Overview
Whiteman Osterman & Hanna’s Restructuring Group has a broad-ranging and sophisticated practice in the areas of business restructuring, creditors’ rights and bankruptcy. Our Restructuring Group attorneys have decades of experience representing secured and unsecured creditors, troubled businesses and various other parties involved in financially distressed situations, including bankruptcies, out of court workouts and restructurings, and creditors’ rights litigation in both state and federal courts.
We have experience representing clients in matters involving virtually every industry, including, among others, real estate, retail, transportation, health care, hospitality, construction, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, energy, professional services, and municipal finance. We combine transactional and litigation skills to assist creditors and distressed businesses in successfully navigating this complex legal and financial landscape. We pride ourselves on our ability to use our experience and skill to obtain the best results for our clients in complex insolvency-related situations.
Creditors’ Rights and Financial Services Litigation
Our Restructuring Group has wide-ranging experience representing lenders and other creditors in both in-court and out-of-court reorganizations and insolvencies. Our attorneys have extensive experience with all aspects of the lending cycle, from loan origination to loan amendment and forbearance transactions to post-default enforcement, workout and bankruptcy. Whether we are pursuing resolution through negotiation or litigation, we are committed to maximizing recoveries, mitigating risks for our clients, and providing effective solutions to their recovery challenges.
In the bankruptcy context, we represent banks, note holders, agents, and other secured and unsecured lenders and creditors in all aspects of bankruptcy court proceedings, including involuntary bankruptcies, debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, use of cash collateral, adequate protection, asset sales, plans of reorganization, dischargeability proceedings, and other key issues. We also have extensive experience in defending preference and other litigation in bankruptcy court. Our Restructuring Group attorneys also serve as Chapter 11 trustees, trustee counsel and creditor committee counsel.
Outside of bankruptcy, we have extensive experience with the structuring, negotiation and implementation of forbearance transactions, restructuring existing debt and arranging for new or additional debt financing, investment and collateral. We also regularly represent lenders in creditors’ rights litigation including enforcement of loan documentation, commercial mortgage foreclosures and personal property replevins, sales under Article 9 of the UCC, state and federal court receiverships, and all manner of judgment enforcement remedies. We also defend lenders against lender liability claims. Members of our Restructuring Group frequently serve as court-appointed receivers in mortgage foreclosures and in dissolution and partner dispute proceedings.
Debtor and Distressed Business Representation
The attorneys in our Restructuring Group represent companies and individuals in financial or operational distress in Chapter 7 liquidation and Chapter 11 reorganization, state court foreclosure and other enforcement and collection proceedings, as well as out-of-court workouts and restructurings. Our priority is to use our extensive expertise across industry lines and skill to provide companies and business owners facing financial difficulties with solutions to successfully address and emerge from distressed situations.
As debtors' bankruptcy counsel, we have advised and counseled countless clients through the bankruptcy process under Chapters 7, 11 (including Subchapter V) and 12, including cash collateral matters, debtor-in-possession and exit financing, negotiating and conducting Section 363 asset sales and negotiating, drafting and confirming Chapter 11 plans. Outside of bankruptcy, we routinely represent distressed businesses, guarantors and individuals in out of court workouts, restructurings and settlements, and in the defense of foreclosures and other creditor actions.