Corporate Restructuring & Bankruptcy

Clients benefit from our relationships with lenders, investors, investment bankers, financial consultants, real estate consultants, and liquidation specialists. When working on a client’s matter, we can draw on the experience of our litigation, corporate and securities, banking, tax, labor and employment, and real estate practices to address insolvency-related issues, including:

• Creditors’ Rights
• Debtor Rights
• Receiverships
• Workout
• Fidelity & Surety

Our clients include an array of business enterprises involved in the manufacturing, retail, food and agriculture, hospitality, telecommunications, aviation, automotive, energy, oil and gas, banking and finance, insurance, technology and software, healthcare, transportation and logistics, real estate, and print industries.  We represent Fortune 200 companies, large and middle-market businesses, generational family-owned businesses, and international businesses. Across the Atlantic, our Dublin-based Restructuring, Bankruptcy, and Insolvency team provides advice for a full range of matters for both personal and corporate clients.

Creditors’ Rights

Clark Hill’s corporate restructuring and bankruptcy team skillfully protects and enforces the rights of creditors in distressed financial situations.
We represent secured and unsecured creditors, landlords, manufacturers, trade creditors and suppliers, creditors’ committees, and other parties whose interests are impacted by insolvency proceedings. Our creditors’ rights attorneys understand the legal and business issues that drive recovery strategies and have significant experience navigating high-stakes distressed asset situations, both in and out of court.

Restructuring and Workouts

Our corporate restructuring & insolvency team regularly represents secured lenders, equipment lessors, vendors, customers, and landlords both in and outside of formal litigation proceedings. We understand the structures of complex financial transactions and the rights of lenders and creditors in a distressed setting. We advise clients across the entire lifecycle of the distressed setting, including the enforcement and restructuring of the contractual obligation, including forbearances and modifications.

Our creditors’ rights attorneys are experienced at structuring out-of-court consensual solutions to address a distressed situation, giving a borrower or tenant time to recover and avoid an in-court dispute, whether bankruptcy or other litigation.

If a bankruptcy, insolvency proceeding, or other litigation occurs, we advise our clients of legal options and assist them in navigating the process as efficiently and effectively as possible. Our experienced restructuring lawyers lead our clients through complex issues concerning cash collateral, debtor-in-possession financing, critical vendor issues, cash management structures, asset sales, Chapter 11 plans, Article 9 sales, and all other aspects of financial restructurings.

Restructuring and Workout Services

• Out-of-court workout and restructuring—loan/lien review
• Forbearance agreements
• Loan modifications
• Equity structure modifications
• Statutory wind-downs

Collections

Our attorneys help clients pursue and recover debts in a strategic and cost-effective manner. Our team has deep experience enforcing judgments and pursuing payment through demand, negotiation, litigation, or post-judgment remedies. Our creditors’ rights attorneys understand the practical challenges of collections and tailor our approach to align with each client’s goals—whether preserving key commercial relationships or pursuing aggressive recovery actions.

We also represent creditors in state and federal court proceedings and in adversary proceedings in bankruptcy court. Our focus is on swift resolution and efficient use of resources, often through pre-litigation resolution strategies such as workouts, settlements, or lien enforcement.

Collections Representation Services

• Pursue recovery through demand letters, negotiation, and structured settlements
• File and prosecute collection actions in state, federal, and bankruptcy courts
• Enforce judgments through garnishments, levies, and other post-judgment remedies
• Locate and recover collateral in secured transactions
• Litigate and defend preference and fraudulent transfer claims in bankruptcy
• Record and enforce liens against real and personal property
• Negotiate out-of-court workouts, forbearance agreements, and payment plans
• Advise on collections strategy for large-volume or high-value accounts
• Coordinate multi-jurisdictional recovery efforts and cross-border enforcement
• Align collections efforts with business goals and commercial relationships

Landlords

Our creditors’ rights attorneys represent commercial landlords in bankruptcy and restructuring matters across a wide variety of asset classes, including retail, office, and industrial. We advise on the treatment of leases in bankruptcy, including assumption, rejection, assumption/assignment, and lease amendment negotiations. Our attorneys are skilled at ensuring landlords’ rights are protected through bankruptcy cases, including the post-petition compliance with all lease provisions such as rent payment, strategic guidance with potential assignments, and support to ensure interests are protected in a reorganization plan.

We also assist landlords in out-of-court scenarios where distressed tenants seek rent relief, modifications, or early termination. We understand the economic pressures and legal protections in lease agreements and help landlords navigate solutions that protect long-term asset value.

Landlord Representation Services

• Advise on lease treatment in bankruptcy, including assumption, rejection, and cure obligations
• Enforce landlords’ rights in tenant bankruptcies, including seeking relief from the automatic stay and preserving position in a reorganization plan
• Assert administrative expense claims for outstanding post-petition obligations, whether through negotiations or formal court filing, and damages claims for rejected leases
• Advise on strategies to preserve lease rights and enforce remedies prior to chapter 11 or chapter 7 cases, including counseling on early lease terminations and mitigation strategies outside of court
• Represent landlords in contested matters, including motions, objections, and adversary proceedings
• Coordinate with property managers and asset owners to maintain asset value during tenant distress
• Advise on the intersection of leasing, guaranty enforcement, and real estate financing in distressed scenarios

Debtor Rights

Clark Hill’s corporate restructuring and bankruptcy team has extensive experience representing troubled companies in bankruptcy proceedings, Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors, and other out-of-court solutions.

We recognize that every client has its unique problems and concerns, and we pride ourselves on our ability to work directly with management to consider each client’s circumstances and devise a creative solution suited to that client’s needs. It is our personal approach to each client, regardless of size, that keeps them working with Clark Hill, even after the turnaround. There may be a generationally owned family business at risk or thousands of jobs. Every decision we make in the turnaround process is made knowing the impact it can have on every party in the process. With this approach, our group recognizes the advantages of out-of-court restructurings, which often enable clients to avoid the time, expense, public notice, and uncertainty associated with a formal bankruptcy proceeding. We also utilize federal and state law alternatives, including receiverships, when appropriate to achieve a prompt, successful, and cost-effective resolution.

Our international footprint keeps us involved and informed on all micro and macroeconomic issues facing an industry. Our debtor rights attorneys represent farmers and controlled environment agribusinesses in California, the trustee of a dairy in New Mexico, franchisees of national restaurant chains in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Louisiana, a hand-held tool manufacturer in Chicago, an automotive part manufacturer in Michigan, national assisted living operators, real estate developers, and companies in nearly every industry in out-of-court restructurings and bankruptcy courts across the country.

Our corporate restructuring and bankruptcy attorneys, combined with the full range of our resources in other areas such as corporate litigation, international trade, environmental, health care, real estate, and intellectual property law, bring a unique breadth and depth of experience to fully address our client’s needs.

Debtor Rights Services

• Crisis management
• Negotiations with secured, trade, and other creditors
• Negotiate DIP loans and exit financing
• Recapitalization of entities
• Review of lease and contract obligations
• Financial and operational restructuring
• Corporate reorganizations
• Sale of business or assets
• Tax obligation restructuring
• Handbook Policies
• Pension benefits and retiree obligations

Fidelity & Surety

Clark Hill’s Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy team collaborates closely with our nationally recognized Fidelity, Surety & Coverage lawyers to address the unique challenges that arise when financial distress intersects with surety obligations, fidelity claims, and insurance coverage.

We represent sureties, insurers, and reinsurers in insolvency proceedings, receiverships, and related commercial disputes across diverse industries, including construction, energy, manufacturing, and healthcare.

Our attorneys understand the business realities and legal complexities involved in bond claims, subrogation rights, indemnity enforcement, and priority disputes. Whether resolving claims in bankruptcy court, litigating in state or federal court, or managing pre- and post-default exposures and collateral management, we deliver strategic, cost-effective solutions that protect client interests and maximize recoveries.

Services include:

• Securing, protecting, and utilizing construction project funds in the insolvency context
• Protecting collateral, cash collateral, indemnity rights, and handling Debtor-in-Possession financing disputes
• Preserving subrogation rights and pursuing claims against third parties
• Preventing asset sales that seek to transfer or assign bond rights and substitute bond principals
• Enforcing indemnity agreements, resolving stakeholder disputes, and pursuing salvage efforts in insolvency
• Foreclosure, recovery, and liquidation of collateral assets, including equipment sales
• Managing all aspects of Chapter 11 plan prosecution, confirmation disputes, and post-effective date performance to defend insurance, fidelity, and surety claims

Receiverships

Clark Hill’s corporate restructuring and bankruptcy team has deep experience representing parties in state and federal court receivership matters across a variety of industries. We advise lenders, court-appointed receivers, creditors, company principals, and other stakeholders in connection with the appointment, operation, and dissolution of receiverships—both as a stand-alone remedy and as an alternative to a more costly and time consuming bankruptcy proceeding.

Our team understands the strategic use of receiverships as a tool for preserving, managing, and recovering value from distressed businesses, commercial real estate, and operating assets. We bring together restructuring, litigation, and industry-specific insight to help clients navigate complex disputes, protect collateral, and pursue recovery efficiently. We regularly work alongside our firm’s litigators, real estate, and regulatory attorneys to provide comprehensive guidance throughout the receivership lifecycle.

Receivership Services

• Advise on the appointment and scope of court-appointed receivers
• Counsel receivers on asset management, operations, and fiduciary duties
• Structure and oversee court-approved asset sales
• Represent secured lenders and creditors in receivership proceedings
• Enforce rights under loan agreements, leases, and contracts in receivership contexts
• Coordinate receivership strategy with related bankruptcy, foreclosure, or litigation matters
• Prepare motions, orders, and court filings for appointment and administration
• Advise on claims resolution, distribution of proceeds, and wind-down issues
• Handle employment, vendor, tax, and regulatory matters arising during receivership
• Manage cross-border or multi-jurisdictional receivership complexities

Workout

Debt and equity restructuring is a common and useful exercise in the marketplace. Oftentimes, entities require a recapitalization, refinancing, or restructuring with their stakeholders. We have represented debtors and lenders in out-of-court workouts in various industries including real estate, construction, healthcare, transportation, oil and gas, technology, manufacturing, and retail.

For those in need of a modification of their capital structure and don’t want or need to enter a bankruptcy or insolvency process, Clark Hill attorneys are experienced in the workout process and can negotiate these agreements for clients in many industries with an understanding of the appropriate market terms with an eye toward creativity to craft the most economically advantageous structure for the stakeholders.

Our group recognizes the advantages of out-of-court restructurings and will work with clients to avoid the time, expense, and uncertainty associated with judicial proceedings.

Executing a workout can provide many advantages for parties eager to avoid bankruptcy. The voluntary process offers debtors the opportunity to restructure a portion or all of their debts in a cost-effective and private manner. Lenders benefit by conserving resources that would be spent to collect the loan, avoid liquidation, and provide an opportunity for the loan to be brought into compliance.

Our attorneys approach workouts with an understanding of the need for assistance with loan redocumentation, potential equity structure modifications, crisis management, and consultation with other business advisors. We tailor our services to fit the needs of each situation and work seamlessly with our litigation, corporate and securities, tax, and real estate groups to address matters with a broad perspective.