Workout, Restructure and Bankruptcy
Our workout, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights team has been involved on behalf of our creditor clients in some of the country’s largest workout, debt restructures and bankruptcy matters, representing creditors in complex and often contentious proceedings around the country. These cases include the bankruptcies of high-profile debtors in the airline, energy, steel, retail, healthcare, telecommunications, bank holding company, and healthcare industries. Whether it is a routine counseling matter or a complicated national bankruptcy case, our lawyers are positioned to strategize a path to a successful outcome; and are not afraid to advocate aggressively, litigating where necessary, to achieve success for our clients. We welcome the opportunity to help clients navigate seldom-seen bankruptcy issues, and tackle high-risk and high-stakes cases that require unique, sophisticated solutions.
We represent all types of creditors including banks and financial institutions, equipment lessors, franchisors, health care businesses, indenture trustees, insurance companies, investors, landlords, lending institutions, manufacturers, private equity funds, retailers, software and technology companies, special servicers, state and local agencies, and tenants. We also frequently represent DIP lenders, collateral agents, and administrative agents.
Our work often starts well before a default occurs or a bankruptcy case is commenced. We work with our clients to minimize risk and improve their positions in the event of a financial downturn or financial distress of a customer, supplier, or key business counterparty. When a financial distress event occurs, we help guide our clients to maximize value and capitalize on opportunities. This includes guiding them through workouts and restructurings, negotiating and drafting forbearance agreements and loan modifications, and advising on insurance and surety coverage, as well as numerous other creditors’ rights issues.
Not every distressed situation can be resolved outside of court. We routinely represent our clients in creditors’ rights matters in bankruptcy, federal, and state courts around the country, and in arbitration proceedings. We work with our clients to develop cost-effective strategies to achieve successful outcomes that maximize their recoveries. We regularly appear on behalf of our clients in the busiest bankruptcy courts in the country, including in Delaware, New York, Florida, Texas, and California. We also pursue our clients’ rights in state and federal courts, and in arbitration proceedings, including commercial foreclosure actions, eviction proceedings, collection litigation, and a wide array of commercial disputes.
Our creditors’ rights attorneys are diverse and the breadth of knowledge and experiences that attorneys in our different practice areas bring to the table in representing our creditor clients is expansive. For instance, the default, workout and bankruptcy team in our Corporate Trust group has extensive experience representing trustees in connection with secured and unsecured debt transactions in default and financially stressed situations. This has included representation of trustees in hundreds of matters ranging from defaulted issuers seeking deferral of interest payments and forbearance, in connection with payment and covenant defaults, to the negotiation and optimization of bondholder recovery and implementation of plans consistent with the governing documents in complex Chapter 11 reorganizations and liquidations.
Throughout the process, we collaborate with the firm’s wide array of specialized practice groups, including attorneys in our commercial litigation, business and finance, employment, tax, labor, environmental, healthcare, real estate and employee benefits groups, we provide comprehensive and efficient service to our clients. For example, our environmental lawyers advise creditors and potential successors on understanding, navigating, and resolving environmental obligations/liabilities in the bankruptcy context, including with respect to state and federal environmental statutory and regulatory programs related to compliance obligations, the cleanup of contaminated properties (e.g., “brownfields”), formal agency enforcement matters and common law claims and are able to draft and negotiate insurance coverages that provide coverage for lenders and secured parties.
Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights Litigation
We regularly represent our clients in every aspect of a bankruptcy case, ranging from motion practice to complex adversary proceedings. While many matters can be resolved through negotiation, others require aggressive, sophisticated litigation, and that's where our team excels.
Corporate Trust
Experience. Depth. Breadth. For over 40 years, our Corporate Trust group has partnered with the agency and corporate trust departments of major national banks, trust companies and other financial institutions, counseling them in their roles as indenture trustees, administrative agents, owner trustees, collateral or security agents and escrow agents in a wide variety of performing and defaulted secured and unsecured financing transactions.
Workout Restructuring and Bankruptcy Counseling
We help our clients maximize value and capitalize on opportunities in financially distressed environments. Often, this work is done outside of a courtroom. Our team has successfully helped numerous clients in debt restructures which have avoided bankruptcy.
