Cathy L Reece

Cathy L Reece is a Director at Fennemore and chair of the firm’s Financial Restructuring, Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Group, based in Phoenix, Arizona. The firm has been named Corporate Workouts Law Firm of the Year in Arizona, US at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026, recognising a restructuring practice built on decades of experience in loan workouts, distressed asset transactions and complex corporate reorganisations.

Fennemore: an established Western US business law firm

Fennemore is a business law firm whose roots run deep in the Arizona market and which has grown into an AM Law 200 firm with offices across several US states, including Arizona, Idaho, Texas, California, Pennsylvania and Florida. Operating under the tagline “Business Thrives with Good Counsel,” the firm serves business clients across a broad range of practice areas, with its Phoenix office at the centre of its Arizona work. The firm has continued to expand its footprint and capabilities, positioning itself as one of the leading business law practices in the Southwest.

A leader in restructuring and corporate workouts

Cathy Reece chairs Fennemore’s Financial Restructuring, Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Group, where her practice focuses on loan workouts, distressed asset sales and the complex restructuring of real estate, mining and operating companies. She has broad experience across every aspect of corporate workouts and bankruptcies, and regularly works with clients structuring complex transactions and acquiring distressed assets. A corporate workout — the negotiated restructuring of a troubled company’s debts and obligations outside, or in the shadow of, formal bankruptcy — is a demanding area of practice that requires command of both transactional structuring and the framework of US bankruptcy law under the federal Bankruptcy Code.

Reece’s credentials reflect a distinguished career. She earned her law degree from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where she served as Managing Editor of the law journal, and holds a Bachelor of Music, awarded with high distinction, from the University of Arizona. Early in her career she served as a judicial law clerk to the Honourable Sandra Day O’Connor at the Arizona Court of Appeals, before Justice O’Connor’s later appointment to the US Supreme Court. Reece is admitted to the State Bar of Arizona and before the US Supreme Court, and is board certified in business bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification — a mark of recognised specialist expertise.

Recognition and professional leadership

Reece has held a range of leadership positions with state and national associations relating to bankruptcy, commercial finance and corporate renewal, including service with the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers. She has been repeatedly recognised in Super Lawyers over many years and has been named among the leading women in litigation, reflecting the standing she has achieved in the restructuring community both within Arizona and nationally.

Serving distressed businesses and their stakeholders

Corporate workouts and financial restructuring are central to the health of the wider economy, offering troubled but viable businesses a path to survival while protecting the legitimate interests of creditors and other stakeholders. Practitioners such as Cathy Reece guide lenders, borrowers, purchasers of distressed assets and other parties through negotiations, out-of-court restructurings and, where necessary, formal bankruptcy proceedings, structuring solutions that preserve value and manage risk.

Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026

The Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026 — Corporate Workouts Law Firm of the Year in Arizona, US recognises Fennemore and Cathy L Reece for the firm’s contribution to financial restructuring and corporate workout practice in Arizona. For businesses, lenders and investors navigating distressed situations in the Southwest, Reece and the Fennemore restructuring group offer deep, board-certified experience within an established regional business law firm.