Our Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights Group includes attorneys from the Finance, Corporate & Business, Real Estate, and Litigation Departments of the firm who have special and extensive expertise in all aspects of creditors’ rights law, including bankruptcy, workouts, foreclosure, enforcement of security interests and other creditor remedies, domestication and collection of judgments, and the defense of lender liability claims.
Members of the group regularly represent a wide variety of clients, including domestic and foreign financial institutions, developers, landowners, contractors, and local, national, and international business entities and individuals in bankruptcy cases, workouts, restructuring, and litigation of various kinds in Hawai‘i state and federal courts.
What We Do
- Bankruptcy, Reorganization, and Creditors’ Rights
- Collection/Eviction Litigation
- Foreclosures
- Fraudulent Transfer, Preference, and other Bankruptcy Litigation
- Lender Liability Defense
- Loan Workouts
Our attorneys have extensive experience in the areas of bankruptcy and insolvency taxation, as well as the reporting and taxation of cancellation of indebtedness income.
We represent lenders in the protection and enforcement of their rights, through the negotiation and documentation of loan modifications, judicial and nonjudicial mortgage foreclosures, the enforcement of special remedies such as receiverships and attachments, and in all aspects of bankruptcy, including relief from the automatic stay, voidable preferences, fraudulent transfers, and adequate protection of secured claims. We also represent lenders, purchasers, and sellers of distressed properties in commercial and residential foreclosures, bankruptcy, and forfeiture cases, as well as purchasers and sellers of troubled loans. We have successfully represented lenders in a number of complex lender liability actions in state and federal courts. For many years we have represented a large number of corporate and institutional landowners in connection with the enforcement of their rights under ground leases and commercial space leases, and the protection of their interests in bankruptcy proceedings.
Although we primarily represent creditors, we also advise and represent debtors in connection with the restructuring of their relationships with their lenders and the protection of their assets, as well as in Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. In addition, our Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights Group members regularly represent bankruptcy trustees, receivers, foreclosure commissioners, appraisers, creditors’ committees, and a variety of other participants in the debtor-creditor arena.
- Served as local debtor’s counsel in the successful Chapter 11 reorganization of Hawai‘i’s major telecommunications provider.
- Represented the interests of secured lenders and banks in numerous Chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
- Served as counsel to the Chapter 11 trustee in a real estate reorganization.
- Lead counsel to the bankruptcy trustee in the investigation and prosecution of fraudulent transfer claims in Chapter 7 proceedings.
- Represented Hawai‘i’s Insurance Commissioner in a bankruptcy case filed by one of Hawai‘i’s largest local airlines.
- Lead counsel for the largest secured creditor in a complicated Chapter 7 bankruptcy case involving one of the state’s largest developers and obtained a judgment in excess of $40 million.
- Represented the interests of a shopping center developer in complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of one of the country’s largest retailers of electronics and related consumer goods.
- Served as counsel to secured lenders in a variety of contested matter and adversary proceedings in Chapter 7, 11, and 13 bankruptcy cases, including relief from stay proceedings and claims litigation.
- Represented defendants in fraudulent transfer proceedings brought in the Bankruptcy Court.
- Served as local debtor’s counsel for a major airline in a Chapter 11 case.
- Represented the credit card processor/bank in a Chapter 11 case filed by a Hawai‘i hotel.
- Served as counsel to a number of commercial landlords with regard to lease issues arising in Chapter 7 and 11 proceedings involving their tenants and lessees.
- Represented a national student loan guarantor in a number of adversary proceedings involving debtors’ attempts to discharge their student loans.
- Represented secured lenders in complex commercial foreclosures involving a golf course property on the island of Kaua‘i, a residential and commercial development of over 1,000 acres on the island of Hawai‘i, and a luxury shopping center in Honolulu, on the island of O‘ahu.
- Defended lenders and financial institutions in a number of lender liability actions arising out of residential loans and mortgages in state and federal courts.
- Represented Hawai‘i State Court Receiver in several matters relating to Hawai‘i. partnerships, corporations, and LLCs that held a number of properties located in Hawai‘i and California.
- Represented one of the country’s largest securities brokerage firms in a number of arbitration proceedings before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA,” successor by merger with the National Association of Securities Dealers).
- Lead counsel in the successful representation of one of the world’s leading financial management and advisory companies in litigation to enforce employee non-competition agreements in the United States District Court for the District of Hawai‘i.
