Katherine C. Piper

Associate

• kpiper@steptoe.com
• vCard
• Century City Office

Katherine C. Piper is an associate in the Century City office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where she is a member of the Business Solutions Department and a member of the West Coast Restructuring Group.

She has extensive experience representing corporate clients in all aspects of Chapter 11 restructurings in various Bankruptcy Courts.  On the transactional side, Ms. Piper has a broad range of experience, including advising clients with respect to restructuring planning, asset sales, negotiating, drafting and implementing Chapter 11 plans of reorganization and managing claims reconciliations.

Ms. Piper’s litigation experience includes aggressively defending her clients' various interests in numerous contested matters and adversary proceedings including contract disputes and claims objections.

Representative Matters

• Calpine Corporation - Represented Calpine Corporation, a clean energy producer and supplier, and over 250 of its domestic affiliates, in their Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, including the resolution of over $1 billion in leveraged lease financing claims; the management of the Debtors’ significant leased real property portfolio; the disposition of numerous power plant facilities.
• The Boyds Collection, Ltd. - Represented The Boyds Collection, Ltd., a manufacturer and retailer of collectible teddy bears, plush animals and figurines, and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland.
• Techneglas, Inc. - Represented Techneglas, Inc., a television component manufacturer, in the sale of two of its manufacturing facilities and the reorganization of its remaining business unit in its Chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
• Robbin L. Itkin - Represented Robbin L. Itkin, as the Chapter 11 Trustee of Ritter Ranch Development, LLC, in the sale of a development project of over 7,000 acres in a California Mello-Roos bond financing district for over $52 million.
• Cable & Wireless (USA), Inc. - Represented Cable & Wireless (USA), Inc., a leading internet service provider, in its Chapter 11 liquidation and sale of the debtor's business for over $160 million.

Other Matters:

• Lead bankruptcy counsel for the Chapter 11 Trustee for the Estate of Thomas A. Hantges, one of the former founding principals of USA Commercial Mortgage Company, a commercial loan underwriting, servicing and funding company whose principals were involved in asserted fraud in the magnitude of over $900 million.
• Appointed by the Office of the United States Trustee, and confirmed by the Central District of California Bankruptcy Court, as Chapter 11 Trustee for the Estate of Ritter Ranch Development LLC and lead counsel as well in all aspects of case involving Mello Roos Bond Financing and including extensively litigated 363 sale proceedings and claims issues of principals and lenders; completed a 363 sale of the then largest available developable property in Los Angeles County (over 6,000 acres) for $57.2 million after 75 rounds of bidding. Negotiated carve-outs with secured creditors to satisfy administrative claims.

Select News & Events

• The Bankruptcy Reform Act’s One-Year Mark: What’s New in Chapter 11, The Los Angeles County Bar, Commercial Law Section, co-presenter, November 21, 2006

Publications

• Don’t Take For Granted The Drafting Of A Simple Assignment Provision – Especially In A Non-Exclusive Intellectual Property License – You May End Up In A Bankruptcy Court, co-author
  June 2005, Business Law News, State Bar of California, 3-4, 21
• The Metamorphosis of Assignment Clauses in Bankruptcy: You'd Better Say What You Want or You Won't Get It! (Part II), co-author
  June 2005, The Bankruptcy Strategist, at 6
• The Metamorphosis of Assignment Clauses in Bankruptcy: You'd Better Say What You Want or You Won't Get It! (Part I), co-author
  May 2005, The Bankruptcy Strategist, at 3
• Stranger Than Fiction: The Most Interesting Bankruptcy Decisions Of The Last Year, co-author
  April 2005, The Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum
• The Good Faith Paradox: When Is Solvency An Indicia Of Bad Faith?, co-author
  March 2005, The 13th Annual ABI Battleground West
• Executory Contracts: The Basic To The Obtuse, co-author
  December 2004, The Los Angeles County Bar, Commercial Law Section
• Female Inmates Living in Fear: Sexual Abuse by Correctional Officers in the District of Columbia
  2002, 10 American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & Law at 2, 443

Professional Affiliations

• American Bankruptcy Institute
• American Bar Association
• International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation
• INSOL (International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals)
• Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum
• W.O.M.E.N., Inc. (Women Organized for Mentoring, Education, and Networking)