The Cooley Godward Kronish Bankruptcy & Restructuring group has an extraordinary depth of experience with respect to the representation of creditors committees. We have represented scores of creditors committees, including unsecured creditors committees in some of the nation's largest and best-known bankruptcies and out-of-court workouts. The team was listed first in the league tables maintained by The Daily Deal of top unsecured creditors’ law firms (based upon number of active cases), and partners Lawrence C. Gottlieb and Jay R. Indyke were tied as the top unsecured creditors’ lawyers in the country. In short, we are fully familiar with all the issues creditors and creditors committees confront and can consistently deliver outstanding results at a reasonable cost.
Representative Transactions
Montgomery Ward
The Firm obtained over $80 million for creditors by investigating, commencing and ultimately settling a lawsuit against GE Capital. The creditors committee, represented by Cooley, asserted that GE Capital, formerly the parent company of Montgomery Ward, manipulated Wards’ financial structure and the timing of its demise, thus inducing creditors to extend millions of dollars in credit when it knew Wards would not survive. The Bankruptcy & Restructuring team vigorously pursued the investigation and litigation on behalf of creditors, ultimately obtaining a settlement with double the cash that GE Capital had offered Wards’ creditors in its proposed plan.
Federated Department Stores
Cooley represented the creditors committee of Allied Stores in the Federated Department Stores Chapter 11 proceeding, one of the largest retail leveraged buyout cases in history. Notwithstanding the difficulty and complexity of the case, the Firm helped creditors obtain the highest possible return on their claims: 100% plus interest.
Footstar, Inc.
The Firm negotiated the anticipated distribution of 100% plus interest to unsecured creditors on their claims in the pending Footstar bankruptcy case. The debtor in the Footstar case was in litigation with Kmart, which was seeking to terminate the leases for Footstar’s departments in Kmart’s stores. Had Kmart been successful, the value of Footstar would have been severely impaired. Cooley helped the parties craft a settlement that avoided liquidating the company, which would have likely resulted in less than full payment for unsecured creditors.
Deltagen, Inc.
Cooley represented the creditors committee of Deltagen, a public biotechnology company, resulting in another 100% plus interest recovery for unsecured creditors. The debtor faced many complicated claims, including those arising from patent infringement and licensing disputes. With the Firm’s assistance, the committee worked with the debtor to navigate the complex interplay between these bankruptcy and intellectual property issues, resolve those claims and facilitate the debtor’s ability to emerge from Chapter 11 and to conclude a substantial transaction with the National Institutes of Health.
Other Matters
The Cooley Bankruptcy & Restructuring group has represented creditors committees in countless other matters across the country, including Bob’s Stores, Loehmann's, Long John Silver's and Today's Man in Delaware; Track ‘n Trail, Sanrise, Inc., and San Jose Medical Management, Inc. in California; Stage Stores and Retail Concepts in Texas; Filene's Basement in Massachusetts; P.A. Bergner/Carson-Pirie Scott in Wisconsin; Liberty House, Inc. in Hawaii; C.R. Anthony Co. in Oklahoma; Herman's Sporting Goods in New Jersey; Nevada Bob's Pro Shops in Nevada; Elder-Beerman Stores Corp. in Ohio; Athlete’s Foot, Loews Theatres, United Department Stores, Casual Male, Moe Ginsburg, Genessee Hospital, Bedford Fair and Corona Food Products in New York; Florsheim Shoes in Illinois; and SportsTown in Georgia.
Related practices
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