Stites & Harbison, PLLC

Stites & Harbison's attorneys in the Creditors' Rights and Bankruptcy Service Group (CRABS) advise and represent their clients in workout negotiations, default and foreclosure and actions in state courts and in contested matters and adversary proceedings arising under Chapters 7, 11, 12 and 13 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Typical clients include secured creditors, trade vendors and other unsecured creditors, landlords, insurance companies, equipment lessors, creditors' committees, indenture trustees, liquidating trustees and preference and fraudulent conveyance defendants. Members of the CRABS group regularly partner with members of other practice groups, such as the Environmental and Natural Resources, Intellectual Property, Construction, Real Estate and Banking and Health Care groups, to negotiate and litigate complex issues in United States Bankruptcy Courts from coast to coast.

Our CRABS group attorneys regularly negotiate complex Chapter 11 reorganization plans; participate in stay litigation; negotiate and litigate secured creditor priority disputes; assist clients in filing involuntary cases; defend preference and fraudulent conveyance claims; prosecute bankruptcy appeals; negotiate and document the purchase of assets from debtors' estates; represent landlords and intellectual property owners in connection with motions for assumption or rejection of leases and license agreements; and defend lender liability claims. The firm's practical experience in workout negotiations and bankruptcy proceedings enables us to prepare both pleadings and transaction documents that may best survive the "acid test" of hostile bankruptcy filings. We regularly advise both companies and lenders as to the creative possibilities of, and the dangers inherent in, bankruptcy filings and reorganizations.

Our bankruptcy and insolvency experience also covers a broad range of industries.

Here are some examples of our recent engagements:

• represented the D-I-P lender and secured creditor in a regional clothing retailer's Chapter 11 Bankruptcy resulting in a successful action of the retailer's inventory and full recovery by the client
• represented secured lender in a large not-for-profit bankruptcy
• represent suppliers in General Motors, Chrysler bankruptcies, as well as numerous other automotive bankruptcies
• represent major secured creditor in restaurant-chain Chapter 11
• represent hedge fund in individual Chapter 11 bankruptcy of guarantor
• represented Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of In re Jockey's Guild, Inc.
• represented lenders and loan servicers in foreclosure of apartment complexes, office building, hotels and warehouses across the Commonwealth of Kentucky
• represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors looking for hidden assets in the bankruptcy of Kentucky's former Governor, Wallace Wilkinson
• represented a major secured creditor in connection with the insolvencies of several nursing homes and assisted living centers
• obtained stay relief in a bankruptcy case to pursue trademark infringement litigation in U.S. District Court
• protected regional airport authorities' interest in several major airline bankruptcies, including Skybus, TWA, ANC and Budget in Delaware, US Airways in Virginia and United Airlines in Illinois
• helped surety companies negotiate reorganization agreements and plans in coal company bankruptcies with debtors, creditors and regulatory authorities, providing for both continuing mine reclamation and reduction of the sureties' potential multi-million dollar reclamation bond liability
• used post-petition financing to acquire state of the art operating assets for a start-up production and broadcast client
• defended and prosecuted fraudulent conveyance and voidable preference claims brought by bankruptcy trustees and debtors
• represented multiple shopping center landlords during the reorganizations or liquidations of several national discount retailers
• represented a consortium of secured creditors during the reorganization of a HUD and HHS financed non-profit public housing corporation
• negotiated a secured creditor-driven liquidation of a convenience store chain;
• represented the agent bank in connection with a $100 million+ credit facility in a major agricultural (hog production) bankruptcy

Attorneys in the CRABS group are active members of the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Commercial Law League of America, the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association, the Bankruptcy Law Sections of the Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama Bar Associations and the Louisville, Nashville, Fayette County, Atlanta Bar Associations and the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWRC). Two members of the Group are designated by the American Bankruptcy Institute as specialists in business bankruptcy, one is designated by the State of Tennessee as a specialist in business bankruptcy; and several are listed in The Best Lawyers in America^®. CRABS group attorneys practice regionally in the courts of Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, and regularly appear and represent regional clients' interests in bankruptcy courts from New York to California.