Financial Restructuring, Creditors' Rights & Bankruptcy

Baker & McKenzie's Financial Restructuring, Creditors' Rights, and Bankruptcy Practice Group stretches across the United States and around the globe. The lawyers practicing in this area have represented a full range of parties in interest in bankruptcy, debtor/creditor disputes and insolvency-related proceedings on a regional, national, and international basis. Our clients include institutional and trade creditors, bondholders, debtors, committees, acquirers, lenders, indenture trustees, investors, landlords, officers, directors, licensors and licensees, franchisors and franchisees, and others in nearly every major industry. On behalf of these clients, we have counseled in:

• Chapter 11 reorganizations
• Prepackaged chapter 11 filings
• Out-of-court workouts and restructurings
• Acquisition of assets in bankruptcy and chapter 11 reorganization cases
• Creditors' rights and bankruptcy-related litigation
• Section 304 cases ancillary to foreign proceedings
• Preparing bankruptcy and creditors' rights law analyses for opinion letters
• Potential creditors' rights/bankruptcy implications of proposed deal structures

We are a full-service international business law firm with knowledge and experience in many different areas of the law. As part of the firm's Banking, Finance and Major Projects Practice Group (which includes banking, environmental, insurance, securitization, natural resources, municipal finance and project finance), we have the resources and ability to handle complex restructurings or reorganizations, multinational asset acquisitions and dispositions, and multinational finance transactions.

Regional, National and International Experience
The lawyers on the Financial Restructuring, Creditors' Rights and Bankruptcy team also collaborate on a regular basis with their colleagues in Corporate and Securities, Litigation and Arbitration, Intellectual Property, Labor and Employment, and Tax practice groups, among others, concerning debtors' and creditors' rights pertaining to structuring transactions, acquisitions, financing, leveraged buyouts, workouts, and litigation. This coordination allows us to advise domestic and foreign companies on a broad range of legal matters affecting the conduct of their business.

We have substantial experience in many industries, including:

• Airlines - We have represented creditors and debtors in connection with restructuring and bankruptcy issues.
• Energy - We have advised parties in "oil patch" bankruptcy cases, and have represented production and supply companies including independent producers in significant oil and gas states. We also have experience representing utility companies.
• Financial Services - We have served as counsel to many national and state chartered banks, savings institutions, foreign banks, credit corporations, insurance and reinsurance companies, and other providers of credit and related products. We assist our colleagues and these institutions in the full range of lending transactions, including asset-based and acquisition financing, working capital and letter-of-credit facilities, accounts receivable purchase transactions and debtor-in-possession financing.
• Franchise - We have substantial experience in franchisor and franchisee bankruptcy cases involving restaurants and service stations.
• Manufacturing - We have extensive experience with old line manufacturing companies and the labor, pension, environmental and operational issues such reorganization and bankruptcy cases present.
• Commercial and Real Estate Lending and Restructuring - We represent lenders and other providers of credit in matters that include:
  
  
  • Debt collection actions against borrowers and guarantors
  • Judicial and non-judicial foreclosure of real property/personal property
  • Provisional remedies (i.e. writs of attachment, receiverships)
  • Acquisition and asset based lending
  • Workouts and modifications
  • Hotel and casino restructuring
    
    
• Retail - We have actively participated in numerous bankruptcy and reorganization cases involving retail store chains, shopping centers, and the garment industry. This experience includes niche garment manufacturers and licensor-licensee disputes.
• Technology - We have advised parties in interest in numerous technology and dot-com cases, and have been immersed in the intellectual property issues these and other cases present.
• Telecommunications - The group has considerable experience in representing creditors' committees, utility companies, equipment lessors and technology licensors and licensees in telecommunications/internet service provider bankruptcy cases. These cases frequently involve novel issues under Sections 365(n) and 366 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Practice Areas
We also have substantial experience in the following practice areas:

• Litigation - With the assistance of our trial lawyers, we handle a wide variety of litigation and alternate dispute resolution matters for creditors, debtors and other parties in interest. This includes prosecution and defense of preference, fraudulent conveyance, equitable subordination, and substantive consolidation actions. This practice goes beyond the successful trial of individual cases. We are also called upon to fashion innovative approaches to solve complicated litigation problems, such as the use of mandatory class actions (both offensive and defensive) in the successful resolution of bankruptcies involving thousands of claims amounting to billions of dollars.
• Tax - With the assistance of our tax lawyers, we provide structures for troubled companies designed to retain valuable corporate tax attributes while affording favorable results for other parties involved. We also provide bankruptcy tax advice to creditors of troubled companies, including banks, insurance companies, and other parties in interest.
• Environmental and Toxic Tort - We have successfully represented parties in interest of companies with substantial environmental, toxic tort and nuclear waste disposal liabilities and assisted in working out these issues in the bankruptcy process. We have represented purchasers of assets seeking to buy free and clear of environmental and other significant claims.
• Cross-Border - We regularly represent lenders, indenture trustees, manufacturers, distributors, and other parties in cross-border insolvency matters and collection disputes in Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Representative Clients
Our clients include creditors' committees, secured and unsecured creditors, indenture trustees, debtor corporations, partnerships, investors, equity security holders, bondholders, bankruptcy trustees, debt traders, purchasers of assets in bankruptcy cases and/or distressed situations, officers and directors, landlords and tenants, licensees and licensors.

Our lawyers have represented clients in many of the largest bankruptcy cases and workouts in North America, including:

Aeromexico		AIOC Resources		Allegheny International
A.M. International		AmeriTruck		AMRESCO
Armstrong		Baptist Foundation of Arizona		Oren Benton
B.L. Candy		Beloit Corporation		Burnham Services
Cap Juluca Partners I		Centaur Mining		CHS Electronics
Charter Medical		Cherry Communications		Continental Airlines
Dart Drug		Decora		Drexel Burnham
Eastern Airlines		Espire Corp.		Exquisite Form Industries, Inc.
Family Golf Centers		Federated Department Stores		Finley Kumble Myerson & Kuhn
Flagstar		FreeI Network		Fruit of the Loom
Gaston & Snow		Geotek Communications		Global Telesystems
Harnischfeger		Healthcare International		Hillsborough
The Homey Group		Integrated Resources		Interstate Stores (reorganized into Toys "R" Us)
Jewelcor Corporation		Kevco		Kindercare
Kitty Hawk Airlines		Legend Airlines		Lomas Financial
Lone Star		LTV		Manville
Mechala		Medpartners Provider Network, Inc.		MJ Designs, Inc.
The Montauk Hotel & Yacht Club		NVF Company		NorthPoint Communications
NuCorp Energy		Nuexco Trading Corporation		NuService
Olympia & York		Pan American Airlines		Public Service of New Hampshire
Quad Systems		Rapid Link Communications		Renaissance Cosmetics
Revco		Reliant Business Products		Rogers
Rothschild		Southland Corporation		SouthMark
S.P.Dunham		The Stanhope Hotel		Star Communications
TeleGroup		Texaco		Tie Communications
Towle I and II		Tracor		United Department Stores
USG		U.S. Home		Voplex and Lapeer
Weblink Wireless		Wilson Foods		Windsor Energy
Wireless One		Worlds of Wonder