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.