Restructuring & Insolvency

Our lawyers have significant expertise in the automotive industry. We have represented major automobile manufacturers throughout the world, as well as auto suppliers in a vast array of insolvency and restructuring matters. Members of our bankruptcy and restructuring group have significant experience both in and relevant to a number of auto companies and suppliers, including supplier restructurings such as Klarius, one of Europe’s largest parts producers and distributors, and EaglePicher Incorporated in its successful Chapter 11 reorganization. Others include the Chrysler Committee of Affected Dealers, several notable trade creditors of General Motors, including TRW Automotive, and both the Arrows and Super Aguri Formula One teams.

Our lawyers have played a central role in a number of airline restructurings throughout the US, representing both companies and creditors’ committees. We have served as counsel to America West Airline (now US Airways) in its first Chapter 11 reorganization, as well as to National Airlines, a Las Vegas-based carrier. We served as counsel to the creditors committee of Mesaba Aviation, the largest regional carrier serving Northwest Airlines, in a highly successful reorganization in which creditors recovered 100% of their claims.

For decades, we have counseled chemical industry clients in restructuring and insolvency, corporate, environmental, financing, litigation, regulatory and intellectual property matters. We have the chemical industry background and depth of knowledge to advise on opportunities and challenges wherever they occur, no matter the issue. We advised the UK administrators of C6/Hickson & Welch, a major chemical manufacturer and producer, on the continued safe operation of business, the cleanup options for its 140-acre site and liaised with various regulators, including the UK’s Hazardous Installations Directorate.

We have deep experience in energy and oil and gas insolvency matters and in fashioning creative solutions for distressed oil and gas businesses and their counterparties. We understand the legal documentation unique to the oil and gas industry, including oil, gas and mineral leases, joint operating agreements, ORRIN agreements, production payments, drilling and other service contracts, and oil and gas engineering reports and the financing documentation related to oil and gas lending. Our energy restructuring engagements include counsel to the Enron creditors committee, TECO-Panda and lenders in more than a dozen Texas and Oklahoma oil and gas bankruptcies and workouts.

Our Environmental, Safety & Health Practice provides excellent support for our related work in restructuring and insolvency matters. We have broad experience in a number of areas, including soil and groundwater contamination, hazardous waste and industrial and permitting and compliance. We have successfully litigated a wide array of environmental issues in insolvency proceedings across the globe.

We regularly and successfully assist clients of our Corporate and Financial Services practices in both public and private debt and equity restructurings. We have represented AmFin Financial Corporation, the parent of the 4th largest US bank to fail in 2009, in its complex Chapter 11 case including successful precedent setting litigation with the FDIC over claims worth in excess of US$700 million. Our lawyers assist in the analysis of the existing capital structure and the relative rights of the various constituencies, the negotiation of treatment of the creditors and equity holders in the plan of reorganization, and the design, documentation and implementation of new financing arrangements and debt and equity securities to be issued as part of the reorganized capital structure. In the UK we are retained by and regularly advise the major clearing banks, asset based lenders and a number of building societies and other mutual organisations. We have advised a building society on the best route to and structure of the disposal of an impaired £30 million loan portfolio. We also advised a national firm of stockbrokers, in relation to their acquisition of a client portfolio and assets totaling £300 million. This was only the fourth ever Special Administration where an appointment was made under the Special Administration Order to deal with insolvent banks and financial institutions, and resulted in the successful transfer of the £300 million client assets and share portfolios.

We have served as counsel to several large and well known food and beverage companies in significant restructuring and insolvency proceedings in the US and UK. These include representing Flat Out Crazy, the owner of several fast casual restaurant chains in its Chapter 11 case and the senior secured creditor in the reorganization of the Boston Chicken franchises. In the UK we have also acted for the administrators of Oddbins, Cobra Beer, Silver Spring, Anglo-Dutch Meats and Devon Cider. We also advised the administrators on the sale of Perfect Pizza Ltd, one of the UK’s leading pizza franchise businesses.

Our lawyers have helped restructure large, national healthcare enterprises such as hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. We represent several large financial institutions that are the senior secured lenders to several continuing care retirement centers (CCRC) and have represented operators and acquirers of large assisted living and skilled nursing facilities throughout the US. We have substantial and in-depth experience advising secured lenders to senior care facilities across the UK. We regularly advise insolvency practitioners on the proper management and control of such facilities and are adept at liaising with government regulators such as the Care Quality Commission. We have represented both distressed CCRC’s and lenders to CCRC’s in more than 10 Chapter 11 cases and out of court restructurings since 2008. We also have substantial M&A expertise in distressed healthcare, including advising the buyer of a large Washington DC hospital system in a Chapter 11 acquisition in 2015 and advising Snyder Drugs in its acquisition of the assets of Phar-Mor. We also have substantial and in-depth experience advising secured lenders to senior care facilities across the UK and regularly advise insolvency practitioners on the proper management and control of such facilities.

Our experience in intellectual property law, combined with our ability to handle the largest of litigation cases and all forms of dispute resolution, enables us to assist businesses both in actively protecting their intellectual property rights and in properly defending them from charges of violating the intellectual property rights of others. We acted for the buyer of all the IP from the special administrators of Alpari (UK) Limited, as well as provided in-depth technical advice with regard to the multiple intellectual property issues encountered in the Klarius/Quinton Hazell administrations and sales. We advised the administrators of Greenwoods Communications Ltd, a provider of services and equipment to major network and mobile operators such as BT, Virgin Media, O2 and Vodafone.

We have represented clients in some of the largest law firm bankruptcies in US history, including Finley, Kumble and Shea & Gould, and have represented the creditors’ committee in the reorganization of a prominent Midwest architectural and design firm. In the UK, we have regularly advised secured lenders on restructuring investments in accountancy and legal practices including Manches, plus advising the board of Renton Howard Wood Levin, an international architects practice on restructuring the liability to its pension fund.

We have represented the gamut of parties involved in real estate restructurings and insolvencies. We frequently represent developers and builders of residential, commercial and industrial real property in restructuring matters throughout the globe. These restructurings often involve construction defect litigation and complex developmental financing vehicles. We are counsel to large public and private company homebuilders in their efforts to restructure their debt as a result of the historic downturn in the housing market. Our lawyers represent other substantial businesses impacted by the current subprime mortgage and real estate crises including in the Chapter 11 cases of American Home Mortgage and Ownit Mortgage Solutions. We have acted for the senior lenders and the subsequent administrators in the restructuring of £85 million debt due from UK-based Magnus Properties. We have also acted for the administrators of the Bournston group of companies which held a portfolio of purpose built student letting properties and other commercial properties, worth in excess of £30 million. We are acting for administrators in connection with Millennium Estates pursuing circa £18 million of claims against defaulting buyers in relation to a major residential development in Liverpool.

Our experience in retail restructurings and insolvency is extensive. Our lawyers have served as counsel to secured lenders for a number of Chapter 11 cases of major department, furniture, electronics, clothing and sporting goods retailers. Our debtor representations include Drug Emporium and Brendamour’s, and acting for the administrators of Dwell Retail, a large UK retailer with over 30 sales outlets. We have represented large unsecured creditors, as members of the official committee of unsecured creditors, in the Phar-Mor and F&M Distributors Chapter 11 cases. We also have assisted landlords and other significant parties in some of the largest retail bankruptcies in the US, including Tweeter, Winn Dixie, Rhodes Furniture, Big Bear Supermarkets, Elder-Beerman Stores, LJ Hooker (Bonwit Teller and B. Altman) and Ames Department Stores. In the UK, we have acted for the administrators of Jaeger Group, the supervisors of Austin Reed, the financiers and administrators of Pastimes, Barratts Shoes, Dolcis Shoes, and Adams Childrenswear, the management and buyer of Greenwoods Menswear, and the management of the Faith and Envy fashion brands.

In the UK we have acted for the administrators of various sporting institutions, including the administrators of Leigh Rugby League Football Club and Doncaster Rovers Football Club. We have represented the administrators of Flying Pizza, Copper Dragon Brewery, Hotelier Group and many other businesses in the leisure sector.

Our tax lawyers are nationally recognized as experts in the tax implications of complex commercial financial restructurings offering a wide variety of related services, including a practical understanding of the tax issues in leasing, tax exempt bonds and other financing structures as well as tax-qualified pension plans, ESOPs and other benefit programs. We also negotiate or litigate with national tax authorities (e.g., the IRS and Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs).