers, executive notes editor, Health Matrix - Journal of Law-Medicine, 2009
- University of Wisconsin - Madison, B.A., 2004
Admissions
- Ohio, 2009
Courts
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Ct. of App., Sixth Circuit, 2011
- U.S. Dist. Ct., N. Dist. of Illinois, 2012
- U.S. Dist. Ct., N. Dist. of Ohio, 2009
- U.S. Dist. Ct., S. Dist. of Ohio, 2010
- U.S. Dist. Ct., Dist. of Colorado, 2014
Memberships & Affiliations
- Member, American Bankruptcy Institute
- Member, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association
- Member, American Bar Association
- Recognized by the American Bankruptcy Institute to its “40 under 40” Class of 2020
- Named by Chambers USA as an associate to watch for Bankruptcy/Restructuring in Ohio
- Recognized in Ohio Super Lawyers – Rising Stars after being selected by his peers as a top up-and-coming Ohio lawyer 40 years of age or younger, or in the practice of law for less than 10 years
- Recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America 2021, 2023 and 2024 for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law and Corporate Law in Cleveland
- Co-author, “Top 10 Employment And Benefit Issues In Bankruptcy Cases,” Law360, May 27, 2020.
- Co-author, “Tips For Managing Relationships With Distressed Companies,” Law360, May 12, 2020.
- Co-Author, “Managing Distressed Customer Relationships,” National Law Review, May 6, 2020.
- Co-Author, “Restructuring Considerations: Making the Most of Stimulus Relief,” National Law Review, March 27, 2020.
- Co-author, “Prepare For Coronavirus-Related Restructuring Issues,” Law360, March 18, 2020.
- Co-author, “Keeping Special Revenues ‘Special’,” National Law Review, May 29, 2018.
- Co-author, “Media Debtors, Take Note: Gawker Court Keeps Defamation Suit and Rejects Application of SLAPP Statute,” American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, December 2017.
- Co-author, “Rejecting Market-Based Cramdown Rates and Making Words Count for Make-Whole Payments,” American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, December 2014.
- Contributing Author, “Recent Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Law: Looking to 2013,” Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Law 2013: Top Lawyers on Trends and Key Strategies for the Upcoming Year, Aspatore Thought Leadership, March 2013.
- Published in the fields of health law and antitrust law. In 2012, co-authored “Lawyers Behaving Badly: Recent Cases Highlighting Attorney Blunders & Bad Acts,” presented at the 86th Annual National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges in San Diego.