Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights

Today’s creditors’ rights and insolvency lawyers must be able to act quickly, and have the resources and bench strength to provide efficient and effective legal advice on short notice.  The fast-moving world of defaulted loans and bankruptcy demands that law firms be able to immediately devote time and energy to urgent matters.

Founded by a former bankruptcy judge, Baird Holm's bankruptcy and creditors' rights practice group is one of the most experienced in the region at handling both routine loan defaults and the most complex insolvency and loan default matters. Our clients include lenders, bondholders, trade creditors, claims buyers, purchasers of distressed assets, and in select cases, debtor companies.   We have a dozen experienced professionals representing clients in workouts, bankruptcy, financial restructuring and related litigation throughout courts and tribunals in the Midwest and beyond. We also advise clients with respect to their rights and liabilities for commercial transactions governed by the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”), including but not limited to Article 3, Article 4, and Article 9 of the UCC.

We routinely enforce our clients’ rights in court through a variety of actions, including but not limited to collection actions, replevins, receiverships, and real estate foreclosures.  We frequently litigate borrower fraud claims, secured creditor priority disputes, lender liability claims, and other lender-related claims.  We have recent, extensive experience dealing with borrower fraud, including investigating allegations of fraud and working with federal and state authorities to evaluate potential prosecution of those suspected of crimes. Our litigation experience includes state courts, federal courts and bankruptcy courts in multiple jurisdictions, including Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, and South Dakota. 

We engage in all aspects of litigation concerning insolvency and bankruptcy, including stay relief, purchase and sale of debtor assets, assumption or rejection of leases or executory contracts, fraudulent transfers, preferences, and other avoidable transfers. We also have expertise representing creditors in ancillary and cross-border proceedings brought under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in connection with insolvency cases involving debtors, assets and claimants that are located in multiple countries.

Creditors

Our creditor clients include community banks as well as regional and national banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, suppliers, and health care providers. For these clients, we collect debts, enforce contract rights, foreclose liens on real estate and personal property, and pursue rights in insolvency proceedings.

Debtors

We also have experience representing debtors that are corporations or other business entities experiencing complex financial difficulties, but also having potential for rehabilitation or a significant sale of assets.

Distressed Asset Investors

Some of our clients seek to purchase loans that are either in default or downgraded as the result of, for example, adverse economic conditions or borrower mismanagement.  We assist those clients identifying and purchasing those distressed assets, including analyzing the loan documents to be purchased to identify any deficiencies in the documentation or collateral position, drafting and negotiating the purchase agreement to acquire the distressed loan and related loan documents, and drafting and negotiating any documents necessary to restructure the loan with the distressed borrower. Our creditors’ rights attorneys also have experience in initiating subsequent legal action against the distressed borrower and its collateral if it fails to fulfill its obligations to the new lender.

Trustees and Committees

We represent bankruptcy trustees as special counsel, bond trustees, receivers and creditors' committees with respect to the full range of their statutory and contractual duties under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.