Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditor's Rights
Counsel with deep experience and knowledge of all bankruptcy matters
Capabilities at a glance
- Experience representing clients across a wide range of industries and in every kind of workout, restructuring, reorganization and liquidation proceeding.
- Focused, personal service from a team with a strong eye for detail, backed by the exceptional resources and efficiencies of a large firm.
- A national practice group with experience representing clients in every major jurisdiction in the country from our offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.
- Our attorneys are thought leaders, often presenting bankruptcy-related programs to national trade organizations such as the American Bankruptcy Institute.
Effective and efficient legal support from dedicated bankruptcy attorneys
The lines that used to define traditional bankruptcy and creditors’ rights issues are increasingly blurred and complex and are affecting companies, investors and financial institutions more than ever. What is clear is that creditors, debtors and other interested parties need legal representation with the combination of experience, perspective, national scope and resources that Quarles’ dedicated Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditor's Rights Practice Group offers. We take a straightforward, pragmatic approach to help you solve problems and take advantage of all available opportunities. By applying lessons learned in the past to existing matters, we significantly reduce the ramp-up time often required by other firms. Our attorneys also are experienced litigators, so rather than handing off the courtroom phase of a case to another team, we can handle virtually every aspect of your case from start to finish, including trials and appeals.
Agility across all bankruptcy legal matters and industries
Across the country, Quarles is the firm of choice for a truly substantial range of clients, each of them approaching bankruptcy and reorganizations with a unique perspective. Our clients include secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, lessors, bondholders, equity interests, committees representing creditors or equity holders, trustees, examiners, post-petition financiers and prospective acquirers of businesses or assets. We have represented, and continue to represent, clients in industries that include airlines, equipment leasing and finance, gaming, health care, hotels and hospitality, manufacturing, real estate, retail, intellectual property, transportation, agriculture, utilities and nearly every other sector of the economy.
Successes
- Obtained a full dismissal of lender liability claims alleged against a financial institution, with full multi-million-dollar money judgment and foreclosure awarded to the client.
- Obtained full dismissal of a FDCPA action against a loan servicer in federal district court.
- Represented a financial institution in working out an existing loan by documenting the buyout of one of the lenders and restructuring the loan as a unitranche-style deal, with our client having a lower credit exposure and a senior position — a very desirable result.
News & Insights
Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditor's Rights Focus Areas
Agribusiness
The Quarles team has significant experience representing clients in the agricultural industry, regularly addressing the needs of lenders, cooperatives and credit facilities in Chapter 12 cases, workouts, foreclosures and sale matters. Our attorneys are active in the American Agricultural Law Association.
For more information, contact Brittany Ogden.
Collection, Foreclosure and Enforcement
Our attorneys have years of experience working with secured and unsecured creditors, including banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, financing companies, special servicers, credit card companies, insurance companies and other institutions. From our offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., we represent clients across the country in state and federal courts, both at the trial level and on appeal. We represent clients in the full range of traditional litigation and alternative dispute resolution proceedings, issues and remedies, including:
- Prejudgment replevins, attachments and garnishments
- UCC remedies
- Receiverships
- Judicial and nonjudicial foreclosures
- Post-foreclosure deficiency judgments
- Preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders
- Fraudulent transfer claims
- Post-judgment enforcement, including writs of execution, garnishments and charging orders
- Enforcement actions against borrowers and guarantors
- Lender liability and other defensive actions
Corporate Bankruptcy and Reorganization
Our attorneys can support your organization with the full range of legal issues that arise in the event of complex corporate bankruptcies, insolvencies and reorganizations. In a highly regulated sector, navigating the best course forward requires a legal team that takes the time to understand your best interests and then works hard to make them align with your compliance obligations at both the state and federal levels. We have particularly significant experience in rare, but extremely important, Chapter 9 municipal reorganizations. Notable recent reorganizations include religious and nonprofit organizations that have needed to resolve large and difficult-to-quantify damage exposure from sensitive litigation.
Equipment Finance
The Quarles Equipment Finance team is part of the Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditor’s Rights Practice Group and provides sophisticated, experienced counsel to a wide range of equipment leasing and financial institutions. We advise clients on new lease and finance documentation, workout and restructuring matters, and enforcement actions, including federal and state litigation, receiverships and bankruptcy.
Health Care Distress
Our attorneys have extensive depth and experience representing secured creditors in the health care industry. We represent institutional health care lenders in all kinds of distress, bankruptcy and enforcement matters throughout the country. Quarles has a deep bench in the substantive health care industries where our clients operate, in addition to the regulatory and legal issues that affect both our lender clients and borrowers in this area. This allows us to help our clients develop and implement sophisticated and creative strategies for dealing with all aspects of troubled loans to health care providers. We also are well versed with all the regulatory matters affecting health care borrowers.
Receivers, Estate Representatives, Committees
Our attorneys act as receivers and estate representatives and have served on a number of committees in significant and complex cases involving millions of dollars.
Supply Chain and Manufacturing Issues
The Quarles bankruptcy team has significant experience representing manufacturing industry clients. Our role as outside national bankruptcy counsel to companies of all sizes — from Fortune 500 companies to closely-held businesses — provides us with a deep understanding of the issues that matter most to our clients when they have a critical customer or vendor in financial distress. We help our clients strategically manage all aspects of distressed or bankrupt trade partner relations, both pre- and post-bankruptcy. This includes helping clients navigate potential or occurring supply chain disruptions, negotiation of credit and shipping terms, reclamation of shipped goods and demands for adequate assurance of future performance, contracting issues, assertion of claims in bankruptcy cases, litigation of adversary proceedings (including defense of preference actions) and all aspects of bankruptcy or receivership proceedings.
Workouts and Out-of-Court Restructuring
Our transactional work in the distress area encompasses any and all stages of a transaction, beginning with the solicitation phase, through legal due diligence, structuring, drafting and negotiating of the underlying transaction and documents, drafting and negotiating third-party documents, and all closing and post-closing activities. In addition to advising clients on the management and workout of troubled loans and loan restructuring, our transactional experience includes asset-based lending under both revolving and term loans, single and multi-borrower facilities, syndicated loans, real estate financing and leasing, debtor in possession and exit financings, equipment loans and leases, intercreditor and subordination agreements, purchase and sale agreements, financing of receivership estates, security agreements, guarantees, modification agreements, forbearance agreements, letter of credit arrangements, documentation for private Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) sales, settlement agreements, confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, complex payoff letters and related releases of lender.
