Howard J. Berman, a partner of the Firm, has over 35 years of experience in corporate reorganizations, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, including in-court and out-of-court restructurings, loan restructurings, distressed asset sales and acquisitions, loan-to-own strategies, distressed debt acquisitions, mergers and acquisitions, prepackaged and prearranged plans, cross-border proceedings, real estate restructurings, single asset real estate cases, enforcement of landlords’ remedies, debtor-in-possession financing and use of cash collateral, contested confirmation proceedings, and bankruptcy litigation (such as the prosecution and defense of fraudulent conveyance and preferential transfer actions and bankruptcy appeals). He has represented debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, lenders, bondholders, investment funds, property owners and developers, official committees, and indenture and collateral trustees.
Mr. Berman’s bankruptcy and reorganization transactions include the representation of the successful bidder of substantially all of the assets of Aquion Energy, Inc., a battery manufacturer, in a Delaware auction involving 99 bids; a New York grocery chain in connection with the acquisition of a lease and other asserts in the A&P chapter 11 cases; New York Skyline, Inc., as reorganized debtor, in connection with an appeal successfully challenging the bankruptcy court’s determination that the debtor had consented to entry of final judgment of certain non-core claims; the property owner in the Middle Bay Golfers’ Assn., Inc. case in connection with the bankruptcy sale of the country club’s lease and complex litigation to terminate an acquisition agreement; Oberon Media, Inc. in connection with company’s wind down and sale of substantially all of its assets as part of a pre-arranged assignment for the benefit of creditors; the institutional property lenders in the General Growth Properties case; an investment fund in the New York Skyline case in connection with a debt for equity swap pursuant to a plan of reorganization; the estate of the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins in the Atkins Nutritionals case in connection with the resolution of fraudulent conveyance claims arising from a $500 million recapitalization of the company; an investment fund in connection with its acquisition of Spring Air Partners-North America, then the fourth largest mattress manufacturer in the U.S., as part of a prearranged plan of reorganization; the holder of the first mortgage in the chapter 11 case of Mayore Estates, the owner of 22 Cortlandt Street (across from Ground Zero); a REIT in connection with the $500 million purchase of 1515 Broadway through a prepackaged plan; Scient, Inc., a high-tech business consulting firm, in its chapter 11 case; St. Johnsbury Trucking Company in its chapter 11 liquidation; and the Official Committee of Equity Security Holders of Public Service Company of New Hampshire, which involved a $2.3 billion sale and a $500 million recovery for equity holders.
Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Berman was a partner at Greenberg Traurig LLP. Mr. Berman received his law degree from Vermont Law School and received his B.A. from Cornell University where he was co-captain of the varsity tennis team. He has published numerous articles on a variety of bankruptcy issues and is admitted to practice in the State of New York and before the United States District Court of the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Articles
Co-author, “Using Chapter 9 as an Out-of-Court Restructuring Tool,” The Journal of Corporate Renewal, November/December 2011
Author, “Common Attornment Provision Held Ineffective After Master Lease and Sublease Rejected in Bankruptcy by Debtor-Sublandlord,” Counsel to Counsel Bankruptcy Law Alert, LexisNexis, October 2011
Co-author, “Highest Dollar Bid Not Always the Best,” New York Law Journal, June 27, 2011
Author, “363 Asset Sales: The Latest Restructuring Tool,” Pratt’s Journal of Bankruptcy Law, June 2010
“Claim Buyers Beware: District Court Rules That Good Faith Transferees Acquiring Claims By Sale (But Not By Assignment) Are Not Subject to Equitable Subordination and Disallowance Based on Acts of Transferors,” GT Alert, October 11, 2007
Author, “The Use of Bidding Incentives in Bankruptcy Asset Sales,” in Bankruptcy Business Acquisitions 18-1 (Richard N. Tilton 2d ed., Am. Bankr. Inst. 2006)