Creditors’ Rights, Bankruptcy, Reorganization & Workouts

Creditors of all types turn to our Creditors’ Rights, Bankruptcy, Reorganization & Workouts team when they need informed guidance on financial disputes. Clients value our multidisciplinary team approach that seeks to meet client goals on time and within budget, and finds solutions to difficult situations.

Our litigators draw on their experience in collections, foreclosures, replevins, lien enforcement, receiverships, non-judicial sales of collateral, and bankruptcy to find solutions to complex issues as they arise.

The group’s litigation record covers all aspects of collection, insolvency, and bankruptcy proceedings. Clients turn to Michael Best litigators for counsel on matters including contract disputes, fraud and misrepresentation, successor liability, and lender liability claims. We assist in obtaining the appointment of receivers, trustees, and examiners. In bankruptcy, we assess and defend preference and other avoidance actions, obtain relief from the automatic stay, and counsel on rights and remedies under executory contracts and leases.

We also assist in bankruptcy plan negotiations and proceedings, as well as in assessing and representing our clients' interests in first-day order bankruptcy hearings. Clients interested in purchasing assets out of receiverships and bankruptcy estates also seek our counsel to understand the risks and benefits of such a purchase, and how to structure the transaction and manage the process to gain the best competitive advantage.

There are windows of opportunity in nearly every crisis: moments when careful negotiation can lead to the rehabilitation or reorganization of a distressed business, halting the erosion of value for owners and creditors. We can help you find and seize those opportunities.

Our lawyers have years of experience representing financially distressed businesses and their financial institutions — as well as opportunistic acquirers and investors — in financial workouts, restructurings, and acquisitions or dispositions of distressed assets. Our services include:

• Finance, including recapitalizations, bank financing, and multi-step transactions to restructure the debt and equity of businesses and real estate
• Corporate governance, including restructuring equity investments, and guiding boards of directors and business owners in meeting their fiduciary duties to stockholders and others as part of the restructuring process
• Real estate, including the acquisition, sale, and development of distressed real estate; landlord representation; and implementing deeds in lieu of foreclosure
• Transactional assistance with equity financing, commercial credit arrangements, forbearance agreements, assignments for benefit of creditors (ABCs), avoidance and defense of lender liability claims, senior and subordinate lender matters, and intercreditor matters
• Litigation and dispute resolution, including judicial sale, foreclosure, or partition; state law receivership proceedings; and, when necessary, by using the protections of the bankruptcy laws
• Tax planning and tax savings opportunities that arise in connection with transactions involving distressed properties, often working with clients’ accountants