Mike Guippone

Counsel
Mike is a restructuring attorney who is part of the Municipal Bond Recovery team. He represents clients in municipal bond transactions, workouts, and bankruptcies.
Mike Guippone, Counsel

Mike advises holders of distressed municipal bonds on in- and out-of-court workouts, bankruptcies, and restructurings.  Mike also advises municipal bond purchasers on structuring creditor-friendly financings.  Mike’s experience includes bond-financed projects in various sectors including public utilities, industrial development/technology, higher education, student housing and other on- and near-campus projects.

Client Work

Mike has broad workout and bankruptcy experience.  He has represented bondholders, indenture trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, administrative agents, debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders and agents, as well as debtors and purchasers of companies in bankruptcy. He also has represented various parties in complex bankruptcy litigation.

Mike’s recent experience includes representing indenture trustees for bonds issued by a defaulted water and sewer system in pursuing a receivership over the system, bonds issued by a solid waste disposal authority after the borrower and landfill operator filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, and bonds issued by a college ahead of the college’s wind-down and closure.  Mike also represented bondholders and DIP lenders in negotiating and documenting a debtor-in-possession financing for a bankrupt sustainable economic development project.

His experience also includes large and complex out-of-court restructurings and chapter 11 bankruptcies as well as high-stakes bankruptcy litigation.  He has represented bond indenture trustees, bondholders, administrative agents, and bank lenders in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases across various industries, including: Valaris plc, UTEX Industries, Pacific Drilling, Avaya, and Energy XXI. Mike also represented the agent and lender for a $1.8 billion DIP loan to Weatherford International PLC.

Mike’s bankruptcy litigation experience includes the representation of the administrative agent for a €600 million PIK loan in the involuntary chapter 11 proceeding of EB Holdings (Ecobat); lenders and bondholders in a letter of credit payment priority litigation in the Delaware bankruptcy court, district court, and in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, related to the chapter 11 case of Texas Competitive Electric Holdings (TCEH); one of the nation’s leading credit scoring companies in litigation arising from its acquisition of substantially all the assets of a company out of bankruptcy, including its successful prosecution of third parties for contempt of court for violating the bankruptcy court’s sale order; and various banks, broker-dealers and other institutions in obtaining the dismissal with prejudice of billions of dollars in fraudulent transfer claims arising out of the Lyondell leveraged buy-out and subsequent chapter 11 case.

Previous Work

Mike joined the firm in 2023 from Reorg Research, a market intelligence firm, where he was part of the initial team that developed a product focused on distressed and high yield municipal credits. Prior to that, Mike worked at two other major law firms in New York. From 2013 to 2015, Mike clerked in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York, to the Honorable Carla E. Craig and the Honorable Elizabeth S. Stong.