Creditors' Rights & Bankruptcy

Served as counsel to Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of one of the largest real estate mortgage fraud and Ponzi scheme cases in the region.

Served as counsel to Chapter 7 trustee in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Counsel to official committee of unsecured creditors of a Washington, D.C. health care facility.

Prosecuted and defended numerous preference and fraudulent transfer actions and claims.

Prosecuted numerous motions for relief from automatic stay.

Represented borrowers of all sizes, including desert franchisee, real estate developers, health care company and broadcasting network, in loan restructures and out-of-court workouts.

Represented chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 case of a former airline and disgraced music promoter.

Represented commercial landlord and largest unsecured creditor of restaurant group in mid-Atlantic region.

Represented debtor in Chapter 11 of national franchisee.

Represented indenture trustee in continuing care retirement community in Chapter 11 in Virginia.

Represent purchasers of assets in bankruptcy, commercial real estate foreclosures, Article 9 foreclosures of personal property and the disposition of special assets, including all aspects of due diligence, contract negotiations, stalking horse procedures, auctions and closings, as well as related litigation.

Served as counsel to court-appointed receiver in various commercial, industrial and residential properties, including a multifamily project in the capital region currently undergoing significant physical and operational rehabilitation.

Served as substitute trustee in numerous matters, including the foreclosure of a sprawling farm with complex title issues proposed for residential development and a large estate property on the Chesapeake Bay.

Advised clients having a national footprint in the retail and manufacturing/distribution industries, respectively, in the negotiation of core and ancillary contracts required for the development and implementation of their point-of-sale and back-end platforms (including both internal and customer-facing components). This included substantial attention to the integration of existing, third party technology with the new, core systems, to ensure interoperability of all aspects of the platform. Our representation also included substantive review of privacy and data security compliance obligations applicable to each client’s industry and customers.

We served as counsel to a large international financial institution in an action brought against it by the Chapter 11 Trustee (the “Trustee”) for Thornburg Mortgage in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland (the “Bankruptcy Court”). The Trustee’s suit alleged that during the economic crisis of 2007, Barclays breached its financing arrangement with Thornburg when it wrongfully called a default under its loan documents and then proceeded to sell the collateral provided by Thornburg in a commercially unreasonable manner. The Trustee sought damages in excess of $94 million in his Complaint. In the initial stages of the case, we were successful in having the case removed from the Bankruptcy Court to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland and having one count of the Trustee’s Complaint dismissed. After extensive discovery and pre-trial proceedings, including successfully defending the Trustee’s dispositive motion, we were able to settle the litigation for a fraction of the amount initially sought by the Trustee.

Represented a lender in a suit by its borrower challenging the validity of a foreclosure sale of property in North Carolina.  The Court dismissed the case under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, which bars a federal court from considering issues previously raised and decided in state court.

We represented the client in connection with a receivership, two foreclosures, and the forced sale of multiple real estate developments. When the client’s borrower defaulted on several loans that were secured by various real estate development projects in Baltimore City, we instituted confessed judgment litigation and foreclosure actions against all of the obligors. In addition, during the course of our representation, one of the developments securing the borrower’s obligations was forced into receivership by the City of Baltimore. We were successful in obtaining judgments against the obligors and garnishing the obligors’ accounts. These actions, as well as the pressure of the pending foreclosure actions, ultimately lead to the sale of the Bank’s collateral to another developer and obviated the need for selling the development projects at foreclosure. Additionally, we were deeply involved in the Baltimore City receivership proceeding and worked with the City of Baltimore to allow the sale of the Bank’s collateral to another developer in lieu of having a receiver sell the development at a below market price . As a result of our representation, and notwithstanding the numerous obstacles posed by the borrower, we were ultimately able to force the sale of two properties to another developer and the client was paid in full, including all fees and costs, from the sale of the collateral.