Retale: Lessons Learned from Recent Retail Cases

Steven J. Solomon is a managing shareholder with GrayRobinson, P.A. in Miami and a member of the firm’s bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice group. He has more than 25 years of experience in business bankruptcy chapter 11, out-of-court workouts, restructuring law and representing fiduciaries.

Mr. Solomon has represented various constituents in bankruptcy cases, receiverships, assignments for the benefit of creditors and out-of-court workout matters. Among others, he has represented debtors, lenders, trustees, receivers and purchasers of assets out of bankruptcy or other insolvency proceedings on a national basis.

Prior to practicing law, Mr. Solomon practiced accounting in the tax department of Arthur Andersen LLP. He initially was a senior director of Corporate Recovery Services, providing financial and restructuring advisory services to troubled companies, debtors-in possession and unsecured creditors’ committees.

Mr. Solomon is a member of ABI and its Asset Sales Committee, as well as The Florida Bar, the Bankruptcy Bar Association for the Southern District of Florida and Florida Blue Key. He is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell and has been listed in Chambers USA for Bankruptcy/Restructuring (2012-20), The Best Lawyers in America (2010-21), Florida Super Lawyers (2006-20) and Florida Trend as a Legal Elite (2008-2009, 2011, 2013).

Mr. Solomon received his B.S. in accounting in 1988 from the University of Florida and his J.D. in 1991 from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he was a member of the Florida Moot Court Team.

Stephanie C. Lieb is a shareholder with Trenam Law in Tampa, Fla., and primarily represents businesses and financial institutions in matters related to bankruptcy and creditors’ rights. She is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law.

Ms. Lieb has represented a diverse array of clients, including purchasers, fiduciaries, landlords and lenders, both within bankruptcy court proceedings as well as pre-bankruptcy workouts and restructurings, judgment-enforcement proceedings, commercial foreclosures, and other commercial real estate matters. She previously clerked for Hon. Catherine Peek McEwen and was acting judicial law clerk to Hon. Michael G. Williamson in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa. She is actively involved in several professional associations, including serving on the Executive Council of the Business Law Section of The Florida Bar.

Ms. Lieb received her B.S./B.A. from Tulane University and her J.D. cum laude from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law.

Ryan E. Davis is a shareholder with Winderweedle, Haines, Ward & Woodman, P.A. in Winter Park, Fla., and chairs the firm’s Bankruptcy and Creditor’s Rights Department. He is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification.

Mr. Davis is a past president of the Central Florida Bankruptcy Law Association and has been recognized by Florida Trend magazine as “Florida’s Legal Elite.” He received his undergraduate degree from Tulane University and his J.D. with honors from the University of Florida.

Hon. Lori V. Vaughan is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando, sworn in on Feb. 25, 2020. In moving to the bankruptcy court in Orlando, she returns to sit next to Hon. Karen S. Jennemann, with whom she started her career as a law clerk immediately out of law school. After her clerkship, Judge Vaughan practiced at two law firms. Most recently, she was a shareholder at Trenam Law in Tampa, Fla., and before that, she practiced at Foley & Lardner, the last year of which she spent practicing out of its New York office.

Judge Vaughan previously served as president of the Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association, chair of the Bankruptcy/UCC Committee of the Florida Bar’s Business Law Section, and board member for the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation. She has also sat on the boards of the USF Financing Corp. and USF Property Corp.

Judge Vaughan received her B.A. with high honors from Eckerd College in 1995 and her J.D. with honors from the University of Florida, College of Law in 1998.

Mark J. Wolfson, a partner and litigation lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, has advised business clients in a wide variety of complex business bankruptcy reorganization cases and commercial litigation actions, including foreclosure and lender liability actions, business tort actions; breach of contract claims, Uniform Commercial Code litigation, and commercial landlord-tenant disputes.

Mark is a member of the firm's Litigation Department and its Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations Practice (the senior lawyer in the Florida group). He is also the former chair of the Litigation Department in Tampa. He has been practicing commercial litigation and bankruptcy for more than 37 years.

Mark has extensive experience in out-of-court loan workout and restructuring matters as well as broad experience in all types of insolvency and bankruptcy cases, representing debtors, secured creditors, official creditors committees, buyers of assets in chapter 11, equity holders, bondholders, landlords and franchisors. He has experience in state, federal district, and bankruptcy courts litigating fraudulent transfer and preference actions and has been involved in state assignment for the benefit of creditor proceedings. Mark's experience also covers insolvency issues that arise in the health care industry (hospitals, SNFs, medical practices), hotels, resorts, marinas, and golf course venues, manufacturing, telecommunication, technology, automotive, and agriculture spaces.

Mark was the 2005-06 Chair of the Florida Bar Business Law Section. He is a member of the Section's Executive Council. He has served as the Chair of the Business Law Section's Bankruptcy/UCC Committee. Mark also served as the lead representative of the Business Law Section in connection with the enactment of Revised Article 9 in Florida in 2001 and was the primary drafter of many of the unique Florida provisions and the law that permitted Florida to outsource the UCC filing process. He also was chairperson of the section subcommittee that drafted the 1993 amendments to Florida’s Assignment of Rents statute.

Mark was a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Advisory Board for the Caribbean Insolvency Symposium for more than 8 years and has been a member of its Advisory Board for the Alexander L. Paskay Bankruptcy Conference for the past 5 years.

He has lectured and written on lender liability, fraudulent transfer, and bankruptcy matters. He co-authored "An Analysis of the 1993 Mortgage Foreclosure Act," (The Florida Bar Journal, p. 68, October 1993). He also is co-author of the chapter titled “The Impact of Bankruptcy” for the Florida Bar treatise Florida Construction Law and Practice, the most recent edition published in 2018. He served two terms on the editorial board of The Florida Bar Journal and Florida Bar News.

Mark received his law degree from the University of Florida in 1982 and served a judicial clerkship to the Florida 2nd District Court of Appeals. He received his bachelor's degree, with high honors, from the University of Tennessee in 1979 and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa.