Practice Areas
Bankruptcy
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February 22, 2012
Getty Tries To Halt Suit Over Gas Station Transfers
Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. filed suit Tuesday asking the judge handling its New York bankruptcy proceeding to block several lawsuits, including a dispute over a 2009 transfer of gas stations from Getty to then-sister company Lukoil North America LLC.
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February 22, 2012
United Retail Set For Auction With Stalking Horse Bid
Plus-size women's clothing retailer United Retail Group Inc. is set to sell itself after a New York bankruptcy judge approved sale procedures Wednesday, following a contentious hearing over whether the proposed sale unfairly benefits would-be buyer Versa Capital Management LLC.
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February 22, 2012
AMR Says Retiree Committee Would Slow Down Labor Talks
AMR Corp. on Wednesday told the Delaware judge overseeing its bankruptcy that nonunion retirees should not form a committee to represent the interests of all retired company workers because a committee was not needed and would hold up labor negotiations.
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February 22, 2012
Pfizer Unit Scores More Time In Ch. 11 For Asbestos Dealings
A New York bankruptcy judge on Wednesday allowed Pfizer Inc. subsidiary Quigley Co. to stay in Chapter 11 for up to six more months, as the insulation maker continues trying to hammer out a deal with asbestos claimants.
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February 22, 2012
Former WaMu Execs Balk At Plan For D&O Claims
A number of former Washington Mutual Inc. executives objected Wednesday to the bankrupt bank's refusal to set aside cash reserves to cover their existing and potential indemnification claims.
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February 22, 2012
Judge Sends Dodgers Ch. 11 Plan To The Plate
A Delaware federal judge on Wednesday approved a disclosure statement for the Los Angeles Dodgers LLC’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan despite a barrage of objections, including one by a fan who suffered severe injuries last year at a baseball game.
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February 21, 2012
Fund Objects To $70M Bank Settlement In Rothstein Case
CBM Capital LLC on Tuesday opposed a $70 million settlement between Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust and bankruptcy trustees over Gibraltar's alleged involvement in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by former attorney Scott Rothstein.
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February 21, 2012
Picard's $59B Racketeering Claims Against UniCredit Axed
A New York federal judge on Tuesday tossed racketeering claims against UniCredit SpA and an affiliate in a $59 billion suit lodged by Bernard L. Madoff's bankruptcy trustee, ruling that they had been insufficiently pled.
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February 21, 2012
General Maritime's Ch. 11 Plan Omits Crucial Info: BNY Mellon
General Maritime Corp. indenture trustee The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. said Tuesday that the bankrupt oil tanker operator's disclosure statement left out important information that could significantly reduce payments owed to the noteholders the bank represents.
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February 21, 2012
Judge OKs $180M Inner City Sale Over US Objection
A New York bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved Inner City Media Corp.'s plan to sell itself for $180 million to creditors including billionaire Ron Burkle, overruling the U.S. government's objection that the plan constituted an attempt to dodge $31 million in taxes.
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February 21, 2012
Dental Center Co. Seeks Sale To Root Out Fraud Claims
Dental center manager Church Street Health Management LLC told a Tennessee federal judge Tuesday that it would seek to sell its assets to a stalking horse bidder, one day after fallout from Medicaid fraud claims forced the company into bankruptcy.
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February 21, 2012
High Court Won't Take Up Idearc Investors' Ch. 11 Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a group of investors' challenge to a bankruptcy court's confirmation of Verizon Communications Inc. spinoff Idearc Inc.'s reorganization plan, which they claim deprived them of their rightful ownership in the reorganized company.
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February 21, 2012
Grubb & Ellis Pursues Sale To BGC Through Ch. 11
Commercial real estate services company Grubb & Ellis Co. on Monday filed for Chapter 11 protection in New York to sell itself to BGC Partners Inc. in a bid to preserve its business.
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February 21, 2012
Zell's Equity Raises Archstone Bid To $1.5B
Multifamily real estate developer Equity Residential has upped its bid for half of Bank of America Corp. and Barclays PLC's 53 percent stake in apartment company Archstone to nearly $1.5 billion as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. prepares to take control of the company, Equity said Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
Ex-Client Seeking $1B Wants Personhood For MF Global
A former MF Global Inc. client hoping to recover more than $1 billion in lost customer funds asked the collapsed brokerage's trustee to support his motion to treat MF Global Holdings Ltd. as a person rather than a corporation in a New York bankruptcy case, the client announced Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
2nd Circ. Sends Parmalat Fraud Suit Back To Ill.
The Second Circuit on Tuesday resolved a jurisdiction dispute in bankrupt Italian dairy giant Parmalat SpA's securities fraud suit against Grant Thornton LLP, remanding the case to Illinois state court and vacating a New York federal court ruling.
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February 17, 2012
Trustees In Rothstein Case Ink $70M Bank Settlement
A Florida bank has reached a tentative $70 million settlement with three bankruptcy trustees stemming from the bank's involvement in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme orchestrated by attorney Scott Rothstein, according to a court filing Thursday.
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February 17, 2012
Lehman Creditors Seek Geithner Testimony In JPMorgan Suit
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. creditors on Thursday demanded that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner provide the court with his recollections of conversations with executives of the fallen investment giant and JPMorgan Chase Bank NA at the time of Lehman's' collapse in 2008.
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February 17, 2012
Trade Groups, ConAgra Lambast Hostess' Bid To Dump Pensions
Trade groups, pension advocates, ConAgra Foods Inc. and others joined the pushback Friday against Hostess Brands Inc.'s move to drop out of 24 multiemployer pension plans in its Chapter 11 case in New York bankruptcy court.
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February 17, 2012
Chemical Co. Brings Retiree Premium Fight To Supreme Court
Sterling Chemicals Inc. asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to find that it was allowed to raise premiums for a class of retired workers acquired in a merger because Sterling had rejected the merger contract during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
Expert Analysis
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A Tale Of 2 Statutes: Parsing Preference Litigation
Though similar in concept, preference litigation under Chapter 128 of the Wisconsin Statutes varies in some important ways from preference litigation under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, says Katie Mason of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren SC.
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5 Tips For Distressed CRE Borrowers
The owner of a distressed commercial real estate project must do its homework before entering into workout negotiations with its lender, focusing on five key areas, say Richard Spore and Robert McDaniel of Bass Berry & Sims PLC.
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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New Angles For Investors In German Insolvencies
A bill recently approved by the German Parliament and German Federal Assembly will radically change German insolvency law — incentivizing management to make use of insolvent corporate restructurings in Germany and giving the debtor’s management and creditors more options, says David Saucken of Kaye Scholer LLP.
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Case Study: In Re Brooke Corp.
In Northern Capital Inc. v. The Stockton National Bank — In re Brooke Corp. — the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas addressed a conduit defense in the context of a participated loan. While Brooke would appear to be good news for lead lenders in participated loans, two cautionary notes are appropriate, says Robert Lapowsky of Stevens & Lee.
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Has LaSalle Delayed Economic Recovery?
Bankruptcy filings — especially Chapter 11s — significantly underrepresent the amount of distress in the market, especially in the mid-market. Why is that? Here’s one theory: The U.S. Supreme Court's 1999 decision in Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association v. 203 North LaSalle Street Partnership has dramatically changed Chapter 11 practice, says Bobby Guy of Frost Brown Todd LLC.
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Spotlight On Intercreditor Agreements In Bankruptcy
Some recent cases illustrate that intercreditor agreements are still not iron-clad in bankruptcy, and that courts remain willing to overlook the express terms of such agreements in the interests of achieving an equitable solution for all the stakeholders in a bankruptcy proceeding, say Debra Koker and William McMahon of Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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Revised Removal Statutes — Possibilities, Pitfalls: Part 2
The Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 has brought about substantial clarification in the federal removal, jurisdiction and venue statutes. But the act still leaves substantial ambiguity in place when it comes to the scope of these statutes, say Colin Wrabley and Douglas Allen of Reed Smith LLP.
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Confirming Joint Plans For Multidebtors — Post Tribune
In the wake of the In re Tribune Company decision — which may be followed by other bankruptcy judges and in other jurisdictions — parties in interest in complex multidebtor Chapter 11 cases should not assume that "joint" administration of affiliated debtor cases means that a single joint plan for all debtors will succeed, say Jack Butler, John Lyons and George Panagakis of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
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Can Secured Creditors Credit Bid In Ch. 11 Plans?
Anyone involved in real estate financing as a borrower or a lender, as well as those who might want to purchase real estate from a Chapter 11 debtor, should take note of RadLAX Gateway Hotel LLC v. Amalgamated Bank, to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012, say Lawrence Mittman and John Penn of Haynes and Boone LLP.