Jonathan T. Edwards

• Represented Fortress Investment Group in acquiring a 300-plus location restaurant chain, out of bankruptcy for $50 million.
• Representing a private credit lender in several out-of-court workouts with credits exceeding $100 million.
• Represented a publicly traded Canadian company in the distressed acquisition of a manufacturing facility and millions of dollars’ worth of equipment in North Carolina.
• General outside counsel to one of the largest privately held roofing distributors in the Southeast.
• General outside bankruptcy counsel to a $48 billion supply chain services leader that provides grocery, food service, and supply chain solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores, and chain restaurants throughout the U.S.
• Representing one of the largest banks in the U.S., as indenture trustee, for three CLO funds owed approximately $2.4 billion in cases pending in Delaware.
• U.S. lead litigation counsel to a specialty, asset-based lender in cross-border claims litigation in connection with the failure of the Toronto branch of a multinational bank.
• General outside bankruptcy and creditors’ rights counsel to a leading environmental testing company in the U.S.
• Lead bankruptcy counsel to a leading health care company in its distressed acquisition of Hutcheson Medical Center, a Georgia-based hospital.
• Lead bankruptcy counsel to one of the largest automotive parts distributors on the East Coast in connection with its distressed acquisition of substantially all the assets of Johnson Industries Inc., an Atlanta-based automotive parts distributor.
• Represented a special servicer in connection with an $85 million credit lease obligation in the Nortel U.S. and Canadian bankruptcy proceedings.

Jonathan Edwards is a partner with Alston & Bird’s Financial Restructuring & Reorganization Group. He represents various clients in corporate, finance, and litigation matters, including complex bankruptcy cases, workouts, receiverships, and assignments for the benefit of creditors, debt restructurings, distressed acquisitions and dispositions, financings and recapitalizations, and commercial litigation. 

Jonathan focuses his practice on assignments combining financial and operational restructuring advice with transactional and major litigation work. He represents distressed purchasers, debtors, and other parties in bankruptcy sales; private and alternative credit lenders and financial institutions; unsecured creditors; CDO, CLO, CMBS, RMBS, and indenture trustees; CMBS master and special servicers and collateral managers; and defendants in avoidance actions, including fraudulent transfer litigation nationwide. He counsels directors, officers, and others in complex bankruptcy and commercial litigation. Jonathan also helps lead the firm’s opinion committee, advising on bankruptcy structuring issues in leveraged finance, securitization, and structured finance transactions.

Jonathan is included in the 2019–2021 editions of The Best Lawyers in America^© for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law. He was also on the American Bankruptcy Institute’s 2018 “40 Under 40” list. Since 2015, Jonathan has been selected to the Georgia Super Lawyers “Rising Star” list, and in 2019-2021 was named in Chambers USA for Bankruptcy/Restructuring – Georgia. In 2017, Jonathan received M&A Advisor’s Emerging Leaders Award for his contributions to the turnaround industry. 

Bar Admissions

• Georgia
• New York

Education

• Mercer University (J.D., 2008)
• Georgia State University (B.B.A., 2005)

Memberships