Kathryn Sutherland-Smith is an experienced insolvency and restructuring lawyer who has practiced in Australia and in the United States. Over the past decade, Kathryn has structured and implemented multibillion dollar global reorganizations conducted through schemes of arrangement, external administrations, and proceedings under chapters 11 and 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. She also has handled complex insolvency litigation and represented debtors and creditors in an array of out-of-court restructuring matters, including distressed M&A deals, capital markets transactions, and refinancings. Kathryn works with private credit institutions, ad hoc creditor groups, companies experiencing financial distress, and external administrators clients. Her experience covers an array of industries including energy and resources, aviation, transport and logistics, real estate, financial services, and digital assets. Highlights of Kathryn's recent company-side experience prior to joining Jones Day include representing: Hertz in its US$19 billion global restructuring; Swissport, the world's leading provider of airport ground services and air cargo handling, on its €1.9 billion restructuring and recapitalization; and Constellation Oil Services Holding and its subsidiaries in their US$1.5 billion cross-border restructurings. Recent creditor-side representations include advising: an ad hoc group of bondholders, holding more than US$630 million of unsecured bonds in the chapter 11 case of LATAM Airlines; a U.S. private credit fund in connection with the distressed acquisition of Australian corporate and superannuation trustee, Sargon Capital; and the unsecured committee of creditors (UCC) in cryptocurrency platform Celsius Network's chapter 11 case.
Kathryn holds an LLM (first class hons, James Kent scholar) from Columbia University in New York and a LLB (first class hons) from Monash University.
Burton Award in the Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Category (2022) Women in Insolvency and Restructuring Victoria (WIRV) Young Gun Award (2017)