| Admitted | 1985, Oklahoma and U.S. District Court, Northern District of Oklahoma; 1988, U.S. District Court, Western District of Oklahoma; 1989, Tennessee and U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee; 1994, U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit; 2000, U.S. Court of Appeals, 1st Circuit; 2003, U.S. Supreme Court |
| Biography | David Lemke is a partner at Waller Lansden and serves on the firm's Board of Directors. His practice focuses on bankruptcy and corporate restructuring. Mr. Lemke has extensive experience in the areas of bond defaults and corporate trust administration, bankruptcy, corporate restructuring, workouts, creditor's rights, general commercial litigation, foreclosures and receiverships. He has represented Secured Lenders, Indenture Trustees and Creditors Committees in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy cases. Mr. Lemke is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® (Woodward White, Inc.) for his work in bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights law, and he has been named in the Nashville Business Journal's "Best of the Bar" since 2003. He also has been recognized by Corporate Counsel magazine as a top lawyer for bankruptcy and creditor/debtor law. Mr. Lemke currently represents an Indenture Trustee in a number of defaulted bond issues around the country as well as a large commercial bank in several matters, including one involving a major regional residential real estate developer. In the past, Mr. Lemke has represented an OEM automobile manufacturer in the bankruptcy cases of auto parts suppliers. He prosecuted a claim as Special Committee Counsel against the former officers, directors and outside auditors of the world's second largest owner, operator and franchisor of hair salons. Mr. Lemke also served as Committee Counsel for the Unsecured Creditors Committee in the bankruptcy of the Stanley Jones Corporation, a mechanical engineering firm. Mr. Lemke served as Committee Counsel for the Unsecured Creditors Committee in the American Home Patient bankruptcy. In this matter, the Committee was co-proponent, with the debtors, of a plan paying creditors 100 cents on the dollar, which was approved despite strong objections from the secured lender. The confirmation was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in the first case in which the Sixth Circuit had to consider the impact of the Till decision by the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Lemke has represented an NFL franchise in its successful efforts to cancel naming rights following the bankruptcy of the company for which the team's stadium was named. Mr. Lemke has spoken at various seminars on bankruptcy and creditors' rights issues, including the "Distressed Real Estate Investing Summit" held in New York in February 2008. He is a contributor for Wiley Bankruptcy Law Update and former Co-Editor of the American Bankruptcy Institute's 6th Circuit Update. Mr. Lemke authored "Beware Old Article 9 Still Has Some Potential Bite in It" (2006), "Recent Case Increases Directors Exposure to Bankruptcy Litigation" (2005), and co-authored "LTC Requires TLC," for the Spring 2001 Subcommittee on Healthcare Insolvency, and "The WARN Act and Financially Troubled Companies," for Checks & Balances, the newsletter of the Tennessee Bar Association's Commercial, Bankruptcy and Banking Law Section. Professional Activities: Member, Nashville, Tennessee, Oklahoma and American Bar Associations; Member, Asset Sales and Health Care Committees, American Bankruptcy Institute; Member, American Judicature Society; Former Board Member and Past President, Mid-South Commercial Law Institute; Past Chair, Nashville Bar Association's Bankruptcy Court Committee; Former Chair, CLE Subcommittee and the Local Rules Subcommittee, Bankruptcy Court Committee, Nashville Bar Association; Former Board Member, Middle Tennessee Chapter, Turnaround Management Association. Civic and Other Activities: Member, Board of Directors of the Harpeth River Watershed Association. Articles: 5/19/2011, U.S. Supreme Court Adopts Revised Bankruptcy Rules; Amendments to Bankruptcy Rule 2019 Will Requires Extensive Disclosure; 7/14/2010, "Bankruptcy Litigation Roundtable," Financier Worldwide, July 2010; 11/9/2009, New Policy Statement from Financial Regulators Could Alter Approach to Troubled Commercial Real Estate Loans for Banks; 9/18/2008, Firm Ranked Number One for Health Care, Government Relations, Mass Tort Litigation, Bankruptcy, Antitrust and Tax Law in Nashville and Tennessee; 9/11/2007, Waller Lansden News: Best Lawyers in America Honors 45 Waller Lansden Attorneys; 1/27/2006, Beware: Old Article 9 Still Has Some Potential Bite In It; 8/29/2005, Recent Case Increases Directors Exposure to Bankruptcy Litigation. |