Distressed Situations

The Gibbons Corporate Group established the Distressed Situations Team to advise clients in distressed or opportunistic situations. The Team utilizes our broad experience to provide our clients with effective and efficient legal advice. We carefully balance the need to provide the highest level of time-critical legal advice with client economics by assigning appropriately experienced attorneys to a given matter to maximize value for our clients.

Gibbons counsels businesses and business owners on financial crisis planning, realizing strategic opportunities, negotiating financing alternatives, and working through ownership and management issues arising out of business distress. Our firm employs attorneys who are experienced business owners and managers, which enables us to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities that distressed situations pose. Our experience and knowledge representing all sides and viewpoints in distressed situations, on behalf of creditors, debtors, sellers, and buyers, create valuable perspective and facilitate smooth negotiations and closings. Our firm’s leading transactional experience, coupled with our strong relationships and experience with investment bankers, restructuring firms, private equity investors, corporate buyers and sellers, and other potential investors and purchasers, enables us to guide clients through achievable transactions considering their distressed situations. The Gibbons Distressed Situations Team represents clients in a number of industries, including:

  • Service organizations, manufacturers, distributors, retailers
  • Financial institutions, financial services companies
  • Private investment companies, private equity groups, hedge funds, holding companies, real estate investment groups
  • Real estate developers, construction firms, investment and management companies
  • Technology companies, including biotechnology and computer software and equipment
  • Pharmaceutical companies and pharma industry-related businesses
  • Telecommunications
  • Healthcare providers and healthcare management
  • Transportation
  • Gaming/casinos
  • Energy/investment funds and energy projects

Areas of Focus

Financial Crisis Planning

  • Advise in obtaining relief from creditors and guarantees and protection with contracts, as well as defend lawsuits
  • Advise in distressed and non-distressed, friendly and non-friendly, creditor situations to protect companies and their officers, directors and shareholders; advise lenders and borrowers with loan workouts, restructurings, and forbearances; obtain and enforce judgments; and locate and identify assets
  • Advise and protect guarantors of loans, leases, and other financial obligations
  • Advise in contract disputes and renegotiations, modifying and enforcing contractual rights and third party beneficiary rights in insolvency situations; advise regarding supply agreements, purchase agreements, licensing arrangements, leases (equipment and real property), joint venture, and other arrangements
  • Advise in connection with business streamlining and downsizing, including workforce reduction, lease terminations, supply contract rescission, and future commitment reductions; advise on minimizing related risks and liabilities

Strategic Opportunities

  • Advise on the acquisition of specific assets, or the entire business, of a distressed company, including use of traditional M&A techniques, §363 bankruptcy sales, acquisition of debt of distressed companies, and secured party sale transactions
  • Design, negotiate, and advise on management agreements designed to turn around a troubled company, with rights to acquire the company when restructured
  • Design, negotiate, and advise on recapitalization plans using strategic debt and equity investments providing for control positions to opportunistic investors

Financing Alternatives

  • Utilize our strong financial market relationships to introduce clients to sources of capital
  • Advise in connection with private equity, venture capital, angel investing, investment banking, financial advisory, and other financial services transactions
  • Advise on negotiation, documentation, and closing of secured and unsecured commercial loans, debt restructuring, leveraged leasing, and asset-based financing, guarantees, commercial standby letters of credit, and other credit enhancement situations; handle commercial loans in the middle-market (loans of roughly $5 million – $250 million) for a broad range of lenders, as well as advising mid-market borrowers

Ownership Issues

  • Advise shareholders, partners, and members of closely-held, middle-market businesses and family businesses in intra-owner disputes; advise in connection with disputes in a crisis environment, including interpretation and enforcement of shareholder partnership and operating agreements, forced sales, and company restructurings