“A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason.”
-Sir Walter Scott

• Outside in-house counsel
  to large corporations
• Creditors’ Committees
• Bankruptcy Litigation and Appeals
• Asbestos and Mass Tort Bankruptcies
• Financial Transactions
• Distressed Debt and
  Asset Sales and Acquisitions
• Trustee and Trust Representation
• Preferential Transfer Litigation

The lawyers of Frank/Gecker LLP are experienced in all aspects of bankruptcy law, but we have developed special expertise in a number of areas.

Outside in-house counsel to large corporations
Every day, we provide guidance to large public and private companies on the full range of debtor/creditor issues that confront them. Several of our oldest clients are large corporations that call us several times a week to discuss day-to-day bankruptcy issues, such as preferential transfer litigation, and also trust us with bankruptcy disputes where millions of dollars are at stake. When a task can be managed effectively by inside attorneys, we provide enough guidance to make sure that an acceptable outcome is achieved and when bigger issues arise, we are ready to take the lead.

We often work closely with the in-house attorney responsible for debtor/creditor matters, and, when appropriate, we also develop relationships with managers and employees on the business side, who often come to us directly with questions from the front line. We value these relationships. We often present seminars and develop material to help educate credit managers and sales staff on tactics to minimize bankruptcy exposure and maximize recoveries. These types of relationships require a great deal of trust and we work hard to demonstrate that we can handle the responsibility. These relationships also provide an opportunity for us to work closely with our clients to control costs and budget with accuracy. In a number of instances we have moved away from hourly billing for these engagements in order to help our clients meet their budgeting objectives.

Creditors’ Committees
The creditors’ committee is not just the voice of a bankrupt company’s unsecured creditors, but also the watchdog over the debtor. The successful representation of the creditors’ committee requires the ability to be both friend and foe to the debtor. We have successfully represented creditors’ committees across the United States for over fifteen years. Our strategy for success is to assume control of the plan process, curb the debtor’s non-essential spending and quickly exit bankruptcy with a meaningful distribution to creditors. Our recent committee representations have resulted in substantial cash recoveries for creditors in the steel, manufacturing and high technology industries. Our recent representations have included the creditors’ committees of Fansteel, Inc., Proteva Company, Abtox, Inc., Federalpha Steel LLC, Combustion Engineering, Inc., Artra, Inc., Circuit Systems, Inc. and Dietzgen, Inc.

Bankruptcy Litigation and Appeals
We try cases. Our experience is deep and when bankruptcy-related litigation is necessary, we do not have to rely on litigators to lead the case. In our experience, general-practice litigators lack the understanding of bankruptcy laws that is necessary for success. We may rely on litigators for backup, but we take the lead at trial. We have tried cases on all of the usual issues that may arise in a bankruptcy case, such as valuation disputes, preferential and fraudulent transfers, officer and director liability and contested plan confirmation, and we also litigate more unusual issues when they arise. We also know how to build a case or a defense from the ground up, drafting complaints and answers, completing discovery and prosecuting dispositive motions. Win or lose, we also have a great deal of appellate experience and have been admitted in the United States Supreme Court, and the First, Third, Fifth, Seventh and Ninth Circuits to argue appeals.

Asbestos and Mass Tort Bankruptcies
“Confidence in the integrity of the large scale asbestos Chapter 11 process will live or die in the precincts of those who actually practice it. Few others can be expected to expend the effort to understand this frequently bizarre and arcane legal world.” In re Owens Corning, et al., United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

More than almost any other law firm in the United States, we regularly traverse the legal world of asbestos and mass tort bankruptcies. Combining bankruptcy, litigation, insurance and commercial expertise, we have represented asbestos claimants’ committees in numerous cases. We currently are guiding our clients through the complexities of the prepackaged plan propounded by the Swiss multinational, ABB, Ltd., in the case of Combustion Engineering, Inc., and the complexities of formulating a creditors' plan in the bankruptcies of Artra, Inc. and Plibrico Company. We even have achieved success in very small asbestos cases. To each asbestos and mass tort engagement, we bring the necessary knowledge and experience in navigating the complex terrain of Sections 105 and 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code, in litigating insurance coverage disputes, and in drafting the trust distribution procedures and related documents that ensure a fair distribution to all tort victims.

Financial Transactions
A financial transaction gone awry is at the heart of most reorganizations, restructurings and the commercial litigation that often ensues. We know how to fix troubled deals because we also negotiate and document successful financial transactions from their inception. Frank/Gecker represents its clients in negotiating both asset-based and asset-backed commercial loans, debtor-in-possession financing, equity financing, and venture financing. Frank/Gecker strives to craft transactions that are not only innovative, but also safe from future attack.

Distressed Debt and Asset Sales and Acquisitions
We have helped clients sell hundreds of millions of dollars in secured and unsecured debt of companies in bankruptcy. These sales include eight and nine figure sales of secured debt using ISDA documents. In addition, for unsecured creditors, we have developed systems for auctioning claims in cases with active pre-petition claim trading markets. We have also taken the lead role in negotiations for novel credit security devices, such as claim put agreements, for clients selling to businesses in bankruptcy or where bankruptcy threatens. We have represented many buyers of assets of bankrupt companies and we are familiar with the unusual issues that arise in these transactions, such as breakup fees, bid protection and the negotiation of asset purchase agreements and sale orders that provide the most leverage and the greatest protection. We have taken a leading role in developing sale agreements that allow a buyer to close on a purchase with confidence even while an appeal of the sale order or plan confirmation order is pending.

Trustee and Trust Representation
The representation of Chapter 11 trustees and post-confirmation trusts requires a thorough understanding of the entire bankruptcy process, the ability to balance the interests of secured and unsecured creditors in order to reach a consensus, and the experience to resolve a case expeditiously and economically. We believe the successful representation of trustees and trusts means achieving a meaningful distribution to creditors within a short period of time while curtailing excessive administrative costs. We have represented debtors and trustees and trusts in the manufacturing, retail and service industries, and one of our partners is a trustee on the panel maintained by the United States Trustee for the Northern District of Illinois.

Preferential Transfer Litigation
We successfully defend and resolve hundreds of preferential transfer lawsuits every year for some of the largest public and private corporations in North America and Europe. We have developed an approach to preference defense that levels the playing field between plaintiffs, who are able to spread their costs over hundreds or thousands of cases, and our clients, the defendants, who often stand alone. Our approach involves assuming responsibility for all of a client’s preference litigation, integrating ourselves with the internal employees responsible for defending preferences and streamlining every aspect of the defense by taking the following steps:

1. Affirmative Defense Analysis: Our paralegals and associate attorneys have analyzed new value and ordinary course of business defenses many times. Their experience helps keep costs to a minimum while insuring that every exposure-reducing issue is raised. Every defense goes through a final review by Joe Frank or Frances Gecker, who each have vast experience handling preferences.

2. Routinized Discovery: In our experience, defendants are unlikely to obtain the best settlement unless they serve discovery. We keep discovery costs down by using existing forms as the starting point for our discovery in every case.

3. Dispositive Motion Archive: We have briefed virtually every usual preference issue in bankruptcy courts in every U.S. Circuit Court. We use our archive to help us quickly draft effective summary judgment briefs.

4. Internal Integration: Many of our clients rely on us to handle their preference defense throughout the United States, coordinating with local counsel when necessary. We get to know our clients’ credit professionals as well as inside counsel so that we can streamline communication and build a team that knows how to gather defense data efficiently.

5. Retainer Billing: Our clients with the highest volume of preferences have found it worthwhile to engage us on a monthly retainer to handle the initial stages of preference defense. This approach incentivizes us to handle every case efficiently and allows the client to budget this aspect of their outside legal fees with confidence.