Bankruptcy Trends: Contracts and Plans

Lawrence G. McMichael is a permanent member of the Firm’s Executive Committee. He has practiced commercial litigation for more than 39 years. He is the former Chairman of the Firm’s Litigation Department and former chair of its Bankruptcy Group. Mr. McMichael has extensive trial experience in federal, state, and bankruptcy courts and has served as lead counsel in many high profile cases and appeals. He has been engaged to render fiduciary and board advice by many of the city's largest not-for-profit institutions.

Mr. McMichael is one of only a handful of attorneys in the U.S. to be a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Bankruptcy. He is a member of the American and Philadelphia Bar Associations and the American Bankruptcy Institute.

In addition, Mr. McMichael is a frequent lecturer for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the American Bar Association, Business Law Section, and other organizations. He also has authored papers for presentation at Pennsylvania Bar Institute programs and at the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Mr. McMichael earned his J.D. from Duke University and his B.A. from Duke, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.

Kimberly A. Brown is a senior associate with Landis Rath & Cobb, LLP in Wilmington, Del., and concentrates her practice in the area of Corporate Bankruptcy and Restructuring and Bankruptcy Litigation. She has worked with teams representing chapter 11 debtors, official and unofficial creditors’ committees, financial institutions, secured lenders and other secured creditors, indenture trustees and bondholders, asset-purchasers, liquidation trusts and other significant creditors, chapter 15 foreign representatives, and other parties in interest in a variety of national bankruptcy cases.

Ms. Brown represents clients in a wide range of industries, including retail, food and beverage, oil and gas, and manufacturing. She chairs the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation - Delaware Network and served as the past vice chair and social chair of the network, and was a Rising Star Award finalist for 2017. She also is a Super Lawyers “Delaware Rising Star” for 2018 and a member of the Delaware State Bar Association, ABI and the Delaware Bankruptcy American Inn of Court. She was selected as one of only 40 bankruptcy practitioners to participate in the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) fifth annual Next Generation Program. Ms. Brown is admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Delaware and the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.

Before joining Landis Rath & Cobb, she clerked in the Superior Court for the State of Delaware for Hon. Mary M. Johnston and at the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Delaware.

Ms. Brown received her B.A. in government and politics with a minor in accounting from Widener University in 2005 and her J.D. in 2008 from Widener University School of Law.

Allen Wilen is a Partner and serves as the National Director of the Financial Advisory Services Group. In this role, he leads a team of over 100 professionals dedicated to assisting the firm’s clients through the litigation and restructuring process. Allen provides forensic accounting, valuation and litigation support services specializing in the areas of distress, debt restructuring, and business disputes. In addition, he provides analysis of insolvent and troubled companies, provides advice in turnaround and crisis situations, counsels purchasers in the acquisition of assets within the bankruptcy arena, and provides expert advice to parties in civil matters. He has more than 20 years of financial and accounting experience in both national and regional public accounting firms.

Allen has been involved in numerous complex matters requiring expertise in forensic accounting and operational analysis. He has been qualified as an expert in numerous state and federal courts throughout the United States. He testified on matters including commercial damages, lost profits, fraudulent transfer and actual intent to defraud.

Allen has represented numerous distressed businesses in navigating their path through the complexity and confusion of the turnaround, sale and liquidation processes. Allen has been appointed in numerous fiduciary capacities by both federal and state courts as a Receiver, Special Fiscal Agent, Liquidating Trustee, Examiner, Provisional Director, and Chief Restructuring Officer. In addition, he often represents court appointed trustees, receivers, and examiners, and has been involved in a large number of high profile cases.

Allen has written articles and industry journals, including a number of sections in the Turnaround Management Association’s Body of Knowledge and a chapter on Financial Reporting in Bankruptcy for the American Bankruptcy Institute’s CRO Handbook. He has also been a speaker on several topics, including director and officer liability in non-profit entities, prepackaged chapter 11s, valuation, professional ethics and distressed healthcare-related entities.

Hon. Kevin J. Carey is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Delaware in Wilmington, first appointed in 2005 and serving as Chief Judge from 2008-11.

He previously served as a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, appointed on Jan. 25, 2001. Judge Carey serves on ABI’s Executive Committee as Vice President-Membership and is a past global chairman of the Turnaround Management Association. He is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and also serves as an associate editor for the American Bankruptcy Law Journal.

Judge Carey is the Third Circuit representative on the Administrative Office’s Bankruptcy Judges Advisory Group and is a member of the Third Circuit Judicial Council’s Facilities and Security Committee. He is also a contributing author to Collier on Bankruptcy and Collier Forms Manual. Judge Carey is a part-time adjunct professor in the LL.M. in Bankruptcy program at St. John’s University School of Law in New York and at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia. He began his legal career in 1979 as law clerk to Bankruptcy Judge Thomas M. Twardowski, then clerked for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Judge Carey received his B.A. in 1976 from Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. in 1979 from Villanova University School of Law.