Restructuring & Insolvency

At the heart of most legal disputes lies a business problem waiting to be solved. Wildman Harrold’s Restructuring & Insolvency Practice appreciates this dichotomy. We are skilled in fashioning legal strategies that provide our clients with the tools needed to solve their most urgent business problems.

We are particularly experienced in guiding our clients (including debtors, creditors, equity holders, asset purchasers, fiduciaries, and other stakeholders) through the pivotal stage when a company approaches and enters the zone of insolvency. Drawing on strengths from our Private Equity and Small Business Investment Company Practices, we know how to structure innovative and timely refinancing and recapitalization solutions. Working closely with our Corporate Governance Practice, we give our clients guidance as to the scope and extent of the duties owed by the insolvent business’ directors, officers, and other fiduciaries. We are also well schooled in the workout arena and negotiate effectively to advance our clients’ rights and interests in an insolvency scenario. Where feasible and advantageous to our clients, we work to structure comprehensive, out-of-court resolutions to our clients’ problems.

Where an out-of-court solution cannot be accomplished advantageously or economically, we fight for our clients. We regularly appear on our clients’ behalf in federal, state, and bankruptcy courts throughout the country where we litigate a full range of bankruptcy and insolvency issues. We also have substantial experience in bankruptcy appeals and have obtained good outcomes for our clients in the U.S. District Courts and Circuit Courts of Appeal. We take pride in blending our substantive bankruptcy and insolvency skill with practical, time-tested trial and appellate skills.

We also frequently work with our Corporate, Intellectual Property, and Employment & Labor Practices to identify and avoid insolvency-related problems before they arise. We evaluate proposed transaction structures to determine how they will fare in the event of an insolvency involving one or more parties. We then counsel our clients as to how these insolvency risks can be minimized or avoided – either by revising the transaction structure or by seeking additional economic concessions to balance the risk.

We work hard to create value in difficult situations where value is not always apparent. We utilize the optimal combination of negotiation, restructuring, and litigation, thus maximizing the time and space in which our clients can solve their business problems.

• We currently serve as counsel to the Litigation Trustee appointed in 65 high-profile Chapter 11 cases filed in the federal and state courts of Illinois against an equipment company’s former senior management; these engagements involve the Trustee’s enforcement of more than $74 million in promissory notes executed by senior management
• We serve as counsel to the Debtor, and special counsel to the Trustee, in connection with the liquidating Chapter 11 case of this historic Chicago hospital. We have prosecuted hundreds of preference and fraudulent transfer actions seeking in excess of $50 million in recoveries for the benefit of the estate; the largest of these avoidance actions sought damages in excess of $14 million and resulted in an eight day bench trial
  
• We act as trial counsel in federal and state ancillary bankruptcy proceedings representing two partners of a global accounting firm, in their capacity as liquidator of a Bahamian investment fund; our attorneys, in these cases, tested the limits of the enforceability and recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings in American bankruptcy courts
  
• We represent two photographers who challenge the enforceability of certain non-debtor releases contained in the confirmed Chapter 11 plan of a major foreign retailer; by arguing that our clients did not receive adequate notice of the relief sought against them, our attorneys seek to declare that release unenforceable as a result of the due process violations inflicted upon the photographers
  
• We represented an insurance company and long-term firm client in Chapter 11 proceedings focused on a complex program of insurance and related agreements, as well as more than $100 million in collateral and premium paid to fund this program; the lawsuit required both parties to offer substantial expert testimony on the actuarial projections of the likely remaining exposure under the program