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Ms. Songonuga is a Director in the Wilmington, Delaware office of Gibbons P.C. and a member of the Financial Restructuring & Creditors’ Rights Group. In early 2020, Ms. Songonuga was selected by the Office of the United States Trustee as a Subchapter V Trustee for the District of Delaware, under the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019.
Ms. Songonuga has extensive experience in business reorganization and restructuring matters, working across the full spectrum of Chapter 11 cases, as well as counseling creditors in assignments for the benefit of creditors state court insolvency proceedings. She represents debtors; creditors, including global and national manufacturer environmental creditors who are so-called potentially responsible parties; Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 trustees appointed under the Bankruptcy Code; landlords; bidders at bankruptcy sales; and trustees appointed pursuant to the Securities Investor Protection Act. She was one of 20 attorneys included on the 2013 Delaware Super Lawyers Rising Stars list, appearing in the Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights category. She was also included on the 2020 and 2022 Lawdragon “500 Leading U.S. Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyers” lists.
In representing the Chapter 11 trustee for DBSI, Inc. and its affiliates, which consist of a conglomerate of real estate entities with listed assets valued at over $2.65 billion at the time of their bankruptcy filing in November 2008, she was instrumental in the plan process, which resulted in the confirmation of a joint Chapter 11 plan of liquidation.
Ms. Songonuga handles a wide range of other matters, including managing the claims objection and reconciliation process for thousands of claims; drafting, negotiating, and objecting to plans of reorganization and liquidation; section 363 sales; stay relief motions; and handling related litigation. She has also authored and co-authored many articles on bankruptcy-related subjects.
In addition to her bankruptcy practice, Ms. Songonuga handles matters locally for the firm’s products liability clients involved in asbestos litigation and has represented landlords in FDIC receiverships of banks arising from the recent subprime debacle.
Areas of Focus
Subchapter V
As Subchapter V Trustee, Ms. Songonuga works with Subchapter V debtors and their creditors facilitating the development of a consensual Chapter 11 reorganization plans, appearing at major hearings, and ensuring that timely plan payments are made. She successfully shepherded the first confirmed Subchapter V Chapter 11 plan of reorganization in Delaware in the bankruptcy case of Factom, Inc., a blockchain company working under contracts with certain governmental agencies, where an investor who invested $6 million in the debtor under a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) vigorously objected to the bankruptcy and the debtor’s initial proposed chapter 11 plan.
Debtor/Trustee Representation
Ms. Songonuga focuses her practice on representing financially troubled corporate entities and trustees in both Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases. Her trustee representations include the Chapter 11 trustee in the DBSI Inc. bankruptcy, which involves a conglomerate of real estate entities, with listed assets valued at over $2.65 billion at the time of their bankruptcy filing in November 2008, that perpetrated a massive scheme of corporate looting and financial fraud on more than 12,000 investors. Ms. Songonuga’s representations have included the trustee who is liquidating assets pursuant to the confirmed Chapter 11 plan of DBSI Inc. and its affiliates, as well as the former Chapter 11 trustee who now serves as both Estate Litigation and Private Actions Trustee. She also represented debtor United Gilsonite Laboratories in its Chapter 11 asbestos-related case pending in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Representation of Creditors
Ms. Songonuga represents secured and unsecured creditors in large bankruptcy cases, including environmental PRP creditors in the Maxus Energy Corporation and Tierra Solutions Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases; landlords in the Allied Van Lines, Fremont General, and Lehman Brothers Chapter 11 bankruptcies, and creditors in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Conex Holdings, LLC, Tropicana Entertainment, LLC, and VICORP Restaurants, Inc. In those cases, Ms. Songonuga has asserted claims on behalf of creditor clients and defended those clients in various claim objections and/or preference and fraudulent transfer actions.
Bankruptcy and Insolvency Litigation
Ms. Songonuga has substantial experience in bankruptcy and insolvency-related litigation, including prosecution and defense of preferential and fraudulent transfer avoidance actions and fiduciary duty claims, preparation of discovery requests and responses, disputes involving the assumption and rejection of leases and contracts, and assistance in depositions, frequently working with members of the firm’s Business & Commercial Litigation Group. She also has extensive experience defending avoidance action defendants in state court assignments for the benefit of creditors proceedings.
Credentials
Education
Seton Hall University School of Law (J.D., cum laude)
- Seton Hall Law Review
Rutgers University (B.S.)
Professional Admissions
State of Delaware
State of New Jersey
State of New York
District of Columbia
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
United States District Court for the District of Delaware
United States District Court for the District of Colorado
Professional Activities
Delaware State Bar Association
Member, Bankruptcy Law Section
Executive Committee, Multicultural Lawyers & Judges Section, 2010-present
New Lawyers Section
American Bar Foundation
Fellow
American Bar Association
Vice-Chair, Executory Contracts Subcommittee of the Business Bankruptcy Committee
District of Columbia Bar Association
Delaware Bankruptcy Inn of Court, 2011-present
Delaware Diverse Law Partners
Essex County Debtor/Creditor Committee, 2007-2009
Co-Chair
International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation
Events Committee
Legal Employment
Legal intern to the Honorable Aida Waserstein, Family Court, Wilmington, Delaware, 2009
Legal intern, Covenant House New Jersey Youth Advocacy Center, Newark, New Jersey