Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights
Successful representation of creditors and financially troubled businesses requires a thorough understanding of complex laws and creative financial arrangements. An attorney’s ability to artfully blend legal and financial acumen to maximize the value of the distressed organization typically benefits both creditors and debtors alike.
Our attorneys have broad experience in the following areas:
- Acquisitions and dispositions of troubled companies within and without bankruptcy
- Avoidance actions
- Bankruptcy
- Corporate reorganizations
- Creditors’ rights
- Lender liability
- Loan restructurings and workouts
- Receiverships
Phillips Lytle stresses an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing attorneys from our Banking & Financial Services, Real Estate, Corporate, Environment, Energy, and Litigation Practices to effectively meet the special requirements for each case and client.
Our Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights practice encompasses all aspects of federal bankruptcy law as well as state and international laws governing secured transactions, creditors’ rights, fraudulent and other avoidable conveyances, receiverships, cross-border refinancings and restructurings, corporate reorganizations, and real estate. While the historical foundation of the practice is the firm’s representation of financial institutions, our attorneys also represent all types of secured and unsecured creditors; Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and indenture trustees; debtors; landlords; lessees; equipment lessors; acquirers; vendors and suppliers; utilities; and official creditor and equity committees.
Our attorneys have extensive Chapter 11 reorganization and Chapter 7 bankruptcy experience, and regularly deal with a full range of business and litigation issues, including pre- and post-petition financing, cash collateral orders, automatic stay litigation, preference and fraudulent conveyance litigation, contested plan confirmations, sales of claims, asset sales, and plan mergers.
Phillips Lytle has significant experience in complex commercial real estate financing transactions, conventional and asset-based commercial loans, industrial revenue bond financing, leasing transactions of all types, leveraged buy-out lending, syndicated and participation credits, letters of credit, floor plan financing, and timeshare financing. In addition, the Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights Team has decades of experience representing creditors and troubled companies in out-of-court restructurings.
Some of the lender and indenture trustee clients the firm has represented publicly are JPMorgan Chase; Bank of America; KeyBank, National Association; HSBC Bank USA, National Association and affiliates; Royal Bank of Canada; National Australia Bank; Generale Bank; CIT; General Motors; General Motors Acceptance Corp.; Ford Motor Credit Company; Siemens; and PNC Bank and affiliates.
Attorneys from the Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Right Team have been involved in bankruptcy cases of national and international significance.
- Bennett Funding Group
- Buffalo Sabres
- Chrysler Corporation
- Columbia Gas
- Continental Airlines
- D.F. Antonelli
- Dana Corporation
- Delphi Corporation
- Drexel Burnham Lambert
- Eastern Airlines
- El Paso Electric
- Enron Corporation and its affiliates
- Erickson Inc.
- Frontier Airlines
- General Motors
- Hunt Brothers
- Integrated Resources
- Jamesway
- Kaufman Footwear Corporation
- Laventhol & Horwath
- Leslie Fay
- LJ Hooker
- M Space Holdings, LLC
- Maruko
- Modular Space Corporation
- Myerson & Kuhn
- O’Brien Environmental Energy
- Peabody Energy, Inc.
- Peter J. Schmitt
- Phoenix Steel
- Placid Oil Company
- R.H. Macy & Co.
- Rocor International
- Sharon Steel
- St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers
- Standard Brands Paint
- Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel
- White Motor
- Wire Rope Corporation of America
- WorldCom
BANKING/LENDER LIABILITY LITIGATION
Phillips Lytle has attorneys and paralegals who truly understand the financial services industry and regularly engage in bank-related litigation matters, ensuring the representation our clients need with the efficiency and responsiveness they expect and deserve.
Our litigation attorneys with expertise working specifically with financial institutions achieve successful outcomes in state and federal courts and arbitrations in several areas.
- Commercial loan collections
- Commercial paper and electronic payment transactions
- Commercial reasonableness of sales of collateral under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
- Complex commercial foreclosures
- Disclosure and description of credit card agreement terms
- Judgment enforcement proceedings, including fraudulent conveyance, contempt, and installment payment order proceedings
- Lead bank and participant bank controversies
- Lender liability
- Letter of credit disputes
- Money laundering
- Perfection and priority of security interests
- Premises liability claims, including claims alleging inadequate security at ATM facilities
- Regulatory compliance
- RICO
- Security interest enforcement and collateral seizure
Our litigators also counsel our financial institution clients on dispute avoidance matters and help them develop business strategies to avoid unnecessary exposure to claims. Extensive litigation experience in complex bankruptcies, workouts and financial restructurings is brought to bear for the benefit of our clients in negotiations and litigated matters.
