Key Contacts
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Bankruptcy Litigation
WilmerHale’s top-notch appellate and trial attorneys have an unmatched depth of involvement in bankruptcy matters, providing the ideal team for high-value bankruptcy and creditor rights litigation. Our attorneys have been at the forefront of major bankruptcy litigation matters, including a number of multi-billion dollar actions resulting from spinoffs and leveraged buyouts that were followed by later bankruptcy filings. We represent the insurance industry and its members in challenging asbestos-related bankruptcies in which billions of dollars in alleged liabilities are at stake. We represent financial institutions and industry associations in connection with bankruptcy-related lawsuits and the effects of bankruptcy on the operation of financial markets. We represent secured and unsecured lenders and lender groups, as well as landlords, trade creditors and bondholders, in the full range of litigation matters that start or end up in bankruptcy court, or which arise out of insolvency issues. We are often involved in US Supreme Court cases addressing bankruptcy-related issues, whether representing a party or as amicus curiae.
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Bankruptcy & Government Regulation
WilmerHale’s firmwide capabilities in virtually every area of government regulation give us a unique perspective where regulation intersects with bankruptcy. We have substantial experience evaluating and mitigating insolvency risk in securities and commodities contexts, and in addressing issues arising from securities and commodities broker liquidations. We have represented clients in bank and bank holding company insolvency proceedings involving the FDIC and state regulators. We have also represented a leading mortgage servicer in connection with its residential mortgage business, helping the bank to navigate the evolving regulatory regimes in that area. -
Bankruptcy & Insolvency Policy
WilmerHale takes a preeminent role on key issues of bankruptcy policy. Our attorneys have provided testimony before the American Bankruptcy Institute Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 regarding the protection of secured creditor rights in the bankruptcy process. We have represented the Loan Syndication and Trading Association as amicus curiae in a US Supreme Court case regarding the right of a secured creditor to credit bid its claim in bankruptcy, and we represented the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association as amicus curiae in a Second Circuit appeal that raised significant questions about the scope of the Bankruptcy Code’s safe-harbor provisions relating to securities contracts. In addition to policymaking work, we assist clients in understanding and complying with bankruptcy policy decisions that affect their businesses.
Experience
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Defended a Fortune 20 company against a suit brought by a litigation trust on behalf of creditors of a former subsidiary in US District Court, related to the spinoff of the former subsidiary prior to its bankruptcy.
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Tried and settled claims of the Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. estate against multi-national defendant Lukoil, related to Lukoil’s spinoff of Getty, following the assignment of those claims to a liquidating trust through Getty’s confirmed Chapter 11 plan.
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Represented a leading national mortgage servicer in connection with a number of disputes in bankruptcy courts across the country relating to the treatment of home mortgages in Chapter 13, and in connection with its residential mortgage business generally, helping the bank to navigate the evolving policy and regulatory regimes in that area.
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Represented financial institutions in their defense of claims arising from the Lyondell and Tribune Company bankruptcies, related to the leveraged buyouts that preceded those bankruptcy filings, as well as other financial institutions in their defense of claims relating to the bankruptcies of Refco and the SPhinX Funds.
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Represented Dominion Voting in fraudulent transfer actions by the trustee for the parent of Sequoia Voting and by Smartmatic Corporation, related to Dominion’s purchase of Sequoia assets.
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Represented an array of derivatives counterparties in ongoing disputes arising out of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.
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Represented a minority secured bondholder in litigation in the New York Supreme Court to enforce its claims against the issuer following an out-of-court debt-for-equity exchange to which the bondholder did not consent.
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Represented noteholders in defense of equitable subordination claims commenced against them by the trustee for Pelikan Technologies in its Northern District of California Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
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Represented a leading national mortgage servicer in connection with a number of disputes in bankruptcy courts across the country relating to the treatment of home mortgages in Chapter 13.
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Represented corporate vendor defendants Bose, Disney and Staples in multi-million dollar preference suits brought by the liquidating trustee for Circuit City, among many other trade preference and fraudulent transfer actions.
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In the cross-border arena, represented parties in interest in the Delaware Chapter 15 case of Elpida Semiconductor, which is also subject to bankruptcy proceedings in Japan, and the New York Chapter 15 case of Upper Deck International, which is subject to bankruptcy proceedings in The Netherlands. Continued to represent a number of foreign banks in connection with the claims pursued by the Fairfield Funds in their Chapter 15 cases in New York and liquidation proceedings in the British Virgin Islands.
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Represented the Loan Syndication and Trading Association as amicus curiae in a US Supreme Court case regarding the right of a secured creditor to credit bid its claim in bankruptcy, and regarding lender rights in proposed amendments by the American Bankruptcy Institute to the US Bankruptcy Code.
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Represented the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association as amicus curiae in a Second Circuit appeal arising out of the Madoff bankruptcy that raised significant questions about the scope of the Bankruptcy Code’s safe-harbor provisions relating to securities contracts.
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Represented a leading mortgage servicer in connection with its residential mortgage business, helping the bank to navigate the evolving policy and regulatory regimes in that area.