John R. Weiss
Partner
Duane Morris LLP
190 South LaSalle Street, Suite 3700
Chicago, IL 60603-3433
USA
Phone: +1 312 499 0148
Fax: +1 312 277 6994
Email: jrweiss@duanemorris.com

John R. Weiss practices in the area of business reorganization and financial restructuring. Mr. Weiss focuses his practice on corporate restructurings and recapitalizations, loan defaults, workouts and bankruptcies. His practice on behalf of creditors focuses on representing banks, institutional investors, indenture trustees, and holders of publicly and privately placed debt securities in complex corporate and municipal situations. His practice on behalf of debtors includes companies in the golf, entertainment, hospitality, wire and cable, steel, trucking, aluminum smelting, and sampling businesses.

Mr. Weiss has worked for special servicers and lenders in commercial mortgage loan workouts, foreclosures and bankruptcies involving properties located throughout the country; traditional bank and finance company clients in straight loan and asset-based lending facilities; institutional investor clients in negotiated secured and unsecured private placement transactions; indenture trustees for and holders of debt securities issued by multinational corporations and municipalities; and committees of creditors formed either before or after a bankruptcy case is filed. Mr. Weiss also has extensive experience in workouts involving investor-owned electric utilities and sponsors/suppliers of asset securitization transactions.

A member of the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the Turnaround Management Association, Mr. Weiss is a 1985 graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and a 1982 graduate of Northwestern University.

Areas of Practice

• Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring

Representative Matters

• Represented a distressed debt fund client in the purchase of $45 million of senior notes secured by a large condominium development outside of Charleston, South Carolina.
• Represented agent bank for matured $200 million construction loan secured by Florida condominium development in negotiating a restructuring proposal from the borrower and guarantor which was sufficient to attract takeout financing.
• Represented participant bank in $240 million loan to an Illinois home builder; assisted agent bank's counsel in developing strategy for pursuit of remedies outside of bankruptcy.
• Represented special servicers in pursuit of remedies in over $2 billion of commercial mortgage real estate loans including foreclosure proceedings in over 30 states, deeds in lieu of foreclosure, and bankruptcy proceedings.
• Successfully litigated the enforceability of prepayment premiums where borrowers paid their loans in full prior to maturity.
• Acted as counsel to trustees of collateralized debt obligation trusts, interpreting complex trust indentures, advising of rights and obligations under the indentures, and resolving conflicting demands upon trustees in the event of prospective or actual defaults under the indentures.
• Represented holders of debt securities constituting the largest single unsecured claim in the bankruptcy of Enron Corp., obtaining the allowance of their claims in full.
• Represented commercial debtors in Chapter 11 proceedings in the entertainment, hospitality, steel, trucking, metal smelting and golf industries.
• Litigated issues concerning alleged fraud and wrongdoing related to collateralized mortgage-backed securities on behalf of special servicers and other holders of marketable debt instruments.
• Advised numerous clients on optimal crafting of documents for preservation of rights in the event of insolvency, particularly regarding "split lien" remedies and inter-creditor rights for asset-based loans.

Admissions

• Illinois
• Supreme Court of the United States
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois

Education

• Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., 1985
• Northwestern University, B.A., 1982

Experience

• Duane Morris LLP
  - Partner, 2006-present
• Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
  - Partner, 1996-1998, 2000-2006
• Bell, Boyd & Lloyd LLP
  - Partner, 1998-2000
• Chapman and Cutler
  - Partner, 1993-1996
  - Associate, 1985-1993

Honors and Awards

• Listed in Who's Who in American Law
• Listed in Illinois Super Lawyers
• AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell