In today’s volatile business climate bankruptcy has become a part of doing business. Leonard, Street and Deinard’s Bankruptcy Litigation and Corporate Restructuring group has a national practice with a team of attorneys not just skilled at navigating bankruptcy protection procedures, but skilled when matters turn to litigation. We are uniquely positioned to handle all aspects of bankruptcy cases—large and small—by providing our clients with strategic counsel and smart litigation.

As a full-service firm, we implement a team approach including attorneys from other complementary practice areas with business and legal experience and knowledge valuable to a client’s issue, as well as other financial and bankruptcy advisors used by our client. We find that by collaborating with a team of professionals, we are able to offer better service and focus on creative business solutions and strategies specifically tailored to individual clients’ needs.

Litigation

Leonard, Street and Deinard’s Bankruptcy team has represented trustees, commercial lenders, secured and unsecured creditors, creditor committees and shareholders in litigated Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy matters in courts around the country. We have extensive experience litigating automatic stay matters, reclamation claims, intercreditor disputes, debtor-in-possession financing, cash collateral motions, plan confirmation proceedings and adversary proceedings. Our team proactively seeks equitable remedies for creditors including garnishment and attachment where appropriate. We regularly act to protect the interests of equipment lessors, landlords and working interest owners while also advising senior and subordinated creditors with respect to foreclosure proceedings.

Finally, as a fully integrated part of Leonard, Street and Deinard’s larger litigation group, we are able to draw upon the experience of our employment, products liability and regulatory litigators. This approach ensures that each client receives legal and business counsel that is both individually tailored and comprehensive in scope.

Transactional

Leonard, Street and Deinard’s Bankruptcy, Loan Workouts and Creditors’ Remedies team provides valuable counsel to clients facing insolvency scenarios. Whether through formal bankruptcy proceedings in federal court or an out-of-court workout, we are committed to working with our clients to identify creative legal and business strategies and solutions that best fit their needs.

Our attorneys assist financial institutions and other lenders in the management, disposition and acquisition of distressed loan assets. We also represent official and unofficial unsecured committees, including creditors committees, bondholder committees and equity holder committees; parties, including receivers, in state and federal receivership actions; and parties in out-of-court workouts and restructuring. We also assist creditors’ with the full range of services from enforcing promissory notes against borrowers to property foreclosures, guaranty litigation, co-guarantor claims and multistate litigation.

As part of the larger Leonard, Street and Deinard team, our Bankruptcy and Corporate groups assist clients with identifying and realizing business opportunities that can arise from insolvency proceedings. For example, we regularly counsel clients in relation to the acquisition and financing of assets purchased out of bankruptcy. Whether the assets are acquired at auction or through a § 363 sale, our team protects our clients’ interests every step of the way.

Some of our recent representative experience includes the following.

We have represented:

• The liquidating trustee of a post-confirmation Delaware liquidation trust in claims against multiple third parties asserting numerous claims including claims of breach of fiduciary duty;
• Lenders in multiple bankruptcy cases in the financing and acquisition of Georgia-based tissue paper manufacturing facilities;
• The debtor in the bankruptcy case of Stockwalk Inc., the parent company of a stock brokerage firm with more than 200,000 customers;
• Lenders in multiple real estate workouts and bankruptcies involving large developments implicating loans in excess of $100 million;
• The working interests of owners in a Texas-based oil well drilling company;
• A bankruptcy trustee in the prosecution of claims against insiders involving issues of fraudulent transfers and breach of officer/director fiduciary duties; and
• Numerous clients in the analysis and successful defense of preference claims ranging from tens of thousands to several millions of dollars.