Companies from diverse industries—including the agriculture, banking and financial, consumer product, real estate, retail and transportation sectors—know they can turn to Shook, Hardy & Bacon for guidance on bankruptcy claims and the debtor-creditor relationship.
Shook attorneys can assist secured creditors, unsecured creditors, debtors, lessors, lessees and investors with a wide variety of bankruptcy and creditors’ rights issues. We have negotiated, litigated and enforced all types of claims in bankruptcy in addition to helping clients with debtor financing and other financial issues, corporate reorganizations, and selling and purchasing property out of bankruptcy estates. We have also represented creditors in bankruptcy litigation involving preferences, fraudulent conveyances, post-petition transfers, set-offs and lien priority disputes.
Insolvency often leads not to bankruptcy filing but rather to a restructuring of the debtor-creditor relationship. Conversant in all facets of bankruptcy counseling, our attorneys provide guidance on these types of workouts and various other alternatives—including assignments for the benefit of creditors, receiverships, repossessions and foreclosures—that aim to restructure the relationship or enforce the obligation.
Our attorneys have also acted in a supervisory role with respect to regional and national bankruptcy litigation. We have managed and supervised a team of lawyers acting as counsel in 33 states to one of the nation's largest retailers and providers of consumer credit on bankruptcy, collection and credit litigation issues. We have also served as regional counsel for a national automotive lender in bankruptcy and credit matters.
We have also pursued creditors’ rights outside bankruptcy by obtaining U.S. judgments against debtors and enforcing foreign judgments in the United States. In handling such actions, we have worked closely with private investigative firms specializing in the location of hidden assets. Our bankruptcy lawyers have also published treatises on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.
Bankruptcy Representative Matters
- Within two weeks of engagement, resolved a $2-million preference claim for less than 5 percent of the amount sought.
- Resolved a $3.5-million bankruptcy preference case for 10 percent of amount sought.
- Represented a Chinese company in successful U.S. enforcement and collection of multimillion-dollar judgment obtained in China. This case was included on the Daily Journal's list of "California’s Top Plaintiff Verdicts."
- In a national casino bankruptcy, secured payment in full of one client’s $500,000 pre-petition claim as a "critical vendor" and another client’s $4-million pre-petition claim with interest and fees.
