Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditors’ Rights

The Firm’s Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditors’ Rights Group is one of the nation’s most unique and experienced groups of insolvency practitioners. The Group consists of attorneys who have practiced at premier national firms and have expertise in all disciplines needed to support our practice. Our approach to insolvency matters is aggressive, yet pragmatic. Many of our clients are national and multinational companies involved in highly sophisticated financial transactions. In each case, we weigh the likely benefits to our clients against projected legal costs and counsel our clients on practical strategies that yield the best results in inherently difficult situations.

The Group has been active in national restructuring transactions and insolvencies in a diverse group of industries. Lawyers in the Group have broad experience representing:

Secured and unsecured creditors in bankruptcy cases, including in the negotiation or litigation of adequate protection and cash collateral orders;
Unsecured creditors’ committees in bankruptcy cases;
Debtors in out of court restructurings and chapter 11 reorganization proceedings;
Bankruptcy trustees in litigation and transactional matters, including two recent representations of (i) a trustee of an internet consulting firm which had a pre-bankruptcy market capitalization of $7 billion, in substantially all aspects of the corporate liquidation, and (ii) the trustee of a collection of hedge funds with nominal assets in excess of $1 billion, on substantial aspects of the debtor’s liquidation;
Parties in preference and fraudulent transfer actions and in all other types of bankruptcy litigation;
Lenders in out-of-court restructurings and in defense against lender liability claims;
Secured creditors in foreclosure actions on real estate and UCC sales on personal property;
Parties in distressed asset sales and acquisitions; and
Insurance companies in collection and claims-handling issues involving their financially-troubled insureds.

Representative Matters:

Representing a major insurer in connection with the enforcement of its rights to recover tens of millions of dollars in amounts owed by Yellow Corporation, including litigation arising in the context of the debtor’s chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings;
Representing a major insurer in the Boy Scouts of America chapter 11 case, advising on coverage issues related to mass tort claims and coordinating strategy regarding the handling of claims asserted against the insured debtor;
Representing a leading insurance company in the NPC International chapter 11 case, including asserting claims for unpaid obligations and enforcing collection rights under loss-sensitive insurance policies;
Representing a national insurer in the Exide Technologies bankruptcy, involving the pursuit of significant claims for unpaid obligations under complex insurance arrangements and advising on strategy for recovery in the debtor’s chapter 11 case;
Representing the chapter 7 Trustee of five related hedge funds with debts in excess of $1 billion, including representing the Trustee in fraudulent transfer actions seeking recovery of transfers in excess of $80 million;
Representing various insurance companies with respect to multi-million dollar claims arising out of loss-sensitive insurance policies;
Serving as court-appointed receiver in S.E.C v. Northridge Holdings Ltd., et al., Case No. 19-cv-5957 (N.D. IL.), with responsibility for overseeing the management and liquidation of nearly 1000 units of multi-family housing estimated to be worth in excess of $80 million, and investigating potential claims, including against defendants’ insiders;
Representing the chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee for the bankruptcy estate of Johnson Publishing Company (N.D. IL), LLC, including serving as lead counsel in the trustee’s successful sale of the Johnson Publishing iconic archive of African-American photos and other media items collected since WWII, to a consortium of foundations for $30 million, which helped to contribute to an estimated recovery of over 75% for general unsecured creditors in a case that started with no cash;
Successfully defending New York Common Retirement Fund, a multi-billion-dollar pension fund lender, against multi-million dollar lender liability claims in Illinois state court, ultimately pressuring the borrower into a very favorable settlement for the lender client;
Serving as chapter 11 trustee in the case In re Town & Country (N.D. IL), successfully stabilizing a 99-unit distressed multi-family building in Portage, Indiana, negotiating DIP financing and cash collateral facility with secured lender, and structuring auction sale of property for $9.165 million, which resulted in substantial recovery for secured creditor;
Among many other chapter 7 trustee engagements, serving as chapter 7 trustee in the case In re P & P Realty (N.D. IL), successfully operating and stabilizing distressed real estate brokerage firm under Section 721 of the Bankruptcy Code during the pendency of the case, securing and closing all pending real estate transactions throughout Cook County after the firm’s nearly 100 independent agents threatened to divert the transactions to other firms, and achieving meaningful distribution to unsecured creditors;
Structuring of receivership for certain properties and structuring and implementation of strategies for post-foreclosure sale of recovered property;
Representing Associated Bank (as part of bank group) in defense against multi-million dollar state court lender liability action brought by national real estate developer;
Representing the bankruptcy trustee of marchFirst, Inc.’s former internet consulting firm, which pre-bankruptcy had a market capitalization in excess of $7 billion, in a multi-year liquidation of the estate’s assets and litigation of avoidance claims;
Representing Cargill, Inc., the country’s largest privately-held company, in its successful strategic acquisition of $22 million of assets of Agway, Inc. through a bankruptcy auction, and in its competitive bidding for over $450 million of assets from the bankruptcy estate of Farmland Foods;
Representing the court-appointed examiner in the structuring and administration of the auction of $50 million of assets of RHC Spacemaster, a manufacturing company;
Representing the unsecured creditors’ committee of Doctors’ Hospital of Hyde Park, a sizeable Chicago area hospital, including co-leading (with debtor’s counsel) the investigation into potential causes of action against insiders and the recovery (through litigation and settlement) of over $6 million in proceeds of fraudulent conveyance and unlawful dividend claims from the debtor’s principal;
Representing the national committee of unsecured creditors in the liquidation of Highland Superstores, a former national consumer electronics chain with over 90 stores across the U.S., including structuring and holding auctions for asset sales, and litigating preference claims and claim objections;
Representing secured lender in chapter 11 case filed by issuer of extended vehicle services contracts;
Representing a railcar parts manufacturer in connection with the contested sale of all of its assets in a chapter 11 case, conducting the sales auction only three weeks after the case was filed;
Advising the assignee for the benefit of creditors of an employee health benefit plan;
Recovering a large break-up fee for a financial institution after its bid for the major assets of a chapter 11 debtor was topped by another bidder.
Representing court-appointed receiver of the City of Harvey water system and water fund, assisting receiver in structuring and implementing legal strategies to ensure the legal disposition of cash flow within the Water Department in compliance with consent decree and Illinois law, and investigating alleged unauthorized historical transfers of cash from the water fund;
Representing the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the closing of transactions in its national Small Business Lending Fund program, designed to stimulate loans to small businesses by small to mid-size banks throughout the country (in total our Firm closed 162 SBLF transactions in 2011, representing $1.7 billion of Treasury investments in participating banks); and,
Representing financial advisory firm Leavitt Capital Management (with over $191 million in assets under management) in out-of-court restructuring following sudden death of firm’s principal, resulting in successful stabilization of company and sale of business to third party purchaser.