Dr. OlafBenning

Dr. Olaf Benning advises clients in out-of-court restructurings, formal insolvency proceedings, and distressed M&A transactions. Major customers and suppliers of distressed companies and their shareholders and providers of financing have relied on him to assert their rights in the critical situations before and after filing for insolvency.

Olaf has particular experience in cross-border cases and has represented financial investors and large groups of companies with respect to their German operations. The same is true for distressed companies in the retail, wind energy, solar energy, automotive, hotel, and financial services sectors in connection with out-of-court restructurings of portfolio companies or the restructuring of entire groups of companies or selected subsidiaries.

Olaf has been involved in formal insolvency proceedings for numerous clients, including several large or mid-sized automotive suppliers, trading companies, companies from the hotel industry and operators of retail store chains and shopping malls, as well as real estate investors and manufacturers from various industry areas. He was involved in the insolvency proceedings of GALERIA Karstadt Kaufhof, Intertoys, Fintyre group, American Apparel, MEXX, and Hein Gehricke (retail); Veritas AG, Kratzer Automation AG (automotive suppliers); Q-Cells, Qimonda (memory chip manufacturers); Senvion (wind energy); Solarwatt, Gehrlicher Solar (solar energy); Cinterion Wireless Modules (technology company); PaperlinX (pan-European paper manufacturer); and A-TEC Industries (industrial conglomerate Austria).

Prior to joining Jones Day, Olaf advised Lehman Brothers on the German law issues arising in its chapter 11 proceedings and Cerberus during its out of insolvency acquisition of the entire business of German automotive supplier Peguform.

Olaf is a member of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) and of the German-American Lawyers' Association.