John D Penn

Practice Areas

Bank Lending

Bankruptcy & Restructuring

Coronavirus (COVID-19): Guidance for Businesses

Corporate Law

Corporate Trust

Economic Opportunity & Recovery Team

Environment & Natural Resources

Financial Transactions

Structured Finance & Securitization

Energy Law

Hospitality

Blockchain, Digital Assets & Custody

Retail & Consumer Products

Cannabis Law

CMBS and Real Estate Workouts

Career

John Penn is a partner and serves as the Firmwide Chair of Perkins Coie’s Bankruptcy & Restructuring Practice and practices in the Dallas and New York offices of the firm. John was licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas in 1982 and the Supreme Court, Appellate Division of New York in 2010. During four decades of practice, John has represented secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, trustees and unsecured creditor committees in major and high-profile reorganizations and insolvency proceedings. The engagements included both prosecuting and defending parties alleged to have received avoidable transfers with payments and property transfers being sought for return to the bankruptcy estate.

In addition to working on Chapter 11 cases, John’s experience includes representing parties in Chapter 15 cases where estate representatives in insolvency proceedings in other parts of the world seek recognition from, and relief in, the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts.

John is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and served as the President of the American Bankruptcy Institute during 2005 – 2006 when the most recent overhaul of the Bankruptcy Code became effective and later served as ABI’s Chairman. John is also certified by both the American Board of Certification and Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Business Bankruptcy Law.

John has written extensively on bankruptcy and reorganization topics and has been published in the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal and a number of other publications. John has recently been blogging about the various digital currency company bankruptcy cases on the firm’s Virtual Currency Report located at https://www.virtualcurrencyreport.com/. John is a frequent speaker at educational programs and has made presentations at seminars across the United States and in Europe.