LOS ANGELES –  Mette Kurth, a bankruptcy and restructuring partner in Arent Fox’s Los Angeles office, has been named one of California’s Top Women Lawyers by the state’s leading legal trade, the Daily Journal, for the second year in a row. Mette also has been included in The Best Lawyers in America, and she played a key role in developing the firm’s West Coast restructuring team, which U.S. News & World Report recognized as a “Tier 2” bankruptcy group in 2012. In addition, she was recognized by The M&A Advisor for her outstanding work in The Walking Company’s successful turnaround, and she has been recognized by Los Angeles Magazine as a Southern California Super Lawyer for the last seven years.

“Drawing on her background in economics and business management, Mette has been able to help debtors, creditor’s committees and investors to identify creative solutions to complex financial problems,” notes Robert C. O’Brien, managing partner of Arent Fox’s Los Angeles office. “Her skill and persistence in developing and negotiating innovative answers to business challenges, as well as her ability take a hard stance and litigate when necessary, have made her an invaluable resource in clients’ restructuring plans and bankruptcy matters.”

For example, in 2011-2012 Mette served as lead counsel for the creditor’s committee in Contessa Premium Foods, Inc.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. At the time she was engaged, the committee was confronted with a fast-track sale process that creditors were concerned was mere “window dressing” designed to discourage buyers and leave the company in the hands of equity holders, who were simultaneously proposing a chapter 11 plan that offered creditors no certainty that they would receive any meaningful recoveries on their significant claims against the company. To establish a working relationship between the creditors and the company, Mette quickly negotiated an agreement with Contessa to sell the company in partnership and close consultation with its creditors, thereby minimizing litigation costs while ensuring that creditor concerns were addressed. The re-envisioned sale process eventually generated enough cash to pay off all secured creditors. Following the sale, unsecured creditors were given an option of settling their claims for an immediate 75 percent recovery, or accepting the risks of either a higher or lower return and holding their claims in their full amount while non-operating assets were liquidated. Ultimately, through a combination of the sale proceeds, successful post-sale litigation, and a creative structure for a liquidating chapter 11 plan agreed upon by the debtor and the committee, Mette was able to secure 100 percent recoveries for those unsecured creditors who elected to hold their claims.

Mette obtained her JD (Order of the Coif) from University of California, Los Angeles where she served as chief articles editor of UCLA Law Review. She graduated from Trinity University, with a bachelor’s degree cum laude, with University Honors.