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The Art of Law

Every endeavor
has its own art, whether it’s hitting
a baseball, writing
a symphony,
or handling a lawsuit. In the
legal arena there’s an art to envisioning solutions where others see problems. It has
to do with understanding how to resolve matters in a way that benefits each client. It has to do with the art of helping clients contain problems and expand opportunities.

Carrington Coleman’s corporate reorganization and bankruptcy lawyers have been involved in most major bankruptcy reorganizations in our geographic area as well as in many significant cases around the country. The complexity of the matters we handle often requires us to use a team approach, which involves working closely with the firm’s corporate and corporate governance, securities, litigation practice groups, and other specialists. We have represented debtors and creditors in numerous out-of-court workouts and the restructuring of companies in bankruptcy proceedings. We also have extensive experience representing clients in transactional matters arising in financially distressed situations, including the acquiring of assets in bankruptcy, the structuring of business transactions to reduce bankruptcy risks, and the negotiation of business solutions to avoid bankruptcy.

We have also built a reputation for handling a wide variety of insolvency-related claims on both the defense and plaintiff sides, including matters involving director and officer liability, professional liability, fraudulent transfer and preference litigation, lender liability, and equitable subordination. When prosecuting claims on behalf of estate representatives, we have undertaken matters on a full contingency and partial contingency basis, as well as an hourly fee basis. We have repeatedly achieved multi-million dollar recoveries for our clients. Although we can never guarantee a result, on the plaintiff’s side, our extensive experience in bankruptcy litigation helps us to direct estate representatives to cases where we think there are good chances of substantial recoveries. And on the defense side, we are frequently able to assist clients in minimizing the risks that they will be sued, and to defend successfully any actions that are brought against them.  

We have successfully represented a wide variety of clients, including debtors, bankruptcy trustees, statutory unsecured creditors' committees, indenture trustees, secured creditors, individual financial institutions, bondholders, ad hoc committees of bondholders, commercial paper holders, trade creditors, and parties acquiring assets out of bankruptcy proceedings. These clients represent a broad range of industries including agriculture and food distribution, airlines, bank holding companies, charitable institutions, energy, entertainment, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, mining, municipalities, oil and gas, retail, real estate, technology and telecommunications, transportation, and utilities.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE:

  • Prosecuted the first reported case in the nation to recognize a “fraud exception” to the statutory requirement that three creditors sign an involuntary bankruptcy petition.  In re Moss, 249 B.R. 411 (Bankr. N.D. Tex 2000).
  • Represented the Plan Liquidating Agent for a post-confirmation litigation fund, filed actions on behalf of the Fund in multiple state and federal courts alleging damages to the debtor in excess of $1 billion, and after extensive litigation spanning two years, the Fund’s claims against all defendants were settled.
  • Successfully defended a quasi-government lender in a bankruptcy court trial spanning two months against the trustee of the bankruptcy estate for a large mortgage broker claiming over $140 million in damages for the alleged destruction of its business and an alleged fraudulent transfer in connection with a complex securitization of derivatives. We also obtained a judgment in favor of our client for $13 million in future damages from the poor loans sold by the broker, which the district court and the Fifth Circuit affirmed.
  • Represented a creditors’ committee in the investigation and prosecution of estate claims against professionals and D&O’s of a debtor.
  • Represented a post-confirmation trustee in the investigation and prosecution of chapter 5 claims and on the prosecution of D&O claims. 
  • Represented a former high level officer and director of a publicly held company that declared bankruptcy against allegations of securities fraud in more than 200 lawsuits, including many class actions, which involved representing the officer in Texas state and federal court proceedings and coordinating with local counsel in connection with representation throughout the country.
  • Represented law firm in a malpractice action stemming from defendant’s bankruptcy representation of debtor, and obtained a summary judgment that the plaintiff take nothing.
  • Represented nine former officers and directors of a bankrupt home improvement company in two lawsuits alleging violation of federal and state securities laws and a variety of common law claims filed in federal court and state court, in which we obtained a stay of discovery in both federal and state court (except for limited class certification discovery) and were thus able to negotiate a favorable settlement on behalf of our clients.
  • Represented a lessor of precious metals in a contested matter resulting in the recovery of proceeds of the precious metal.
  • Represented a bank in a bankruptcy involving a securities class action, which was essential to the successful reorganization of our client, and after extensive negotiations, successfully resolved the matter and obtained approval of a plan of reorganization.
  • Represented several former senior officers and directors who were among a number of defendants in a breach of fiduciary duties/ERISA lawsuit brought by the trustee, and acting as the liaison counsel for the D&O defense group, we settled the entire case for all the D&O’s with insurance money from three carriers.
  • Representing former directors and officers of a bankrupt technology company against multi-million dollar claims of mismanagement.
  • Representing bankruptcy estate in the prosecution of claims against former directors and officers of the nation’s largest food distribution company.

We have also represented numerous creditors in preferential transfer and fraudulent conveyance adversary proceedings, creditors in contested plan confirmation hearings, secured creditors in contested, non-dischargeability actions, trade creditors, including telecommunications carriers, in various contested matters in bankruptcies, and lessors of real estate in various sales and acquisitions in bankruptcy.

For more information, please contact:

Practice Chair:

Steve Goodwin
214-855-3082
sgoodwin@ccsb.com

Attorneys:

Related Practice Areas:

Creditor's Rights
Financial Reorganization

 

Not certified by the Texas Board of Legal Certification except as noted.