Bankruptcy

Legal Experience That Stands Out

Respected for its business prowess and outstanding results, our Bankruptcy Team has handled some of the largest, most consequential bankruptcy and restructuring matters that impact domestic and multinational corporations, lenders, and creditors across multiple industries, including financial, retail, energy, transportation, manufacturing, telecommunications, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, high-technology, and science.

Who We Stand Behind

We serve clients including financially troubled companies, creditors’ committees, debtors in possession, trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, and equity holders in matters where millions, or billions, of dollars are at stake. Our legal representation is comprehensive, drawing upon when necessary our extensive experience in synergistic legal practice areas, including Litigation, Acquisitions and Divestitures, Intellectual Property, Real Estate, and International Commercial Law, including cross-border insolvency.

How We Take a Stand

We navigate clients through:

  • Chapter 11, chapter 15, and chapter 7 proceedings
  • Out-of-court restructurings and workouts
  • Reorganizations and liquidations
  • Protective structuring of commercial transactions
  • Pre-bankruptcy planning
  • Bankruptcy avoidance actions
  • Preferential transfer and fraudulent conveyance actions
  • Adversary proceedings

Significantly, the firm practices extensively in two of the busiest jurisdictions for corporate bankruptcies, Delaware and the Southern District of New York.  The firm strategically has an office in Delaware for easy access to those courts.

Outstanding Results

  • Special litigation counsel in the 2008 Washington Mutual chapter 11, the largest bank insolvency in U.S. history which resulted in a $7 billion settlement with the FDIC and JPMorgan.
  • Lead counsel for Official Committee of Long Term Disability Participants in the Nortel bankruptcies, in which Rafael secured a settlement of more than $50 million for the company’s permanently disabled former employees.
  • Lead counsel for the Voluntary Employee Benefit Association of Former Nortel Disabled Employees where Rafael was able to coordinate and negotiate a settlement plan and favorable Internal Revenue Service private letter ruling that saved his clients $2.6 million.
  • Counsel in Delaware Chancery and the United States Bankruptcy Court for The Sovereign Government of Nevis a/k/a The Nevis Island Administration.
  • Counsel to various parties in cross-border bankruptcies, including foreign representatives in chapter 15 matters in Grant Forest Products and Primus Telecommunications.
  • Counsel to various entities in some of the largest retail bankruptcies in the last twenty years including debtors, landlords, private equity funds and one of the largest fast food retailers in the world.
  • Lead counsel for the equity committee in the AgFeed chapter 11 bankruptcy, a publicly traded company which was the result of Chinese reverse merger that resulted in the successful sale of U.S.-based assets, assets in China, and a global settlement with the company, secured creditors, SEC, class action plaintiffs, and unsecured creditors which resulted in a successful distribution to shareholders in an insolvent company that had little hope of recovery due to massive securities fraud in the U.S. and China.
  • Co-counsel to the Unsecured Creditors Committee in the Norwood bankruptcies, which resulted in 100 percent recovery for unsecured creditors.
  • Counsel to various Fortune 500 technology- and science-based companies with issues in bankruptcy involving protection of intellectual property rights and key strategic partnerships.
  • Counsel to various transportation and logistics companies in bankruptcy; as defense counsel in bankruptcy litigation including more than forty national trucking and transportation companies sued for fraudulent transfers in the Transvantage bankruptcy, Rafael attained nuisance settlements or dismissals for all the firm’s clients in the litigation.
  • Counsel to various companies in the building trades, including national bankruptcy counsel to one of the largest roof and building materials companies in the world.
  • Counsel to various oil and gas industry companies, including one of the largest worldwide petroleum companies, in issues involving both upstream and downstream sectors, in bankruptcy matters, and matters involving shipping and maritime law.
  • Counsel to various officers and directors in disputes over governance issues and disputes representing private equity firm directors, the c-suite, and founders.
  • Counsel to venture capital funds and private equity funds, notably in the block chain and distributed ledger technology, healthcare, transportation/logistics, energy, telecommunications, manufacturing, consumer products, and building products industries.
  • Counsel to various nonprofits, including service as a general counsel to a national nonprofit trade group, in all aspects of operations, including employment (volunteer and employee handbook), governance, and leading the wind-down under state law of two large nonprofits after a crisis resulted in insolvency.
  • Regulatory and compliance advice regarding various industries, including with the Food and Drug Administration, Justice Department, various agencies that govern import and export controls, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Federal Trade Commission.
  • Representation of multinationals in various cross-border issues, including complex commercial transactions in sales contracts, bailments, consignments, and various secured transactions in both supply chain issues and distribution contracts.
  • Representation of clients both inside and outside of bankruptcy regarding privacy laws and cybersecurity, including defense of class actions and related collateral attacks in business courts such as the Delaware Chancery Court against officers and directors.