Hogan & Hartson has broad experience in bankruptcy and creditors' rights matters throughout the United States and internationally. Our practice in this field is enhanced by our ability to bring to bear the industry and issue-specific experience of other practice groups within our firm. Our capability to quickly assemble the right team of experienced lawyers is a hallmark of our approach. We are regularly called upon to enforce the rights of our creditor clients, while our clients with financial problems frequently seek our assistance in finding practical solutions. We have also received high rankings from publications such as the U.S. Legal 500 and Chambers USA, 2007-2008 for Bankruptcy/Restructuring.

In bankruptcy cases and out-of-court restructurings, our clients include lending institutions, secured creditors, insurance companies, creditors’ committees, debtors, business and asset purchasers, credit card companies, and utilities. We also represent institutional investors in senior and subordinated debt issued to finance leveraged acquisitions, and holders of various classes of preferred and other equity securities. Other clients we represent are intellectual property licensors and licensees, trade creditor associations, investment banking firms and other professionals retained to advise troubled companies and their creditors, creditors serving on official and informal creditor committees, sponsors of troubled real estate partnerships, unsecured creditors, bankruptcy trustees, examiners, indenture trustees, insurance companies, landlords, and tenants.

Hogan & Hartson’s representations cover a wide range from the Enron Chapter 11 cases, in which we represented major asset purchasers and multiple counterparties to energy contracts; to the Reliance and Confederation Life Insurance insolvencies, in which we assisted in protecting the interests of annuitants under billions of dollars of annuity contracts funding structured settlements; to stockbroker insolvencies (e.g. Drexel Burnham, Parr Securities), SEC receiverships (e.g. Credit Bancorp) and bank receiverships. We are also currently representing several hedge funds and international banks in connection with the defaults on Argentina’s sovereign debt. We also serve as Chairman of each of the three major post confirmation committees in the multibillion dollar Refco Chapter 11 case ― the Plan Administration Committee, the Litigation Trust Committee, and the Private Actions Litigation Trust Committee.

We have substantial experience representing purchasers and structuring transactions for the purchase of distressed businesses and assets in Chapter 11 cases. We recently represented two successful bidders for different subsidiaries in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of J.A. Jones Inc., one of the largest U.S. construction and engineering firms. One of the subsidiaries purchased was considered the most valuable business in the Jones group and, as a consequence, had more than 20 potential bidders.

Lawyers in our New York and Berlin offices represented the purchaser of one of the largest German television networks from Kirch Media in its bankruptcy proceeding in Germany.

We represent debtors, creditors’ committees and creditors’ committee members in Chapter 11 cases. We recently successfully confirmed a Chapter 11 case representing a debtor, preserving the original equity in the face of attempts by two of the largest chemical companies in the world and a trustee to force the sale of the business. We currently participate in the creditors’ committees in the Northwest Airlines and Refco Chapter 11 cases.

We have experience representing holders and purchasers of distressed commercial real estate mortgages and distressed loan portfolios in workouts, prepackaged consensual and nonconsensual Chapter 11 cases. The lawyers in our bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice have been involved in more than 1,200 commercial and real estate workouts, restructurings, collateral liquidations and judicial enforcements of lien rights and remedies for institutional lenders, individual lenders, lead lenders, and participants.

We have negotiated and prepared financial instruments in numerous financially distressed situations including letters of credit, guarantees, inter-creditor agreements, Debtor-in-Possession financing agreements, Chapter 11 exit financing agreements, loan modification agreements, springing guarantees, workout agreements, negotiable instruments, investor notes, collateral liquidation agreements, sale leaseback agreements, and factoring agreements.

We have represented credit card companies and Mastercard/Visa processors in numerous merchant bankruptcy cases. We also have a deep background in negotiating and documenting the purchase and sale of participations in distressed syndicated secured loans.

We have represented clearinghouses, travel card companies, travel agency organizations, and credit card companies in every major airline bankruptcy since 1983. In the last TWA Chapter 11 case, we played a pivotal role in negotiating and documenting a comprehensive settlement of disputes among the TWA debtors, TWA Airlines LLC (the American Airlines affiliate form to acquire the assets of TWA), and more than 20 other airlines growing out of an attempted sale of TWA’s clearing house receivables free and clear of applicable offsetting claims. A major airline contract party recently moved its airline bankruptcy representation to our firm, giving us its representation in the United, Delta, and Northwest cases.

The well-rounded nature of our practice gives us the ability to develop creative solutions for business and financial problems representing creditors, lenders, debtors, and businesses. We provide more than just a recitation of the law.