Bankruptcy & Restructuring

Clients facing a financially distressed situation need a strategic partner to analyze the situation and offer principled alternatives and advice. Whether the issue is payment and performance defaults, changes in fiscal or market circumstance, or uncertainty about the future, our team serves as that strategic partner, informing our clients of their legal rights and liabilities, educating about the insolvency process, and offering solutions that maximize recoveries.

HOW WE HELP

With a national practice spanning diverse industries, our Bankruptcy & Restructuring practice combines experience, thoughtful strategy, and a client-focused approach to financial and operational restructurings, orderly liquidations, going concern sales, or abrupt closures. No matter the situation, we maximize value for our clients by providing context and structure for principled decision making. We distinguish ourselves from other bankruptcy practices by offering broad geographic coverage, the perspective of both an in-house bankruptcy trustee and commercial and consumer finance litigators, distressed transactional services, and a robust bankruptcy opinion practice.

OUR SERVICES

Bankruptcy-related litigation. Voluntary and involuntary petitions, claims management, plan confirmation and plan objections, contested asset sales, settlement approval, stay relief motions, avoidance actions, preference actions, discharge and dischargeability actions, subordination actions, and proof of claim allowance matters.

Debtor/Creditor Relations. Our bankruptcy members appear in federal bankruptcy courts across the country armed with keen knowledge of federal law and national and local rules of procedure. We partner with our clients and draw from our colleagues’ substantive industry and legal specialties to address insolvency issues. Our expansive knowledge of how debtor and creditor issues affect day-to-day operations and long-term business viability helps us to provide the guidance necessary for our clients to achieve their goals.

Trustee Representation. We have worked with numerous trustees, including our own panel trustee, in a variety of different types of bankruptcy cases. Whether our clients are appointed as a trustee or potentially taking on the role, our attorneys offer effective solutions and advice.

Counseling. We offer proactive advice for avoiding insolvency, practical advice for maximizing recovery, and protection from clawback litigation. This bottom-line approach assists us in protecting and enforcing our clients’ rights in dealing with financially distressed and insolvent companies.

Distressed Transactions. We are also regularly called upon to assist asset purchasers by negotiating terms and assuring the smooth transfer of property rights in distressed transactions both in and out of court.

THE SEYFARTH EXPERIENCE

A commitment to client service forms the foundation of our work. To facilitate this, we conduct regular review meetings with clients to discuss current issues and needs as identified by the client. Our team members work with clients to evaluate and update documents and processes, streamlining where appropriate to address security and enforcement issues, and to achieve efficiencies. For clients who desire it, we provide a web-based method for tracking the progress of workout and bankruptcy matters via Seyfarth Link, the firm’s proprietary collaboration platform.

We constantly seek ways to minimize delays and costs, and explore opportunities for resolution and continued business viability through alternative remedies. We collaborate with our clients to develop a scope and definition of the work we do, which results in shared expectations, transparency, and predictability.

By accessing the firm’s national and international resources and working as cross-disciplinary teams, we staff, manage, and resolve complex restructuring matters in a seamless manner. Our bankruptcy attorneys draw on experience from Seyfarth’s real estate, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, environmental, labor and employment, and litigation attorneys throughout the firm to develop the right solutions for clients facing complex transactional and litigation issues.