The firm’s Bankruptcy and Corporate practices represented Village Roadshow in bankruptcy proceedings and the sale of its film, library, derivative rights and studio business assets in a transaction named “Special Situation M&A Deal of the Year: Large Mid Markets” at Global M&A Network’s 2026 Turnaround Atlas Awards. The firm’s Healthcare team also represented Prospect Health System in its sale of assets to Astrana Health, which was recognized in the “Special Situation M&A Deal of the Year: Large Markets” category.
The annual Turnaround Atlas Awards honor the best value-creating transactions, outstanding firms, professionals and leaders from the global restructuring, insolvency and distressed investing communities.
Village Roadshow Bankruptcy Sale
The firm served as lead Debtors’ counsel to Village Roadshow Entertainment Group USA Inc. and its 33 affiliates in one of 2025’s most closely watched entertainment bankruptcies. Village Roadshow commenced chapter 11 proceedings in March 2025 after a liquidity crisis triggered by a protracted arbitration with Warner Brothers, its long-time co-production partner, and ongoing underperformance in its independent studio business. The bankruptcy sale process culminated in Alcon Media Group emerging as the successful bidder not only for the film library, but also for the company’s studio business and derivative rights assets.
The Sheppard team that represented Village Roadshow was led by partner Justin Bernbrock and included partner Jennifer Nassiri, associate Alyssa Paddock, associate Matt Benz, partner Tom Panoff, special counsel Chris Comstock, associate Sydney Hunemuller, partner Stacey Rosenberg, partner Aerin Snow, associate John Herbstritt, associate Joe Ireland and associate Tatev Hovhannisyan.
Prospect-Astrana Sale
In a $708 million transaction creating a national healthcare delivery platform benefitting 1.7 million members, Sheppard represented Prospect pre-petition in its sale of certain businesses and assets to Astrana Health. As part of the agreement, Astrana acquired Prospect’s California licensed health care service plan (Prospect Health Plan), medical groups in California, Texas, Arizona and Rhode Island (Prospect Medical Groups), management service organization (Prospect Medical Systems), pharmacy (RightRx), its fully accredited acute care hospital, Alta Newport Hospital dba Foothill Regional Medical Center and its primary and multi-specialty clinic, Gateway Medical Center.
The Sheppard team that advised Prospect was led by partners Nioura Ghazni and Eric Klein, with invaluable assistance from Matthew Goldman, Jordan Grushkin, Babak Yousefzadeh, Brian Fong, Megan Rooney, Keith Gercken, Rick Rifenbark, Michael Orlando, Jared Nagley, Tim Reimers, Edward Musharbash, Taylor Holmes, Kanasha Herbert, Alexandria Foster, Jami Fogelhut, Krysten Thomas, Christina Nguyen and Maximilian Fuery.