Practice Areas : Bankruptcy and Creditor Rights

a clear path to resolution

Ball Janik LLP’s Bankruptcy and Creditor Rights practice has helped clients find a clear path to resolution in some of the Pacific Northwest’s most challenging insolvencies and bankruptcy cases. We have a Chambers USA ranked bankruptcy attorney, partners with national law firm experience, and a former national bank executive with more than 20 years of experience in special assets. Our work spans all areas of creditor rights and insolvency law, including representation of institutional lenders, secured and unsecured creditors, lessors, debtors and debtors-in-possession, creditors committees, bankruptcy trustees and receivers.

Community and regional banks, as well as national financial institutions, engage us to deal with their problem loans, including loans to debtors in bankruptcy and loans secured by all types of collateral. We also represent borrowers in loan workouts and out-of-court restructurings. Our experience and skill has attracted clients seeking to acquire loan portfolios, businesses and assets that are in distressed condition or part of a bankruptcy.

Asset Recovery and Avoidance Litigation • Asset Transactions • Business Acquisitions and Sales • Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Cases • Distressed Acquisitions • Loan Enforcement and Documentation • Out-of-Court Restructuring

Asset Recovery and Avoidance Litigation

Our practice has successfully pursued undisclosed assets, preferences and fraudulent transfers, securing recoveries for the benefit of creditors and bankruptcy estates. Our attorneys were also part of the Ball Janik LLP litigation team that tried the fraudulent transfer case, MAN AG v. Freightliner LLC, which resulted in the nation’s largest jury award ($850 million) of 2006, a figure that included the largest punitive damages award in Oregon history.

Asset Transactions

We regularly assist companies of all types and sizes in asset purchases and sales, including transactions involving manufacturing and distribution companies, wholesale and retail operations, professional practices, and intellectual property and other intangible assets.

Business Acquisitions and Sales

Our business attorneys represent both buyers and sellers in the acquisition and sale of operating businesses and business assets, ranging from sole proprietor operations to major regional, national and international corporations.

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Cases

We have successfully represented a wide variety of business debtors in Chapter 11 reorganization cases, including manufacturers, distribution companies, retailers, hospitality companies, wood products companies, agricultural producers and processors, and real estate developers. We also represent creditors, appointed and ad hoc creditors' committees, and Chapter 11 trustees in operating Chapter 11 cases.

Distressed Acquisitions

We frequently represent parties seeking to purchase businesses or assets from bankruptcies and receiverships. We helped a global investment banking firm acquire a portfolio of distressed assets from a federal court receiver, pursuant to a public bidding process. We also represented an affiliate of a private, global investment firm in purchasing the stock of a telecommunications company pursuant to a Chapter 11 plan.

Loan Enforcement and Documentation

We represent community and regional banks in enforcing loans in Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Montana. We also represent lessors and a wide range of other creditors in pursuing remedies to recover collateral and/or leased equipment, and in obtaining and enforcing judgments to recover amounts due on account of commercial obligations. Ball Janik LLP has also developed a systematic and cost-effective approach to handling judicial and non-judicial commercial trust deed foreclosures in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. We also represent lenders in documenting their commercial, agricultural and commercial real estate loans.

Out-of-Court Restructuring

We have successfully handled loan workouts for a wide variety of regional lenders and borrowers. We have also negotiated workouts and recoveries for national, out-of-region financial institutions with respect to a broad range of commercial and corporate credits.

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news

Ball Janik LLP Attorneys Justin D. Leonard and Daniel R. Webert Named Firm Partners
01/03/2012
Seven Attorneys Named to The Best Lawyers in America 2012
09/13/2011
Ball Janik LLP Attorneys Named 2010 Super Lawyers
11/17/2010

Events

What not to do in commercial loan structuring and how not to do it!
11/09/2011
Presented to the Oregon and SW Washington chapters of the Risk Management Association