Financial Restructuring & Bankruptcy

Trustees

We recognize that bankruptcy trustees play a unique and critical role in the bankruptcy process and we are committed to servicing their specific legal needs.

Our team has significant experience assisting trustees in all facets of complex cases, from trustee appointment issues and lender negotiations to preparation of the trustee’s final report and the closing of the case. In addition, our team includes top-notch litigators who have tried bankruptcy matters throughout the country.

Fox attorneys not only understand the pressures and demands our clients face while directing the bankruptcy process, but are acutely aware of our clients’ end goals, even when litigation is unavoidable. We offer timely guidance and counsel, beginning with detailed analysis of claims, prosecuting litigation, proceeding through settlement efforts, obtaining judgments and concluding with collection efforts.

Our team represents a substantial number of Chapter 7 trustees in cases across the country. The issues encountered by Chapter 7 trustees are often different to those faced by participants in restructurings. Usually, a trustee is immediately faced with myriad urgent issues that need to be addressed quickly to preserve asset values for creditors. The Fox team is well equipped to handle these matters, as well as the process and difficult situations that trustees face closing complex cases and maximizing distributions.

Tailored Services

We tailor our strategy to align with the understanding that a trustee is often required to do much more than collect assets and distribute funds. A trustee can and frequently is expected to be a “jack-of-all-trades,” operating the debtor’s business as chief executive officer until it can be sold as a going concern or properly wound down.

In the realm of litigation, we are equipped to handle adversary proceedings in bankruptcy courts, jury trials in district courts, appeals to district courts or Bankruptcy Appellate Panels and appeals to circuit courts and courts of appeals. With more than 1,000 attorneys nationwide, our bankruptcy group has access to experienced corporate, labor, litigation and tax attorneys, which enables us to provide clients with comprehensive representation in all matters, particularly complex litigation.

Our attorneys provide comprehensive legal representation to trustees, including:

Fiduciary conflicts of interest
Formation of trusts
Going out of business sales
Sale of assets
Disposing and abandonment of property
Asset recoveries
Avoidance litigation
Lender liability claims
WARN liability
Prosecuting and defending bankruptcy causes of action.

We also actively serve as a liaison for the trustee to the creditors, lenders, the courts and the Office of the United States Trustee.

Representative Matters

Counsel to the Chapter 7 Trustee of Winstar Communications, Inc., et al., a billion-dollar telecommunications company that provided broadband services to business customers, which involved the distribution of more than $320 million in assets.
Counsel to the Chapter 7 Trustee of Dollarland, Inc., et al., a chain of 46 dollar retail stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, which resulted in the collection of more than $4 million in assets.
Counsel to the Chapter 7 Trustee of the estate of Frank E. Lembi, who was the largest owner of residential rental property in San Francisco, which resulted in the recovery of millions of dollars through the sale of significant real estate holdings.
Appointed as Chapter 7 trustee for New Century Transportation, Inc., Western Freightways, LLC, and Northwind Logistics, LLC; a national freight shipping and brokerage firm and its subsidiaries; for which more than $50 million in secured claims have been satisfied to date through the administration of the debtors’ assets and receivables. We operated the debtor during the wind down bringing a fleet of more than 3000 tractor trailers in from the road in an organized fashion while overseeing 1500 employees.
Appointed as operating trustee for Kingsley Towers, LLC, a condominium apartment building in Fort Lee, and satisfied more than $13.3 million in secured claims.
Appointed as trustee for Topps Meat Company, LLC, one of the largest national suppliers of frozen hamburgers, after the recall of its beef products due to contamination with Escherichia coli (E. coli).
Served as counsel to the Chapter 7 trustee for Downey Financial Corp., the third largest bank failure from 2008, which involved litigation across the country including in:
- The Bankruptcy Court (including, among others, litigation involving ownership of more than $400 million in tax refunds)
- The District Court for the District of Columbia (asserting the bankruptcy estate’s claim in the bank receivership)
- The U.S. Court of Federal Claims (to recover a tax refund of approximately $373 million)
- California state court (against the Debtor’s former officers and directors)
- Arbitration (against the Debtor’s former auditors)
Represented the Chapter 7 trustee in the bankruptcy of Bionol Clearfield, LLC, which constructed and operated a $300 million corn-based ethanol production facility and related entities.
- Handled the 10-month going concern process that resulted in a $10 million sale after a multiparty bid and auction process.
Represented the Chapter 7 trustee in the bankruptcy of Hess Industries, Inc. and Hess Engineering, a company that engineered, fabricated and installed custom metal forming equipment and integrated manufacturing systems primarily for applications in the automotive industry.
- Obtained approval from the Delaware Bankruptcy Court for the complex, cross-border sale of substantially all of the assets to a China-based company for $19.25 million, which, among other hurdles, required dealing with Department of Commerce and ITAR issues.
Represented the Chapter 7 trustee in the bankruptcy of Hospital Partners of America, Inc., a Charlotte, NC-based holding company that developed and operated hospitals in partnership with physicians. (U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District Court of DE; U.S. Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit)
- Handled the complex sale of three hospitals, in which the third, St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Houston, TX, sold for approximately $155 million.
Represented the Chapter 7 trustee in the bankruptcy of American Remanufacturers, Inc., et al. – the second largest automotive parts remanufacturer in the country, after the companies’ failed Chapter 11 bid that lasted for one week. (U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware)
- Completed a complicated bid and auction sale process that resulted in the sale of several units of the debtors’ businesses to several buyers.
Represented the Chapter 7 trustee in a highly publicized Chapter 7 bankruptcy case for renowned steak house Raindancer Steak House, which had been a Palm Beach institution for more than 35 years.
- Negotiated and sought leave of court to sell substantially all of the assets of the estate for the benefit of creditors on a shortened time frame, which resulted in the restaurant remaining open.
Counseled a Chapter 11 trustee in the sale of various franchises to a private equity firm.
Successfully defended a litigation trustee in the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit.
Appointed as Chapter 11 trustee for Basic Line, Inc., a plastic injection molding company with $20 million in annual revenues. Operated the debtor for more than six months during the orderly liquidation of all assets and paid all secured lenders in full with a distribution to unsecured creditors.
Appointed as Chapter 7 trustee for Headliners Entertainment Group Inc., a publicly traded company owning and operating comedy clubs under the name “Rascals,” as well as dance clubs, entertainment complexes and a media library with original digital recordings of performances by comedians including Chris Rock, Jeff Foxworthy, Colin Quinn, Andrew Dice Clay, Wanda Sykes, Drew Carey, Tim Allen, Rosie O’Donnell, Darryl Hammond and Joy Behar, which all had to be liquidated.