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Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Creditors’ Rights

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In our ever-changing and fragile global economy, Barton’s well-established Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Creditors’ Rights team is extremely adept at crafting business-minded solutions that are designed to maximize recovery, minimize exposure, and achieve the best possible outcome for our clients.

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We understand that financial distress matters can arise suddenly and require urgent attention. We always work closely with our clients to efficiently and strategically resolve complex financial, operational, and managerial matters. Our goal is to achieve pragmatic, consensual resolution when possible, but we are proactive, effective, and aggressive litigators when necessary.

Barton’s attorneys have extensive experience representing each of the various significant constituencies with an interest in a distressed business or its assets, including debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, official and unofficial committees, court-appointed fiduciaries, DIP and exit financers, investors, and venture capitalists. We have represented clients in virtually every type of distressed financial situation, both in and out of court, including:

  • Loan workouts
  • Contested and out-of-court restructurings
  • Bankruptcy, including pre-packaged bankruptcy
  • Intercreditor disputes
  • Debtor-in-possession and exit financing
  • Crisis management
  • Distressed commercial real estate matters
  • Distressed asset sales and acquisitions
  • Acquisition and trading of claims
  • Distressed retail
  • Debtor/creditor and bankruptcy-related litigation

Additionally, unlike many other debtor/creditor and bankruptcy practices, we do not currently represent major financial institutions in bankruptcy and creditors’ rights matters. As a result, we can act adverse to those entities, which can be a crucial need for our clients swept into financially distressed matters. Because of this practice group’s current 100% major financial institution-neutral status, debtors, other creditors, and creditors’ committees can retain us directly, as co-counsel, or even as conflicts counsel for investigations and litigations.
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Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Creditors’ Rights

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Representative Matters
  • Represented Internationally-Known Designer as a Creditor
    • Represented an internationally-known designer as the only creditor to successfully challenge a retail debtor’s broadly proposed releases, claim waivers, and plan injunction in advance of the debtor’s confirmation of its plan, which allowed our creditor-designer client to continue to pursue multi-million-dollar IP-related claims against the debtor and other insider third parties.
  • Successfully Compelled Rejection of Trademark License Agreement
    • Represented a well-known celebrity branding company in compelling the rejection of a trademark license agreement of a retail debtor, thus freeing up the mark from the debtor’s estate and allowing the branding company to pursue other opportunities with it, while also preserving the company’s claims against the debtor.
  • Successfully Opposed Developer of 45-Story Hotel Worth $100 Million
    • Represented a New York-based commercial real estate construction management firm against a developer-debtor of a 45-story luxury hotel and residential mixed-use complex in mid-Manhattan valued in excess of $100 million. Aggressively and successfully opposed its fast-tracked plan confirmation process so that the client’s multi-million-dollar trust fund-related claims were allowed in full, and the funds for the same were carved out of the estate and set aside as part of the debtor’s plan confirmation.
  • Counsel to Education Business Debtor in Chapter 11 Case
    • Represented an education business debtor in its Chapter 11 case as one of the largest corporate entities, with annual revenues of more than $60 million, developed under the federal “No Child Left Behind” law to provide special education services principally to urban school districts throughout the United States.
  • Represented Creditors’ Committee in Chapter 11 Case
    • Represented the creditors’ committee in the Chapter 11 case of a regional furniture retailer and discovered vital information regarding the debtor and its institutional lender that significantly leveraged the unsecured creditors’ position. This resulted in a return to creditors well above that expected at the outset of the case.
  • Managed Chapter 11 Case for Manufacturer with $100 Million Annual Revenue
    • Represented the creditors’ committee in the Chapter 11 case of a leading designer and manufacturer in the plastics industry with annual revenues in excess of $100 million.
  • Represented Chapter 11 Committees in Various Industries
    • Represented several other official and ad hoc trade creditor, bondholder, and equity security holder Chapter 11 committees, including in the cases of Oskar Huber Fine Furniture (retail), HPG International (manufacturing), Lakeview Subacute Care (healthcare), Southmark Corporation (real estate), Circle K Corporation (retail), Merry-Go-Round Enterprises, Inc. (retail), and Zale Corporation (retail). 
  • Represented Investment Funds in Distressed Financing Situations, Bankruptcy
    • Represented investment funds in several distressed corporate financing and bankruptcy situations, including with respect to bankruptcy-related discovery and litigation.
  • Counsel to Trustee in Crazy Eddie Electronics Bankruptcy
    • Represented one of the officially appointed trustees in the Crazy Eddie consumer electronics chain bankruptcy cases. Successfully pursued millions of dollars of claims against members of the Antar family.
  • Represented Creditor-Defendants Against Fraud Allegations
    • Represented a number of creditor-defendants in threatened—as well as pursued—bankruptcy case-related alleged preference payments and fraudulent conveyance actions.
  • Represented Lenders, Investors, and Creditors in Chapter 11 Cases
    • Represented lenders, investors, and/or other creditors and interested parties in the Chapter 11 cases of: Calpine Corporation (utilities), WorldCom (telecommunications), Exide Technologies (manufacturing), Dana Corp (automotive), Bally Total Fitness (health clubs), Refco (financial services), Pliant Corp (packaging), Nellson Nutraceutical (health foods), Advanced Marketing/Publishers Group (book distributing/publishing), Earth Biofuels Inc. (alternative fuels), American Home Mortgage (financial services), KB Toys (retail), Marcel Paper Mills (paper manufacturing), Bayonne Medical Center (healthcare), Barnert Hospital (healthcare), DOBI Medical (healthcare), Kara Homes (real estate), Solomon Dwek (real estate), New Jersey Affordable Homes (real estate), Rockaway Bedding (retail), Levitz Furniture (retail), Jazz Photo Group (retail) and Kiwi and UAL Airlines (airline industry).