Creditor Debt Collection, Foreclosure and Lien Enforcement

For lenders and other creditors, we understand that each matter is unique, which is why we approach each matter to maximize client recoveries.

Our experience includes advising clients on risk management to limit potential exposure, in addition to representing creditor interests in bankruptcy proceedings and out-of-court workouts.   We also frequently defend creditors in preference litigation and have experience representing creditors’ committees in all sizes of bankruptcies.

Our team also has significant experience representing lenders and creditors in the agricultural industry.   This experience ranges from representing ag lenders in foreclosure and lien enforcement litigation to defending and prosecuting claims related to grain forward contracts.  The depth of our experience and breadth of our practice enables us to pursue our clients’ interests around the country, but at rates far more economical than those charged by firms in larger markets.   In addition, we routinely represent clients in bankruptcy courts around the country, including New York and Delaware.  

A representative list of the firm’s varied and significant experience in this area is below:

SECURED AND UNSECURED CREDITORS

• Represented unsecured creditors’ committee in the bankruptcy of Sportsstuff, Inc., a case involving mass tort liability.
• Represented the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in protecting its rights to a $25M-plus tax refund sought to be recovered by the Chapter 7 Trustee of TierOne Corporation.
• Represented the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver for a bank in protecting its collateral interests through a foreclosure process, a chapter 12 family-farmer bankruptcy, and federal district-court litigation, ultimately obtaining a settlement with the debtors that yielded $2.4 Million more than had been offered prior to our engagement.
• Represented secured creditor in a pharmaceutical bankruptcy, defeating a challenge to the client’s security position.
• Represented numerous foreign creditors in the Coldwater Creek bankruptcy, successfully assisting them in stopping goods in transit, obtaining favorable sales terms for the goods, obtaining substantial distributions on administrative claims, defending against preference actions, and serving as proxy for one creditor that was a member of the unsecured creditors’ committee.
• Represented large agricultural lender with over $30MM of outstanding loans in an organized liquidation of a large farming operation. Successfully obtained title to over 6,000 acres of collateral real estate and cash payments to satisfy the debt.
• Represented significant experience with liquidation of forward contracts in bankruptcy and defense of avoidance claims using the “Safe Harbor” provisions of the Bankruptcy Code. This includes the successful defense of a $20 Million dollar preference claim seeking to recover payments for grain delivered pursuant to forward contracts. The decision, In re Cascade Grain Products, LLC, 465 B.R. 570 (2011), is one of the leading opinions on this issue.
• Represented unsecured creditors’ committees, including those in the bankruptcy cases of Acceptance Insurance Companies, Inc., Golf USA, LLC, and Heartland Promotions, Inc.
• Represented Nebraska community bank in foreclosure of a multimillion-dollar loan secured by real estate containing potential environmental and safety hazards as a result of the Debtor’s undisclosed actions.
• Represented national agricultural lender in collecting loan against the debtor and guarantors of a multimillion-dollar loan to a cattle feedlot. Thereafter, represented the lender in subsequent lender liability litigation brought by those guarantors both in the lower courts and in an appellant proceeding before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals obtaining an affirmed order dismissing their claims.
• Represented international commodity company and three unrelated Nebraska cooperatives with several million dollars in claims in the prosecution of an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding against an international conglomerate’s subsidiaries.
• Significant experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in bankruptcy adversary proceedings involving claims to recover preferential transfers and/or fraudulent transfers.
• Hundreds of creditors and other parties in interest, in protecting their myriad of rights in bankruptcy cases located throughout the United States.