Pure specialists or siloed attorneys who only know their specific area of the law cannot provide the type of holistic advice needed to help a company in distress. They cannot address the needs of clients who are forced to deal with distressed partners, vendors, or customers. Nor do they have the breadth of vision or experience to work with clients who see opportunities in distressed businesses.
Our Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Governance Practice employs a multidisciplinary approach and an integrated legal services platform to distressed situations with a focus on proactive, creative, commercial and value-added effective solutions and strategies. Consequently, the members of this group are lawyers who are knowledgeable, comfortable and capable advising on governance, fiduciary duties, insolvency matters, corporate and corporate finance matters, employee rights and benefits, litigation and bankruptcy. Our goal is to assist our clients in anticipating, preparing for and avoiding problems before they occur or, if the financial distress is too acute, guiding them through the myriad of issues that are attendant to the restructuring process. There is nothing about the life cycle of a company that the members of this group cannot address.
We have represented every constituent involved in a business in distress including the company, its board, special committees of the board, independent directors, creditors, investors, shareholders, management, employees and financial institutions on all levels of the capital structure and understand what is important to each of the parties. Our depth of knowledge also enables us to collaboratively develop strategies with our clients.
In addition to representing troubled companies in Chapter 11 cases throughout the country, the Bankruptcy group also has dedicated practice teams that are led by senior attorneys with decades of real-world practical experience that focus on discrete client needs.
Corporate Governance: The board and its directors are often the primary target of creditors and shareholders in a distressed situation. The Bankruptcy group provides a team of senior partners to advise boards of directors, special committees, audit committees, independent directors, chief executive officers, and other members of senior management with respect to their fiduciary duties and obligations to, or exposures in connection with, financially troubled companies or acquisition targets. We also regularly meet with management and in-house counsel to provide updates on the law and discuss best practices.
Acquisitions: A bankruptcy case often provides an efficient market for the sale of a business or its assets. Buyers benefit from the transparency of the process, judicial supervision and the ability to acquire assets free and clear of liens, claims and encumbrances. However, the process is anything but simple and requires knowledge of both the bankruptcy process, deal making and finance.
Real Estate Solutions: The firm’s large real estate practice also involves the Bankruptcy group in numerous real estate and hospitality restructurings, and bankruptcy matters across the country on behalf of real estate lenders, developers, and investors, as well as commercial landlords and tenants.
Crypto Bankruptcy: Morrison Cohen has been intimately involved in the crypto and digital assets world for many years, representing the defendants in the first case brought by the SEC’s then-newly formed Cyber Unit in 2017. Members of the Digital Assets Group have been fully integrated into the Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Governance Practice to represent major participants in virtually all of the major crypto bankruptcy cases.
Employment Solutions: The Bankruptcy group offers a suite of services for distressed companies – including stand-alone and portfolio companies – to address the liability of officers and directors for employee-related claims and the duties owed by those controlling the organization to employees, critical employment and benefit plan issues, the interplay of various federal and state enforcement and employee protection regimes within the bankruptcy code, and the structuring of retention and incentive plans.
Cross-Border Solutions: Because of the firm’s global practice, the Bankruptcy group represents companies, creditors and liquidators in cutting edge cross-border insolvency matters including implications of cross-border transactions and litigations.
Distressed, troubled and financially fatigued companies need guidance from more than just individual specialists, they need an integrated approach to complex problems that cross legal disciplines and traditional firm practice areas. The Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Governance Practice offers our clients a different and, we believe, better way of navigating through a company’s troubles or creating and facilitating opportunities with companies in distress.
