Patrick Birney is a partner with the firm and offers a depth of experience in the areas of bankruptcy and creditors' rights, practicing almost exclusively in these areas. He represents creditors, creditors' committees, financial institutions, equity holders, and trustees in formal bankruptcy proceedings and in in-court and out-of-court matters. Most recently, Mr. Birney has been involved in a wide variety of complex commercial and Chapter 11 cases in the Districts of Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine; the Southern, Eastern, and Northern Districts of New York; the Southern, Central, and Northern Districts of California; the Western District of Pennsylvania; and the Eastern District of Virginia. He has also participated in numerous appeals to state and federal courts, including successfully arguing that the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Connecticut vexatious litigation statute were preempted by federal bankruptcy law in Walter J. Lewis, Jr. v. Chelsea G.C.A. Realty Partnership, L.P., 86 Conn. App. 596, 862 A.2d 368 (2004). While in law school, Mr. Birney was a law clerk to the Honorable Norman H. Stahl of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and was a teaching assistant in contracts and the Uniform Commercial Code. Professional Associations - American Bankruptcy Institute - Connecticut Bar Association, Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section - Connecticut Bar Association, Litigation Section - Turnaround Management Association - Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice, Editorial Advisory Board - Defense Research Institute, Commercial Litigation Committee Community Involvement - Quinnipiac University School of Business Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management Institute, Adjunct Faculty - Town of Wallingford, Planning and Zoning Commissioner - Connecticut Lottery Corporation, Board of Directors Honors and Awards - St. John's University CALI Excellence for the Future Award Experience - Representation of managed care insurer, which issued a group health plan to an employer that subsequently entered into bankruptcy. On behalf of managed care insurer, Robinson & Cole handled all aspects of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, including negotiation of the inclusion of managed care insurer in the court's critical vendor payment order to allow premiums to continue to be paid from the debtor's assets, payment of all accounts receivable due to the insurer, and timely assumption of the group health plan insurance contract by the bankruptcy trustee. - Counsel to national construction services provider in Circuit City (Eastern District of New Jersey), a national consumer electronics retailer. - Represented designer and manufacturer of firearm component parts in licensing and royalty dispute with international firearm manufacturer. - National bankruptcy counsel for market trend and merchandising consultant to the retail and fashion industry. - Represented trustee in an adversary proceeding in a dispute with debtor over ownership interest in publicly traded securities. - Represented insurance carriers in filing and prosecuting involuntary bankruptcy proceedings against insolvent third-party claims administrators. - Represented major insurance company in adversary proceeding involving claims of fraud, unfair trade practices, and successor liability against debtor in possession. - Represented American subsidiary of international packaging machinery manufacturer in claims under Delaware's fraudulent transfer and unlawful dividend statutes. - Restructuring counsel for a subsidiary of one of the nation's largest Spanish-speaking newspapers. - Special counsel to the chapter 7 trustee in Murdoch Claims Management (District of Connecticut), a third-party insurance claims administrator. - Counsel to Integrated Control Systems, Inc. (District of Connecticut), a specialist in management productivity improvement. - Counsel to a member of the Creditors' Committee in Bayonne Medical Center (District of New Jersey), a New Jersey-based acute care community teaching hospital. - Counsel to a member of the Creditors' Committee in IdleAire Corporation (District of Delaware), a Knoxville-based, long-haul truck service provider. - Counsel to Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in various Chapter 11 cases, including N.V.E., Inc. (District of New Jersey), a manufacturer and distributor of dietary supplements (involved in multidistrict ephedra litigation), and Fleet Trucking, Inc. (Southern District of New York), a large construction and construction debris-hauling concern. - Special counsel to Mortgage Lenders Network USA, Inc. (District of Delaware), a subprime residential mortgage lender. Publications & Presentations Articles - "May a Bankruptcy Court Exercise Supplemental Jurisdiction Predicated on Its Referred 'Related To' Jurisdiction?" (2/2010), published in Norton's Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice, coauthor - "Resource Conservation and Recovery Act vs. Chapter 11: When Is a 'Discharge' Not Discharged" (11/2009), published in American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review, coauthor - "Bankruptcy Rule 9024: Paper Tiger or Powerful Procedural Tool When Stacked Against the Bankruptcy Code" (4/2009), published in Norton's Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice - "Reawakening Section 1334: A New Framework for Analyzing the Enforceability of Arbitration Agreements in Bankruptcy" (Winter 2008), published in American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review News 1.11.11, Robinson & Cole Elects New Partners 12.17.10, Attorneys Reelected to Connecticut Chapter Board 6.30.10, Patrick Birney Leads Off Bankruptcy Law360 coverage of Schwab v. Reilly 2.02.10, Robinson & Cole Attorneys Elected to Board of Directors of Turnaround Management Association's Connecticut Chapter 11.14.08, Robinson & Cole, a leading commercial law firm with more than 225 lawyers and eight offices in the Northeast and Florida, announced today that 9 partners and over 20 additional attorneys from Thelen LLP will be joining the firm. |