Dabin (lawyer)

Dabin Chung is an American-qualified lawyer and partner at Mayer Brown LLP, a global law firm headquartered in Chicago with offices worldwide. Based in New York, she specialises in restructuring, distressed real estate, and special situations. Her practice primarily focuses on representing financial institutions, creditors, and lenders in bankruptcy proceedings and out-of-court restructurings.

Background and Education

Dabin Chung earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Cornell Law School and her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from Yale University. She began her legal career by serving as a law clerk to the Honourable Robert D. Drain, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York. This early experience provided her with deep insight into bankruptcy proceedings and court practices.
Before joining Mayer Brown, Chung practised law in Hong Kong, where she worked extensively on cross-border restructuring and insolvency matters throughout the Asia-Pacific region. This international experience added a significant dimension to her understanding of multi-jurisdictional restructuring and distressed asset management.

Areas of Practice

At Mayer Brown, Dabin Chung’s work encompasses a wide range of complex financial and legal issues within the restructuring and insolvency sphere. Her principal areas of expertise include:

• Advising lenders, administrative agents, and financial institutions on pre-petition and post-petition financing facilities within Chapter 11 proceedings.
• Structuring and negotiating debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, asset-backed securities, and trade receivable securitisation programmes.
• Guiding clients through out-of-court workouts and hybrid restructuring transactions involving distressed credit, securitisation, and refinancing.
• Providing legal support on distressed real-estate restructuring and special-situation investments.

Her analytical skills and commercial approach have positioned her as a trusted adviser for major financial entities navigating bankruptcy and restructuring challenges.

Notable Engagements

Dabin Chung has played a leading role in several high-profile restructuring and bankruptcy matters involving multi-billion-dollar transactions. Her representative engagements include:

• Acting for the administrative agent of a US$600 million senior secured facility and a US$105 million DIP financing in the Chapter 11 case of Ebix Inc.
• Representing the agent of a trade receivables securitisation programme in the Chapter 11 case of Cyxtera Technologies Inc., a data-centre services provider.
• Advising the administrative agent of a US$1.6 billion pre-petition asset-backed securities facility and a US$400 million post-petition facility in the Chapter 11 case of The Hertz Corporation.

These cases highlight her capacity to manage large, complex, and high-value matters within the restructuring and insolvency field.

Professional Qualifications and Languages

Dabin Chung is admitted to practise law in the State of New York. She is fluent in both English and Korean, which enhances her ability to handle cross-border matters involving clients from the Asia-Pacific region.

Professional Strengths and Significance

Several aspects of Dabin Chung’s career contribute to her professional significance in the legal community:

• Extensive courtroom insight: Her clerkship experience in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court provided her with first-hand procedural and analytical knowledge of bankruptcy litigation and judicial reasoning.
• Cross-border expertise: Her practice experience in both New York and Hong Kong enables her to manage complex international restructuring cases and advise on multi-jurisdictional insolvency issues.
• Institutional focus: She specialises in representing large financial institutions and creditor groups in large-scale restructuring transactions, giving her a strong reputation among banking and finance professionals.
• Commercial perspective: Her approach integrates both legal precision and financial strategy, offering pragmatic solutions in distressed and restructuring contexts.

Applications and Clientele

Dabin Chung’s services are particularly suited to institutional clients engaged in high-value or complex restructuring scenarios. Typical clients and applications of her expertise include:

• Lenders and credit agents seeking representation in large financing or securitisation structures affected by bankruptcy proceedings.
• Corporations and financial institutions requiring advice on debt workouts, distressed asset restructuring, and special-situation financings.
• Cross-border investors and creditors needing legal guidance in cases involving international insolvency or restructuring elements.

Her ability to integrate legal, financial, and cross-border perspectives makes her a valuable counsel for multinational transactions and special-situation investments.

Limitations and Scope of Practice

While Dabin Chung is recognised for her deep expertise in creditor-side and institutional restructuring matters, her practice does not typically extend to consumer bankruptcies or small-scale debtor-side work. Her professional focus remains on complex commercial restructuring, financial institution representation, and large-scale transactions.
Furthermore, although she has notable Asia-Pacific experience through her Hong Kong practice, matters based entirely outside her jurisdictional scope—such as those involving purely domestic laws in other regions—require collaboration with local counsel.