Bankruptcy & Restructuring

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With one of the largest and most experienced bankruptcy groups in the region, Sullivan & Worcester LLP offers legal services in all aspects of bankruptcy, restructuring, creditors’ rights and commercial law. Our lawyers have represented clients in matters involving billions of dollars, including out-of-court workouts and restructurings, as well as contested matters in federal bankruptcy courts in New York, Delaware, Massachusetts and other jurisdictions across the country.

Our creditor practice has a special focus on the issues faced by financial institutions and investors in financial transactions involving one or more distressed entities, including advice concerning the enforcement of remedial rights; restructuring of investments in defaulted public, private, and secured and unsecured bonds; workout of investments in CDOs and other structured investment vehicles; and enforcement of termination of swaps and other derivative instruments on account of bankruptcy or reorganization.

Given the breadth and the depth of our restructuring team, we are ready and able to take on and respond effectively to the most complicated issues that arise in debtor-creditor relationships. In fact, Chambers USA 2012 recognized our Bankruptcy & Restructuring practice "for its strength in handling a wide variety of bankruptcy, restructuring and creditors’ rights issues on behalf of financial institutions, investors and debtors." Chambers noted that our bankruptcy lawyers are "very reactive to its clients' needs."

Practice Profile (PDF)

Representative Client Work

• Chapter 15 Proceeding. Successfully represented indenture trustee of public debt before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in appeal of Chapter 15 proceeding. The Fifth Circuit ruled that a Mexican reorganization plan that granted discharges to its non-debtor operating subsidiaries cannot be enforced in the United States. After having its bankruptcy plan approved in Mexico, the Mexican company, Vitro SAB de CV, filed a Chapter 15 proceeding in the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, and sought to have its plan enforced in the United States. The Bankruptcy Court refused to enforce the plan. The Fifth Circuit then agreed to take a direct appeal from the Bankruptcy Court. This case represents the first time a Mexican reorganization plan has been denied enforcement in the United States.
• Lehman Brothers. Representing client in its capacity as indenture trustee, securitization trustee or collateral agent under various derivative transactions, loan trusts, swaps and other securities, as a member of the unsecured creditors’ committee in the Chapter 11 proceedings of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. and affiliates.
• Northwest Airlines and United Air Lines. Represented mortgagees, pass-through trustees, subordination agents, or indenture trustees, in the Chapter 11 proceedings of Northwest Airlines and United Air Lines with respect to commercial aircraft equipment and engines, including enforcement of obligations under Section 1110 (a) of the Bankruptcy Code, repossession and foreclosure of collateral, restructuring of transactions, prosecution of, and distributions with respect to, claims. Significant involvement in claims litigation concerning the interplay among tax indemnity claims and stipulated loss value, and litigation with respect to equity squeeze provisions.
• Nashville Senior Living. Advised a national healthcare and senior living services provider on its successful acquisition of seven senior living facilities out of the bankruptcy of Nashville Senior Living, Inc., over the opposition of certain non-debtor TIC interests being sold by order of the court.
• American Refining Group, Inc. (ARG). Represented a refinery operator in the bankruptcy of Chemtura Corporation, from whom ARG acquired a facility.
• Integrated Health Services, Inc., Mariner Post-Acute, Inc., Sun Healthcare Group, Inc. Our clients, holding leasehold and mortgage interests in approximately 57 real properties located in 13 states, entered into settlements whereby the properties were recovered and the debt resolved within a short time of each company’s Chapter 11 filing.  
• Lernout & Hauspie N.V., Dictaphone Corporation and L&H Holdings. Obtained favorable monetary settlement from Chapter 11 estates of Lernout & Hauspie and its multinational affiliates on behalf of a U.K. plaintiff in a patent infringement action involving rights to voice recognition software.
• Publicly Held REIT. Advised a publicly held REIT and its affiliates, which buy, own and lease senior citizen housing, in the creation and/or recycling of 17 “bankruptcy remote” subsidiaries in order to secure a master credit facility.