Suzanne Span is an associate in the Orange County office of Gibson Dunn and a member of the firm’s Business Restructuring and Reorganization Practice Group.
Suzanne’s practice focuses on complex corporate restructurings, including bankruptcy proceedings, distressed debt acquisitions, and bankruptcy-related litigation. She has represented financially distressed companies and lenders, both in out-of-court restructurings and in prepackaged, pre-arranged, and freefall chapter 11 cases. Suzanne has also advised purchasers on acquisitions of assets through bankruptcy sales and out-of-court foreclosure proceedings. Additionally, Suzanne maintains an active pro bono practice, including representations involving immigration appeals, adoptions, and bankruptcy-related advising of government and nonprofit entities.
Suzanne earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2021, where she was a six-time recipient of Harvard Law School’s Dean’s Scholar Prize for top academic performance in subjects ranging from regulation of financial institutions to constitutional law. While attending law school, she was an editor of the Harvard Law & Policy Review and a student lawyer in Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic and its International Human Rights Clinic. Following her first year, Suzanne was a law clerk in the Consumer Protection Section of the California Department of Justice. She received her B.S. in Business Administration with high honors from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Suzanne was an associate in the restructuring practice group at another international law firm in Los Angeles. She also completed a fellowship at the Western Center on Law & Poverty, where she assisted with impact litigation relating to public benefits programs.
Suzanne is a member of the bars of the State of California and the District of Columbia, and she is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Representative Clients and Transactions*
- An ad hoc group of secured creditors to Endo International plc, a specialty pharmaceutical company with approximately $8 billion in funded debt, in chapter 11 proceedings in which the first lien creditors purchased substantially all of the debtors’ assets pursuant to an innovative plan sale, ending a multiyear effort to resolve opioid liabilities.
- An ad hoc group of secured lenders in the $1.6 billion chapter 11 reorganization of ConvergeOne Holdings, Inc.
- An insurer in the chapter 11 bankruptcy case of a Catholic diocese facing legacy sexual abuse liabilities.
- An ad hoc group of secured lenders in the pre-arranged chapter 11 cases of Cano Health, Inc.
- An ad hoc group of lenders in the pre-arranged chapter 11 cases of Thrasio Holdings, Inc.
- Ventec Life Systems, a respiratory care device developer and manufacturer in a successful out-of-court merger transaction with an affiliate of React Health (formerly 3B Medical, Inc.).
- Reverse Mortgage Investment Trust Inc., a fully integrated financing company focused on the reverse mortgage industry, in its chapter 11 cases.
- Modern Land (China) Co., Limited in the restructuring of its $1.3 billion offshore dollar-denominated notes implemented through a scheme of arrangement in the Cayman Islands and parallel recognition proceedings under chapter 15 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
- A fashion industry CEO in his purchase at a bankruptcy auction of a “megamansion” in Los Angeles.
* Includes matters handled prior to Suzanne’s association with Gibson Dunn.
Publications
- Author, "Subrogated guarantors should get all the fruits of underlying obligations," Daily Journal (March 17, 2022)
Capabilities
Credentials
Education:
- Harvard University - 2021 Juris Doctor
- University of California, Berkeley - 2018 Bachelor of Science
Admissions:
- California Bar
- District of Columbia Bar