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 2009 and 2010 recognized our Bankruptcy & Restructuring practice and noted that our bankruptcy lawyers have “no fear when it comes to complex bankruptcy and restructuring work.”

Practice Profile (PDF)

Representative Client Work

• 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.