Kristen is an associate in the firm’s Creditors’ Rights and
Commercial Finance, Corporate and Electronic Transactions Processing groups.
Prior to joining Berkowitz, Trager & Trager, LLC, Kristen was an associate
in the Restructuring group at the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis
LLP, where she advised debtors, creditors, equity holders and other interested
parties in all aspects of distressed situations and corporate restructurings.
Kristen also worked as an associate in Finn Dixon & Herling LLP’s
Debt Finance group, where she represented financial institutions, sponsors
and borrowers in finance transactions, including secured and unsecured
lending, acquisition financings, asset-based securitizations and bankruptcy
and restructuring matters.
In addition to her corporate practice, Kristen is also committed to pro
bono work and serving the nonprofit community. She has extensive experience
representing charitable organizations and private foundations on a variety
of transactional matters, including assistance with incorporation and
obtaining 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, negotiating fiscal sponsorship
and other complex arrangements with partnering nonprofits, and counseling
board members and senior management on compliance issues and charitable
registration and reporting requirements.
Kristen attended Cornell University, where she received a B.S. in Industrial
and Labor Relations and graduated with high honors. She graduated
cum laude from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 2011 and served as an editor of the
Cardozo Law, Policy & Ethics Journal.
Admissions
- State of New York
- State of Connecticut
- State of New Jersey
Affiliations
- Connecticut Bar Association
- New York City Bar Association
Representative Transaction
- Represented a developer of customer outcome management software solutions
in the $100 million sale of its company to a financial sponsor.
- Represented a gambling casino in a Chapter 11 proceeding – restructured
claims and liabilities were approximately $1.5 billion.
- Represented a leading provider of portable sanitation services in the acquisition
of four subsidiaries in less than two years.
- Represented a luxury specialty retailer with flagship stores in NYC in
a fully consensual out-of-court restructuring that reduced the company’s
long-term outstanding indebtedness from more than $590 million to $50 million.
- Represented a leading retailer of trend-right women’s fashions that
operated over 400 retail stores nationwide in a Section 363 bankruptcy
sale, allowing the company to exit unprofitable store locations.
- Represented a direct-sales marketing company in the health and wellness
industry with aggregate indebtedness of approximately $295 million in
a successful out-of-court restructuring.
- Represented a large brewery in negotiating a note purchase agreement with
the company’s founders and equity owners.
- Represented a charitable organization that provides therapy services to
children in negotiating a partnership agreement with another nonprofit
that offers music programs to children in hospitals.
- Assisted a startup nonprofit that offers therapeutic horsemanship services
to disabled individuals in incorporating, drafting bylaws and other core
corporate governance documents and obtaining tax-exempt status.