Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Insolvency
Primary contacts
Jennifer Feldsher, Andrew J. Gallo, John C. Goodchild, III, Peter Sharp, Bruce Johnston, Wendy Tan, Craig A. WolfeOur bankruptcy, restructuring, and insolvency lawyers provide strategic, creative solutions to address issues arising from troubled investments and loans worldwide. We are a full-service bankruptcy and restructuring practice with teams dedicated to traditional restructurings, documentation throughout transactions, and, when necessary, insolvency litigation. With lawyers in offices across the United States, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, we have handled bankruptcy, restructuring, and insolvency matters for clients in more than 90 countries.
Our elite services for clients cover a broad array of industries, including financial services, insurance, energy, retail, travel, automotive, telecommunications, infrastructure, technology, healthcare, aviation, real estate, shipping, manufacturing, sovereign debt, municipal finance, and tribal gaming.
Spanning a wide range of assignments and client constituencies, our experience includes advising ad hoc noteholder groups, institutional investors, debtors, creditors’ committees, acquirers, high-yield and distressed debt investors, insurance companies, banks, trustees, administrators, liquidators, boards of directors, shareholders, senior and junior debt holders, governments, and international agencies.
We help creditors and debtors throughout the capital structure to optimize outcomes in out-of-court restructurings, international insolvencies, and US bankruptcy proceedings. We regularly counsel clients on matters involving the following:
- Involuntary petitions
- Debtor-in-possession (DIP) financings
- Cash collateral arrangements
- Creditors’ committees
- Derivatives transactions
- Claims allowance/litigation
- Avoidance actions
- Executory contracts
- Section 363 sales
- Enforcement of security
- International debt recovery
- Plan confirmation
- Valuation issues
- Restructurings and workouts
- Amendments, waivers, and standstills
- Consent solicitations
- Administrations and liquidations
- Schemes of arrangement and center of main interests (COMI) shifts
Workouts & Restructuring
Our team has an extensive background in complex workouts and restructurings worldwide, and our reputation with financial institutions enhances our ability to assist lenders and distressed borrowers in both the workout and bankruptcy context.
Supported by our multidisciplinary depth and intimate involvement in a wide range of industries, our team has represented a diverse variety of debtors, including financial service, retail, travel, airline, telecommunications, shipping, energy, and mortgage trust companies. We are thought leaders in the area of DIP lending and frequently represent key creditors and asset purchasers in bankruptcy cases.
Our work for clients includes the following:
- Restructuring troubled loans and debt securities, and recovering secured assets by judicial and nonjudicial means
- Counseling lenders and institutional investors on preworkout agreements and other lender liability–avoidance matters
- Advising clients dealing with financially troubled third parties, including troubled banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions
- Representing clients in state and federal court foreclosures and secured asset recovery proceedings
- Advising clients in negotiating and restructuring troubled real estate and natural resource projects, including reorganizations and other new financings or investments
- Advising clients on workouts outside bankruptcy, including loan modification agreements, exchange offers, tender offers, and consent solicitations for debt securities, asset swaps and sales, and conveyances
In bankruptcy proceedings, our capabilities include the following:
- Advising on stays against lien enforcement, set-offs, preferences, fraudulent conveyances, leveraged buyouts, and the power of the DIP or trustee to assume or reject leases and executory contracts
- Determining avoidance actions in connection with preferences and/or fraudulent conveyances
Bankruptcy & Insolvency Litigation
Our deep bench of trial and appellate lawyers focuses on insolvency litigation, bankruptcies, and creditors’ rights. In a position uncommon among law firms, our elite insolvency litigators are also highly skilled bankruptcy and insolvency law practitioners, possessing a command of the issues arising from workouts, restructurings, contentious insolvencies, and the litigation adjacent to insolvency proceedings.
Our bankruptcy litigators help clients address and overcome issues that typically arise when enforcing and defending creditors’ rights inside and outside of bankruptcy. We regularly assist clients with claim litigation and enforcement, prosecution of claims against directors and officers, fraudulent transfer and make-whole defenses, rejection or modification of collective bargaining agreements and retiree benefits under Sections 1113 and 1114 of the US Bankruptcy Code, and issues relating to lender liability. Our experience includes the following:
- Litigating plan confirmation
- Litigating creditors’ rights during bankruptcy cases
- Defending avoidance and turnover actions
- Pursuing high-stakes bankruptcy appeals in lockstep with our appellate practice
- Pursuing alternate recovery sources
- Defending creditors’ rights outside of bankruptcy and other international court proceedings