Catherine L Steege

Career

When clients need help navigating financial difficulties or transactions with distressed counterparties, Catherine Steege is their guide. A co-chair of the firm’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring practice, Cathy focuses her practice on representing committees, debtors, contract counterparties, creditors, trustees, and examiners in complex chapter 11 cases and related out-of-court restructurings and litigation. She has deep experience representing parties in complex fraudulent transfer and other insolvency related litigation, having obtained ten-figure judgments on behalf of litigation trusts and trustees, and having successfully defended parties facing significant claims.

Cathy also has extensive experience representing retiree committees in both the commercial and governmental realms, working with the committees to retain health care and pension benefits for their constituents. Comfortable both in the court room and at the negotiating table, Cathy works with her clients to develop a strategy to obtain the best outcome. With her trial and appellate experience, adversaries know she is capable and ready to litigate a matter, which helps facilitate favorable settlements. She also counsels clients pre-bankruptcy with respect to restructuring their debt. She also has far-reaching appellate experience and has argued cases in the United States Supreme Court and in the First, Third, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits.

Cathy is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, which advises Congress on bankruptcy laws and policy. She taught bankruptcy law for 22 years at The John Marshall Law School/University of Illinois Chicago Law School.