Practice Areas & Industries: Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Barnes & Thornburg LLP's Finance, Insolvency and Restructuring Department handles all aspects of general representation of secured and unsecured creditors, borrowers, guarantors, trustees, and creditors' committees, including negotiating and drafting loan agreements, negotiable instruments, and other commercial transactions in both litigation and transactional aspects of the practice. Our lawyers represent creditors and obligors nationally in out-of-court workouts and refinancings, as well as in various state and federal courts, including bankruptcy proceedings, repossessions, and foreclosures. Clients served by the department include financial institutions, savings and loan associations, insurance companies, finance companies, and publicly and privately owned companies.

Specific areas of practice include regulatory compliance matters for financial institutions, development of loan notebooks and international credit transactions, and lender liability defense. The department regularly handles transactions as diverse as consumer loan programs, national fleet financings, and maritime transactions.

Our firm also represents troubled borrowers. Services offered in this area of our practice cover contract interpretation and renegotiation, out-of-court workouts, sales of distressed businesses, and bankruptcy representation in both reorganizations and liquidation proceedings.

The Finance, Insolvency and Restructuring Department has represented publicly held companies, shipyards, public syndications, trustees, and creditor committees in major bankruptcy proceedings. Our representation requires consideration of tax and labor issues, compensation matters, and negotiations or litigation with federal and state agencies.

For purposes of efficiency and economy, the department uses legal assistants for UCC searches and filings, docketing, and other case monitoring.

From our offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minneapolis, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., our lawyers have participated in committees responsible for drafting federal and local rules of bankruptcy procedure. Many are authors, speakers, and faculty members participating in state and national education programs in areas related to the department. Four members of the department have been certified as business bankruptcy specialists by the American Board of Certification. The American Board of Certification is the only national bankruptcy certification program and is sponsored by the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Commercial Law League of America. We are committed to having every primary member of the department certified. This allows our attorneys to serve a diverse client base in the multifaceted area of finance, insolvency and restructuring.