It Wasn’t Me!: Dealing with Successor Liability, Alter Ego, Veil Piercing and Substantive Consolidation Issues with Respect to Insolvent Companies

Kay Standridge Kress is a corporate restructuring and bankruptcy partner in the Detroit office of Pepper Hamilton LLP.

Ms. Kress concentrates her practice in corporate restructuring, insolvency and bankruptcy matters. She has more than 29 years of experience in representing debtors, creditors’ committee, secured creditors, trustees and individual creditors and parties in interest, both as lead counsel and as co-counsel in out-of-court workouts and in bankruptcy courts in the Eastern District of Michigan, the Western District of Michigan, the District of Delaware, the Southern District of New York and in other bankruptcy court in the United States. She also has extensive experience representing secured creditors in federal receivership actions.

Ms. Kress is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, is named in The Best Lawyers in America, and was selected for inclusion on the 2014 Michigan Super Lawyers, Who’s Who Legal: Insolvency & Restructuring for 2014 and the Top Lawyers list in DBusiness magazine. She is currently chair of the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section. Ms. Kress is former co-chair of the Programs and Publications Subcommittee, former chair of Secured Creditors Subcommittee and former editor-in chief of the e-newsletter of the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the ABA. She is a founding member of the Michigan Chapter of IWIRC, past chair of the Debtor/Creditor section of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, an ABI member, a board member of Matrix Human Services and a legal advisor to Omega Phi Alpha, National Service Sorority. Ms. Kress was the American Bar Association Business Law Advisor to the Uniform Law drafting committee for the Uniform Commercial Real Estate Receivership Act.

Ms. Kress received her B.A. cum laude from Bowling Green State University in 1978 her J.D. cum laude from Wayne State University Law School in 1986, where she was a member of Order of the Coif.

Abigail B. Willie is a law clerk to Hon. Charles E. “Sketch” Rendlen, III in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis.

Prior to clerking for Judge Rendlen upon his appointment to the bench in 2006, she clerked for Hon. Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and Hon. George P. Kazen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She also practiced corporate insolvency law for several years at Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. in Dallas. Ms. Willie regularly publishes and speaks on issues related to bankruptcy law.

Ms. Willie received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996 and her J.D. from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 2000.

G. Blaine Schwabe, III brings over four decades of legal experience to GableGotwals’ clients. Blaine is widely-known for his expertise in Commercial Litigation, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, having guided numerous clients though difficult and complex civil litigation, business bankruptcy and receivership cases across a wide range of industries. His cases have included issues of reorganization, liquidation, exit financing, competing creditor claims, offset litigation, breach of fiduciary duty, statutory and court-appointed receivers, foreclosure actions, lien enforcement actions and other various complexities. Blaine understands the intricacies of debtor-creditor and insolvency litigation from both the debtor and creditor perspective, as well as committees, giving him unique insight into these difficult cases.

Blaine received his J.D. from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1974. He is a member of the Order of the Coif and served as Editor of the Oklahoma Law Review. Blaine has also served as Adjunct Professor of Law at the Oklahoma City University College of Law and as special lecturer in law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Blaine is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy (Fellows Class 3; Board of Directors (2009-2015); 10th Circuit Regent (2005-2009); and listed in Oklahoma Super Lawyers (since 2006). He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America since 1983 (currently, practice areas of Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law, Bet-the-Company Litigation and Commercial Litigation). He serves as a Director and past-Chairman of the Bankruptcy and Reorganization Section of the Oklahoma Bar Association, and on the Local Rules Committee for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

In addition to being a member of the bar in Oklahoma, of all Oklahoma federal district courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Blaine is licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court and in the State of Maine.

Blaine has been active in community activities, is currently a member of Rotary Club of Oklahoma City (Club 29) and serves as a member of the Alumni Board of Leadership Oklahoma City. He is also a member of the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club.