Mr. Richard A. Chesley

Richard A. Chesley is a co-U.S. managing partner of DLA Piper in Chicago and New York, and chairs its Restructuring Practice. He focuses his practice on corporate restructuring with an emphasis on bankruptcy transactions, both in the U.S. and internationally. Mr. Chesley has served as restructuring counsel in a number of chapter 11 proceedings, including the recently completed chapter 11 cases of LK Bennett, Appvion, Abengoa US Holding LLC (including the related chapter 15 proceeding), LLC and its affiliates, Vertellus Specialties, Orchard Supply Hardware Stores, Velti plc, PJ Finance Inc., and TridentMicrosystems Inc. and its subsidiaries in Asia and Europe. He recently worked on chapter 15 filings for bankruptcy protections through U.S. courts for U.K.-based Arcadia Group, the parent company of Topshop and Topman. He has served as debtors? counsel in a number of other chapter 11 proceedings, including Kaiser Aluminum Corp., National Century Financial Enterprises, Federated DepartmentStores, Elder-Beerman Stores, Montgomery Ward, Purina Mills, The Loewen Group, PFF Bancorp, Contech LLC, Morton Industrial Group, Vermillion, Inc, Fairfield Residential and its subsidiaries andEast West Resort Development. Mr. Chesley also represented Authentic Brands Group in a number of its acquisitions in chapter 11, including Nine West, Aeropostale, Barneys New York, Prince Sports andHickey Freeman, and a number of acquisitions outside of court, including the Marilyn Monroe brand. In addition, he has led a number of out-of-court restructurings, including Arendal, Norwood PromotionalProducts, Examination Management Services Inc. and Educational Media Publishing Group. Mr. Chesley has served as counsel to official creditors? committees in the Polaroid Corp., Stratosphere Hotel,MobileMedia Communications, Edison Brothers Stores, Grant Geophysical and Mercury Finance matters. He also has represented a number of other constituencies in bankruptcy proceedings throughout the U.S., including financial advisors, real estate acquirors, liquidators and other significant creditors, ranging from UBS in multiple restructurings relating to the sub-prime crisis to Tiger Woods in the Planet Hollywood chapter 11 proceedings. In addition, Mr. Chesley handles litigation matters throughout the country stemming from bankruptcy proceedings. Once he firmly established his restructuring law career\nand before joining DLA Piper, he worked at Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin, a financial advisory firm with which he still works closely. While there, he served as senior vice president and restructuring general counsel. In addition to his firm wide legal responsibilities, he was also a member of Houlihan Lokey?s financial restructuring group, working on the restructuring of Nextel International, CTI Movil, and United Airlines. Mr. Chesley has served a number of pro bono clients in the U.S. and globally, and received the firm?s Pro Bono award in 2016. He received his B.A. from Northwestern University and his J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he served on the editorial board of its law review.