Bankruptcy & Restructuring
Practical, comprehensive restructuring strategies.
Efficient representation, particularly in larger, complicated Chapter 11 reorganizations, requires legal counsel that can leverage resources across multiple practice areas, disciplines, and regions.
Perkins Coie provides counsel for debtors, creditors, and other stakeholders through all aspects of insolvency, including both in-court proceedings and out-of-court restructurings. Perkins Coie has extensive experience with distressed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and wind down transactions and bankruptcy-related litigation, including claims for breach of duty, preference, and fraudulent transfer litigation.
Our wide range of legal services supports clients through complex insolvency and restructuring processes, to help achieve the best possible results.
How we help clients
- Bankruptcy.
- Restructuring.
- Workouts.
- Asset acquisitions.
- Bankruptcy litigation.
- Appeals.
We frequently represent
- Creditors and creditors’ committees.
- Debtors in possession.
- Debt and equity holders.
- Fiduciaries.
- Secured creditors.
- Trustees, estate fiduciaries, and examiners.
Areas of Focus
Corporate Debtors
We represent debtor clients navigating insolvency, across the full spectrum of restructurings from out-of-court workouts through to Chapter 11 proceedings.
Secured Creditors
We regularly represent secured creditors whose borrowers are in financial distress. Clients often turn to us to handle workouts, informal debt restructurings, Article 9 foreclosures, as well as for representation in bankruptcies, receiverships, and other insolvency proceedings. Our lender clients include the largest commercial mortgage-backed security special servicers, with the entire range of commercial properties as collateral.
Creditors and Creditors’ Committees
Creditors seeking repayment from debtors count on us to help them obtain the maximum return on their claims. Our clients benefit from our substantial experience representing official creditor committees. We also represent individual unsecured creditors in bankruptcies and other insolvency proceedings, from filing a proof of claim to monitoring the proceedings and litigating avoidance actions.
Distressed Acquisitions
We frequently represent third parties seeking to buy assets out of a distressed situation, including Article 9 sales, ABCs, and bankruptcy. Working with both strategic and financial buyers, we take preemptive measures to mitigate the risks associated with these acquisitions. We have a wealth of experience with stalking horse bidders, bid protections, breakup fees and credit bidding, and offer strategies that give our clients an advantage in competing with other bidders.
Bankruptcy Litigation
Bankruptcy often involves wide-ranging litigation, including claims for breach of fiduciary duty, corporate waste, intellectual property rights, director and officer liability, and employment law questions. To fully protect our clients’ rights in litigation, we draw on the substantial strength of attorneys in other practice areas, such as patent prosecution and litigation, insurance coverage, business litigation, labor law, tax, and corporate governance.
Estate Fiduciaries
Our lawyers frequently serve as counsel to Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 trustees, as well as similar estate fiduciaries such as plan agents, liquidating trustees, assignees, and equity receivers.
Principals and Equity Holders
We represent equity holders in all aspects of restructurings and bankruptcy proceedings. Our clients include official Chapter 11 equity committees, ad hoc committees, individuals, private equity and venture capital funds, and strategic and family office investors.
Indenture Trustees / Administrative Agents
Our nationally recognized practice provides high-quality representation to corporate trust companies and the corporate trust departments of major banking institutions serving in the capacity of indenture trustees and agents for publicly issued debt. We have played prominent roles in representing these institutions in the context of bond defaults and issuer bankruptcy cases across the country. Working closely with our corporate trust and litigation colleagues when appropriate, our bankruptcy attorneys offer clients a rare depth of experience and capability in this area, providing skilled counseling and representation.
Appeals
We regularly represent parties in bankruptcy appeals before federal district courts, bankruptcy appellate panels, and circuit courts of appeals. Our bankruptcy lawyer also represented the Chapter 11 debtors before the Supreme Court of the United States in the high-profile case RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC v. Amalgamated Bank, 132 S. Ct. 2065 (2012), involving a secured creditor’s right to credit bid at the sale of its collateral through a Chapter 11 plan.