The Party's Over; Now Who's Cleaning Up?: The Post-Apocalyptic Landscape Following a § 363 Sale

Donald Workman is the head of the Washington, D.C., office’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring practice team. His practice includes business bankruptcy, creditors’ rights, debtor reorganizations, general insolvency, stockbroker liquidations and commercial litigation. He has experience representing every constituency involved in major reorganizations and workouts, including creditor committees, secured creditors, debtors, trustees, debtor-in-possession lenders, receivers, assignees for benefit of creditors, creditors in regulated industries, and asset purchasers. He has represented entities around the country in bankruptcy matters, including retail cases such as Toys R Us and Circuit City, as well as airline bankruptcies such as TWA, US Airways I and II, United, ATA, Aloha, Hawaiian Air, Delta, Northwest, Mesaba and Independence Air. His bankruptcy litigation experience includes motions for conversion and dismissal of chapter 7 and 11 cases, motions for the appointment of chapter 11 trustees, plan confirmation hearings, contested cash collateral hearings, bankruptcy trustee elections, claim objections, fraudulent transfer and preference actions, denial of discharge and dischargeability actions, and involuntary bankruptcy filings.

Don also served as special counsel in the Adelphia bankruptcies as part of a coordinated defense of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) matters. Don also counsels entities and individuals in the focused area of distressed debt arbitrage matters. His work on arbitrage matters has involved him in the largest bankruptcies ever filed. He has provided counsel to various constituencies in international insolvencies including Asian and German creditors in bankruptcy cases.

Hon. Laurel M. Isicoff is Chief Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, initially appointed on Feb. 13, 2006, and named chief judge on Oct. 1, 2016. She also serves on ABI’s Board of Directors. Judge Isicoff is president-elect of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and an ABI Board member. She also is a member of the Pro Bono Committee of the American College of Bankruptcy, as well as chair of its Judicial Outreach Committee.

Judge Isicoff currently serves as judicial chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the Business Law Section of the Florida Bar and is a member of the Florida Bar Standing Committee on Pro Bono.

Prior to becoming a judge, she specialized in commercial bankruptcy, foreclosure and workout matters, both as a transactional attorney and litigator, for 14 years with the law firm of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton after practicing for eight years with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, now known as Squire Patton Boggs. In private practice, she also developed a specialty in SEC receiverships involving Ponzi schemes.

After graduating from law school, Judge Isicoff clerked for Hon. Daniel S. Pearson at the Florida Third District Court of Appeal before entering private practice. She is a past president of the Bankruptcy Bar Association (BBA) of the Southern District of Florida and, until she took the bench, served as the chair of the Pro Bono Task Force for the BBA. Judge Isicoff speaks extensively on bankruptcy around the country, and is committed to increasing pro bono service, diversity in the bankruptcy community and financial literacy.

Judge Isicoff received her J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in 1982.

Jim has deep experience working directly with senior management, investors, creditors and other stakeholders in matters ranging from out-of-court workouts, prepackaged and prearranged Chapter 11 reorganizations to cram down plans of reorganization and sales of substantially all assets. He is experienced in representing corporate debtors, secured creditors, asset purchasers, official committees of unsecured creditors, liquidating trustees, receivers, investors and other stakeholders, in bankruptcy courts and other courts throughout the United States. Additionally, Jim has experience serving on compliance and monitorship teams in conjunction with both transactional and litigation matters.

Chambers states that “Clients offer praise for his attention to detail and skill as a litigator,” and "Jim crafts nuanced strategies for each matter based on the surrounding circumstances and needs of his client. He is an outstanding advocate in court." Chambers also highlights that Jim “enjoys a strong reputation for his bankruptcy practice, which encompasses a wide range of insolvency law and financial restructuring work.”

Jim is a recognized leader of professional bankruptcy and restructuring organizations including serving as a member of the Turnaround Management Association Global Executive Board of Trustees and a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute Board of Directors. He is a national speaker at industry group conferences and quoted in national publications on bankruptcy and restructuring issues.

Jim holds an MBA in finance, is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor, and a Certified Valuation Analyst. Prior to joining Barnes & Thornburg, Jim practiced with another nationwide law firm and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business teaching corporate finance and restructuring. He was also a senior consultant in the Bankruptcy and Restructuring Services practice of FTI Consulting, Inc. and a senior associate in the Business Recovery Services division of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Ori Katz is a partner based in the San Francisco office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. Mr. Katz specializes in business bankruptcies and other aspects of insolvency law. He has represented debtors, individual creditors, creditors' committees, parties purchasing assets out of bankruptcy and parties involved in bankruptcy litigation. He has successfully reorganized companies in a wide range of industries, including real estate, retail, construction, biotech, telecommunications, media and the internet. He has also represented lenders in connection with receiverships, loan workouts, restructurings, foreclosures and borrower bankruptcies, and acted as receivership counsel in connection with various appointments. 

Mr. Katz graduated magna cum laude from the Boston University School of Law in 2000. He is currently a member of the Insolvency Law Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California, and a board member of the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum.  He has also served as past co-chair of the California Bankruptcy Forum. Mr. Katz is a frequent speaker on matters relating to bankruptcy and insolvency law, and will be teaching a seminar on Business Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization in the Spring of 2012-13 at UC Hastings College of the Law.