Debtor Representations

• New York law firm, Liddle & Robinson LLP, and its managing partner, Jeffrey Lew Liddle in their Chapter 11 cases. Stabilizing the operations of this professional services business facing a difficult time including successfully challenging various liens claimed by its lender in a contested cash collateral trial, allowed it to continue to serve its ongoing clients, and laid the groundwork for a successful wind-up of its business affairs. Like much debtor work, our insolvency lawyers are working with a team of litigators, finance lawyers, and tax specialists to develop a practical approach tailored to the specific needs of the debtor’s business.
• Managing general partners of the debtors in In re Fort Hill Square Associates, who owned One and Two International Place, the largest commercial office building complex in downtown Boston. The debtors had pre-petition debt in excess of $600 million. Following extensive plan and cram-down litigation with the primary secured lender, the debtors successfully emerged from bankruptcy in conjunction with an over $700 million recapitalization, with unsecured creditors receiving 100% of their claims and our clients, the general partners, retaining significant ownership interests in, and day-to-day management of, the reorganized debtors.
• Modern Shoe Company LLC and Highline United LLC, distributers and retailers of high-end footwear and handbags in their successful Chapter 11, which concluded with two 363 sales of substantially all of their assets.
• Organogenesis, Inc., a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, in its successful Chapter 11 reorganization. Organogenesis successfully restructured approximately $40 million in debt, and obtained court approval of a plan of reorganization that paid a guaranteed dividend to creditors of 35%.
• Nortel U.S. group of companies on all Canadian law matters relating to its cross-border restructuring proceedings under the CCAA and Chapter 11, the sales of its business and assets in a series of auctions, and the ground-breaking global settlement of a dispute over apportionment of more than US$7 billion of net sales proceeds
• Radianse, Inc, a manufacturer of real-time location equipment for hospitals, and executed a creatively structured 363 auction of its assets, which resulted in sufficient proceeds to pay general unsecured creditors a dividend of 100%.
• Served as special tort and insurance litigation counsel to Church Street Health Management, one of the largest dental practice management companies in the United States, which filed Chapter 11 in order to address hundreds of millions of dollars of potential tort liability and to seek insurance coverage for those potential claims.
• Served as co-counsel to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Brace Publishing Company, in post-confirmation proceedings out of its pre-packaged Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.

Purchasers in Distressed Mergers & Acquisitions

• A wholly-owned subsidiary of The ONE Group as purchaser of the assets of Kona Grill Inc. and its Chapter 11 debtor affiliates, a restaurant business.
• The Children’s Place in its acquisition of the Gymboree® and Crazy 8® brands through a Chapter 11 Section 363 auction
• Compass Partners in its acquisition of the intellectual property and other assets of The Big Apple Circus through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction, which won M&A Advisor's 12th Annual Turnaround Award
• Benchmark Electronics, Inc., a public company and contract manufacturer located in Texas, in connection with Benchmark’s successful purchase of the majority of the assets of ACT Manufacturing out of its bankruptcy proceeding.
• Prospect Therapeutics, Inc., an affiliate of a West Coast private equity fund, in connection with its successful purchase of the majority of the assets of Glycogenesis, a publicly-traded biotechnology company based in Massachusetts. Following a two-day contested evidentiary hearing, the court rejected the attempts of the debtor’s founder to prevent the transfer of a patent license, and approved the sale to the firm’s client.

Committee Representations

• Represented the creditors’ committee in the Malden Mills Chapter 11 reorganization. Malden Mills, then one of the largest privately held companies in Massachusetts, restructured approximately $180 million in secured and unsecured debt under a plan in which creditors received a cash dividend along with stock and board representation in reorganized Malden Mills.
• Represented the creditors’ committee in the Chapter 11 liquidation of Engage, Inc., and the creditors trust established following the sale of the majority of Engage’s assets to a third party. The firm brought a multi-count adversary proceeding against Engage’s former parent, and various directors and officers, which ultimately resulted in a dividend to creditors in excess of 60%.
• Represented the creditors’ committee in the Chapter 11 cases of RJ Development and two related entities, biotechnology companies that manufactured a variety of medical devices. They emerged from bankruptcy pursuant to a plan that paid general unsecured creditors 40 cents on the dollar.

• Represented the creditors’ committee in the Chapter 11 case of East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. After litigating with the secured lender, the debtor proposed a plan of reorganization under which creditors received a cash dividend of ~ 40% of their claim.

General Creditor Representations

• Alamos Gold Inc., a mining company, as a creditor in the chapter 11 case of Republic Metals Corporation, a metals refiner in litigation involving title, bailment and ownership issues.
• Four Massachusetts-based private equity funds in In re Scott Cable Communications, Inc., in a highly complex thirty-five day trial defending a lawsuit brought by the United States Department of Justice on behalf of the IRS, seeking to recharacterize or alternatively equitably subordinate over $50 million in secured claims issued pursuant a confirmed Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
• Represented Dow Corning Corporation in litigating a claim for trade secret theft in the Chapter 11 case of In re GT Advanced Technologies, Inc.,
• Represented Alere, Inc., which held a secured loan in and option to purchase a business unit from Liberty Medical Supply, Inc., which filed Chapter 11 to try to thwart Alere’s option. Following expedited discovery, the bankruptcy court denied the debtor’s motion to reject the option, the debtor was compelled to sell the business unit to Alere and pay Alere’s loan in full, including attorneys fees.
• Represented Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. in the Chapter 7 case of Johnny Carson’s former personal attorney, Henry Bushkin, with respect to the Trustee’s claims for copyright infringement and turnover of royalty payments that HMH owed Bushkin for a book he authored regarding Carson.
• Represented Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. in an attempt by the Chapter 11 Debtor, WD Encore Software, LLC to assume and assign a non-exclusive software license.
• Represented Elements Capital Group in a non-dischargeability trial that resulted in the denial of discharge for two Chapter 7 debtors on the grounds that the debtors acted with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors and knowingly made false statements on their schedules and statements of financial affairs.