Hannah Crawford
Overview
Hannah Crawford is a restructuring partner in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis International LLP. Hannah was named Corporate Restructuring Lawyer of the Year at the 2023 Turnaround, Restructuring and Insolvency Awards and featured in The Lawyer's “Hot 100” list for 2023 and Law.com International's list of “Rising Stars: the UK's Best Up and Coming Female Lawyers” for 2023.
Hannah has experience in cross-border restructurings advising debtors, creditors and strategic investors on restructurings of stressed and distressed businesses. Hannah also has experience advising leading credit funds in relation to their due diligence and review of European investment opportunities in stressed and distressed situations.
Hannah is also recognised in INSOL International’s 2022 “Young Practitioner Spotlight”, EMEA’s 2022 “Rising Stars” and the Euromoney’s 2022 Expert Guides as a “Rising Star” in the global restructuring market.
Experience
Representative Matters
Since joining Kirkland, Hannah has been involved in the following representations:
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Vyaire Medical, Inc. — Representing Vyaire Medical, Inc. and certain of its affiliates in their prearranged Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Vyaire is a leading medical devices and services company with approximately $534 million in funded debt. Vyaire commenced the prearranged cases to conduct a sale process with a $45 million debtor-in-possession financing facility and the support of the vast majority of its secured lenders.
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Appgate — to confirm Chapter 11 plan and emerge from Chapter 11 restructuring.
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McDermott International — on the successful implementation of its restructuring via parallel restructuring processes across three jurisdictions: in England (UK Restructuring Plan), the Netherlands (Dutch WHOA) and the U.S. (Chapter 15 recognition proceedings). The restructuring resulted in the amendment and extension of $2.6 billion of secured debt and the extinguishment of $2 billion of litigation and arbitration liabilities.
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Fantasia — Advising an ad hoc group of offshore bondholders in the restructuring of $4 billion of offshore bonds issued by Fantasia Holdings Group Co., Limited.
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McDermott — on the approval of its restructuring plan.
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Venator — to emerge from Chapter 11 restructuring.
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Wheels Up Experience Inc. — In its strategic partnership with a consortium of investors led by Delta Air Lines, Certares Management LLC, Knighthead Capital Management LLC, and Cox Enterprises.
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Triton — Advised on the win of the most significant restructuring litigation case of the last 20 years.
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Venator Materials, PLC — Advised on their prepackaged Chapter 11 in Texas.
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An ad hoc group of lenders to Archer Limited — Advised on the successful refinancing and recapitalization of its $600 million term loan.
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The Lycra Company — Advised on the completion of a comprehensive debt refinancing.
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Celsa — Advising the ad hoc committee of jumbo and convertible lenders to Spanish steel manufacturing company, Celsa, in the first use of the Spanish Restructuring Plan procedure.
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Celsius Network — Advising cryptocurrency-based finance platform Celsius and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. With over $5.5 billion in liabilities, Celsius is the largest cryptocurrency bankruptcy filing to date.
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PGS ASA — Advised the company in relation to its restructuring.
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Löwen Play — Advised the ad hoc group of noteholders on the financial restructuring of Safari Holding Verwaltungs GmbH, implemented via a scheme of arrangement under Part 26 Companies Act 2006.
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Noble Group — Advised Noble, a major global commodities trading business, on the successful $1.3 billion financial restructuring of its trading business which was implemented by way of a share pledge enforcement and receivership sale.
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Yestar Healthcare Holdings Company Limited — Advised Yestar on the successful restructuring of its New York law governed $200 million senior notes.
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NCP — Advised the company in relation to the restructuring of its leasehold estate including structuring and proposing a restructuring plan under Part 26A Companies Act 2006.
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Amigo — Advising the ad hoc committee of noteholders in relation to the company’s financial restructuring.
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Hertz — Advised the ad hoc committee of noteholders in relation to the UK scheme of arrangement.
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Mamas & Papas — Advised the company on its restructuring by way of a pre-packaged administration sale.
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Galapagos — Advised the Galapagos group in relation to its financial restructuring.
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Debenhams — Advised the ad hoc committee of noteholders and lead investors in relation to the group’s financial restructuring.
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Agrokor — Advised the Extraordinary Administrator to Agrokor d.d., a Croatian food and retail company, in relation to its financial restructuring. This was the first time that the Croatian Extraordinary Administration process had been used; the procedure was recognised by the English court in 2017 in a case that was acknowledged at the 2018 Global Restructuring Review Awards as the “Most important recognition decision”.
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Noble Group Limited — a global commodities trading business, on its multi-billion dollar restructuring which included an English scheme of arrangement.
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Danaos — Represented an ad hoc group of creditors to Danaos Corporation in connection with the restructuring of $2.2 billion of the company’s debt.
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CGG — Represented the ad hoc committee of senior secured lenders to CGG S.A. and its subsidiaries in connection with a prearranged restructuring through concurrent French sauvegarde, Chapter 15, and Chapter 11 proceedings.
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Algeco Scotsman — a world leader in modular space and secure storage solutions, in relation to the restructuring of its PIK loan through an English scheme of arrangement.
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Expro — Represented the original shareholders to the UK-based oil and gas services group, in connection with the implementation of the group’s overall restructuring through a pre-packaged Chapter 11 proceeding.
Prior to joining Kirkland, Hannah worked on the following matters:
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The Joint Provisional Liquidators of Baha Mar Ltd. In provisional liquidation in the Bahamas.
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch as creditor of various distressed companies.
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Northwood Investors LLC on several matters, including the sale of the Diagonal Mar shopping centre in Barcelona, Spain.
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The joint administrators of BRAC Rent-A-Car International, Inc. (formerly Budget-Rent-A-Car International, Inc.) in relation to the discharge of administration.
Prior Experience
Sidley Austin LLP
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Associate (2015–2016)
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Trainee Solicitor (2013–2015)
More
Thought Leadership
Publications
Co-Author, "Legal Statement on Digital Assets and English Insolvency Law", UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, LawTech UK, April 2024
Contributor, “Cross Border Restructuring & Insolvency 2012-2022: Cases and Developments”, Wolters Kluwer, June 2023
Contributor, “Company Voluntary Arrangements: Law and Practice”, Edited by Elaine Nolan and Tom Smith QC, Oxford University Press, February 2022
Co-Author, “Recast Insolvency Regulation: key changes for corporate restructurings”, PLC Magazine, May 2017
Recognition
Recognised as “Corporate Restructuring and Insolvency Lawyer of the Year” and “Thought Leader of the Year” at the Women in Business Law EMEA Awards, 2024
Listed in Financial News’ list of “Rising Stars of European Finance”, 2024
Named as “Corporate Restructuring Lawyer of the Year” at the Turnaround, Restructuring and Insolvency Awards, 2023
Featured in The Lawyer’s “Hot 100” list, 2023
Listed in Law.com International’s list of “Rising Stars: the UK’s Best Up and Coming Female Lawyers”, 2023
Recognised among the “Restructuring & Insolvency Rising Stars” at the annual EMEA Rising Star Awards, 2022
Recognised in INSOL International’s “Young Practitioner Spotlight”, 2022
Recognised as a “Rising Star” in the Euromoney’s Expert Guides list for Restructuring and Insolvency, 2022
Memberships & Affiliations
Insolvency Lawyers' Association (ILA)
INSOL
International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC)
Women in Banking & Finance (WIBF)
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2015, Admitted to practice as a Solicitor of England and Wales
Education
- BPP Law School, HolbornLPC2013
- Gonville & Caius College, University of CambridgeB.A., LawTripos2012