Shai’s practice focuses on restructuring and creditors’ rights, including contested Chapter 11 plan confirmations, DIP financing and cash collateral use, intercreditor litigation, and other matters involving bankruptcy litigation. Shai has worked on matters for official committees of creditors and equity securities holders, bondholders, lenders, indenture trustees, and other significant parties-in-interest in many of the nation’s largest Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, and other distressed situations.

Before joining Glenn Agre Bergman & Fuentes, Shai was special counsel at Kasowitz Benson Torres and an associate at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.

Shai has represented:

  • An ad hoc group of non-RSA secured lenders, in the Chapter 11 cases of Cineworld Group PLC.  
  • The Official Committee of Equity Securities Holders of Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. in its Chapter 11 cases.  
  • An ad hoc committee of bondholders, in the Chapter 11 cases of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.  
  • A second lien noteholder, in the Chapter 11 cases of Mallinckrodt PLC.  
  • A former debtor and its affiliates as appellees, in a bankruptcy appeal related to the Chapter 11 cases of 710 Long Ridge Road Operating Company II, LLC.  
  • A debtor, in the Chapter 11 case of CII Parent, Inc.  
  • Founders and former shareholders of GK8, a crypto custody platform, in the Chapter 11 cases of Celsius Network LLC and its affiliates and the Section 363 sale of GK8 to Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.    
  • An ad hoc group of unsecured noteholders of Endo International plc and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 proceedings.
  • An ad hoc group of lenders of Avaya Inc. as litigation counsel.
  • The ad hoc committee of shareholders of Hertz Global, Inc., in its Chapter 11 cases. Glenn Agre structured a winning bid for a group of investors in collaboration with Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management LLC that valued Hertz at $7 billion, offered it a path out of Chapter 11, and gave shareholders what was once thought impossible: $8 per share, marking a positive return on any stock bought after the company’s bankruptcy filing.
  • The Official Committee of Equity Securities Holders of Garrett Motion Inc., a manufacturer of turbochargers, in its Chapter 11 cases. Glenn Agre, on behalf of the equity committee, objected to the debtors’ proposed Chapter 11 plan, which would have left minority shareholders with nearly worthless stock subordinated to billions in obligations to other shareholders. The equity committee’s efforts to guaranty equal treatment to all shareholders resulted in a mediation that led to the negotiation of a consensual Chapter 11 plan, giving minority shareholders significantly enhanced recoveries in the form of the right to receive convertible preferred stock or a cash payout.
  • Ambac Assurance Corporation, a financial guarantee insurance company, in connection with Puerto Rico’s restructuring proceeding under Title III.
  • An ad hoc group of lenders and noteholders of Talen Energy as conflicts counsel. 
  • An ad hoc group of unsecured claimholders of Grupo Aeroméxico as conflicts counsel.
  • Creditors of Energy Future Holdings in defeating the proposed allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars in administrative claims asserted by subsidiary company (EFIH) creditors UMB Bank, Elliott Associates, and the Energy Future Holdings Plan Advisory Board.
  • Fairfax Financial Holdings, a property and casualty insurance and reinsurance company, as a senior creditor and DIP lender in the Chapter 11 cases of EXCO Resources and its affiliates.
  • Fred’s, a leading retailer with 556 general merchandise and pharmacy stores across the southeast United States, in its Chapter 11 case.
  • An ad hoc group holding $3.6 billion in first-lien bonds in the bankruptcy of Caesar’s Entertainment.
  • Bondholders and indenture trustees in the American Airlines bankruptcy case, achieving above-par recoveries for unsecured claims and the reinstatement of $1.2 billion in secured bonds.
  • The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Covia Holdings, Inc. as special litigation counsel.
  • The Official Committee of Equity Security Holders of Hercules Offshore, a provider of shallow water drilling and lift boat services, securing the confirmation of a plan that provided equity with a guaranteed recovery of $15 million and reduced the claim of the first lien lenders by $32.5 million.
  • A noteholder in Taberna Preferred Funding IV in a proceeding challenging the commencement of an involuntary bankruptcy against the issuer of a CDO.
  • Best Lawyers, One to Watch, 2022-23
  • Shai Schmidt featured in Law.com’s “How I Made Partner” Q&A series (November 2021) Read here.
  • 3rd Decision Casts Doubt on Gifts to Individual Class Members, Turnarounds & Workouts (September 2021) Read here.
  • 3rd Circuit Continues Momentive Trend For Secured Creditors, Law360 (Aug. 6, 2019) Read here.
  • Momentive Disrupts Intercreditor Agreements and Reorgs, Law360 (Feb. 8, 2019) Read Here.

CREDENTIALS

  • Harvard Law School, LL.M., 2009
    • Fulbright Fellow
  • The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, LL.B., magna cum laude, 2007

 

ADMISSIONS

  • State Bar of New York
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
  • Israel