Our attorneys provide services to public and private corporations seeking to restructure their business and/or finances, including debt and equity financing, sale of partial or all the business assets, or pursing other strategic alternatives.  We represent corporate debtors, equity holders, purchasers of assets, bondholders and secured and unsecured creditors, including lenders, trade creditors, lien creditors and creditors' committees. Our experience includes representing clients’ interests from the first sign of trouble through bankruptcy proceedings (Chapters 11, 9, 7, 12 and 13) or litigation. Having counseled clients through bankruptcy and restructuring transactions ranging from retailers to manufacturers to municipalities, we tailor our approach to meet each client’s unique needs.

Debtor Representation

On the debtor side, we work closely with the client to minimize disruption to their business, while simultaneously examining and analyzing opportunities to address their financial or operational issues. By becoming true partners with our clients during this process, we help them protect their interests and seek efficient resolutions to their short- and long-term concerns. Our experience representing debtors includes handling out-of-court workouts by negotiating agreed restructuring terms and pre-arranged bankruptcy proceedings, including negotiating with multiple creditor constituents prior to filing bankruptcy protection in order to minimize disruptions during the Chapter 11 process. We also serve as special counsel to debtors for issues unique to the bankruptcy process and assume a general counsel role to handle all aspects of Chapter 11 proceedings.

Our team recognizes bankruptcy proceedings often require specific technical experience, and we collaborate with our firm’s attorneys who have experience in benefits and executive compensation, labor and employment, intellectual property, taxation, and securities in order to protect our clients’ interests.

• Restructuring Counsel
  • Advise board of directors and management throughout the restructuring process
  • Refinance debt
  • Negotiate new debt or equity financing
  • Analyze strategic alternatives
  • Assist with global restructuring strategy
  • Analyze of employment benefit issues including pension plans and retiree medical benefits
  • Analyze, strategize and implement labor modifications
  • Hand sale of partial or substantially all assets
  • Analyze of vendor and customer contracts and leases
  • Develop litigation strategies
  • Develop and implement plans of reorganization

Creditor Representation

We represent creditors and creditor constituents, including unsecured creditors’ committees, secured lenders, bondholders, and trade and lien creditors. Understanding each matter is unique, we approach each matter to maximize our client’s recoveries, either through negotiations or through litigation.  Our role includes advising our clients on risk management strategies in advance of formal bankruptcy proceedings to limit potential exposure, representing creditor interests within formal bankruptcy proceedings and out-of-court workouts, and representing defendants in preference and fraudulent conveyance actions.

Our attorneys provide services to creditors, including national, regional and community banks, credit unions, real estate and other collateral-based lenders, trade creditors, private equity and similar interests, correspondent lenders, special services, property owners, property managers and landlords, receivers, and title insurers.  We establish long-standing relationships with clients by focusing on the clients’ legal and financial goals, maximizing recoveries or mitigating liabilities in particular matters, and otherwise providing general counsel advice, and resolving matters quickly and efficiently.

We handle the following types of matters and issues for creditor clients:

• General Creditors’ Rights
  • Lender liability defense
  • Actions against borrowers and guarantors
  • Writs of execution/writs of possession
  • Wage and non-wage garnishments
  • Asset depositions and investigations
  • Fraudulent transfer investigation and prosecution
  • Settlements
  • General banking advice (subpoenas, seizures, UCC Articles 3 and 4)

• Bankruptcy (commercial and consumer Chapter 11, 9, 7, 13 or 12)

• Workouts
  • Forbearance agreements
  • Deeds in lieu of foreclosure
  • Loan assumption/modification
  • Loan sales and assignments

• Foreclosure/Collateral Actions
  • Judicial and non-judicial foreclosures
  • Mortgage enforcement and property protection
  • Mortgagees in possession
  • Enforcement of assignments of leases and/or rents
  • Consensual and court-appointed receiverships
  • Property management issues
  • Real estate, title issues and claims
  • Sales and short sales
  • UCC Article 9 rights and dispositions
  • Replevin
  • Mechanic’s lien, judicial lien and tax lien foreclosures and litigation
  • OREO sales, property management and eviction

In addition, we represent lenders in distressed commercial real estate matters, with a special focus on the commercial mortgage-backed securities market.  We have experience with transactions on both the enforcement and workout sides, including foreclosures, receiverships, carve-out claims, discounted payoffs, forbearance and note sales.  Our attorneys work with REO departments on leasing and the drafting and negotiation of purchase and sale agreements.