Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights

Cohen & Grigsby’s Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Group serves national and international clients, including creditors and debtors in troubled company turnarounds, loan workouts and collections, bankruptcy planning, bankruptcy proceedings and corporate restructurings in the nonbankruptcy setting.

Given the proliferation of massive tort litigation and the growing exposure of all business enterprises to overwhelming liabilities, including environmental and unfunded pension liabilities, the Group offers advice to major corporations, including several publicly-traded Fortune 500 companies and other smaller organizations on how best to restructure their organizations to enhance shareholder value and protect company assets and the assets of subsidiaries or affiliates.  Our attorneys also render advice on structuring contemplated mergers and acquisitions to minimize the risk of successor liability.

The Group is well-equipped to represent clients aggressively while having the flexibility and ability to negotiate and structure settlements in bankruptcy cases, and the chair of the Group is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification.  

• Provide bankruptcy planning for businesses, banks and lending institutions
• Enhance recoveries for unsecured creditors by representing the official unsecured creditors committee or individual creditors, such as parties to executory contracts and “critical vendors”
• Represent trustees and debtors in possession as special litigation counsel
• Develop pragmatic strategies for dealing with financially troubled enterprises, including negotiating and structuring prepackaged Chapter 11 plans and out-of-court restructurings
• Provide advice on complicated financial transactions, including asset-based loans, leveraged buyouts and other structured financings
• Analyze contemplated transactions or existing financial arrangements and suggest means of minimizing the negative consequences of a future bankruptcy
• Help extend financing to debtors-in-possession to fund operations during a Chapter 11 case or to fund a plan of reorganization
• Handle related litigation matters, such as preference and fraudulent conveyance actions, relief from automatic stay proceedings, lender liability and equitable subordination claims, and borrower fraud actions

• Formulating, negotiating and documenting debt restructuring plans, debt settlements and new or negotiated financing arrangements
• Troubled loan recoveries and in specialized collection actions, such as replevin actions, mechanic's lien proceedings, mortgage foreclosures and receiverships

Representative Transactions
Cohen & Grigsby’s Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights attorneys have extensive experience representing secured, unsecured and subordinated creditors, equity security holders, and indenture trustees in bankruptcy cases and in nonbankruptcy proceedings.  They also have represented many debtors and official unsecured creditors’ committees in bankruptcy cases throughout the country. In bankruptcy cases, representation is also provided to other parties with special rights or interests, such as reclaiming sellers, mechanic’s lien holders, administrative claimants, landlords, tenants and parties to “executory contracts” with debtors, such as franchisors or long-term suppliers.