Key players in some of the largest restructuring and liquidation cases in Florida have benefited from our Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Insolvency Team’s deep experience. Covering industries as diverse as healthcare, gaming, retail, telecommunications, and hospitality management, Agentis offers clients solid legal strategy that enables them to address critical concerns, such as inadequate liquidity or reacting to a rapidly shifting marketplace.

Agentis’s Bankruptcy, Restructuring, and Insolvency Team acts to advance the interests of borrowers, professional fiduciaries, or creditors—either through official committees of creditors appointed by the courts or individually—in the restructuring and liquidation process in both state and federal proceedings.

Of importance, Agentis attorneys serve as counsel in diverse roles because our firm is structured to avoid conflicts of interest. For example, we have historically served as counsel in significant cases representing debtors, creditors, official committees, and purchasers of assets. Our reputation as sophisticated insolvency and restructuring professionals, combined with our steadfast commitment to serving our clients and anti-poaching policy, has also allowed us to build an extensive referral network of other law firms, who trust us, explicitly when they are unable to represent a particular client due to conflicts of interest.

While business-oriented solutions take priority, the practice stands ready and able to zealously represent clients when the need for litigation arises. In business restructuring and liquidations, our team’s agility and access to our litigation and trial practice lawyers’ extensive capabilities often makes a significant, bottom-line difference in efficiency and results.

Case Studies

• Biscayne Builders: Agentis lawyers represented the court-appointed, chapter 11 trustee of a large, residential home builder in south Miami-Dade County, Florida. When the trustee was appointed, construction had stopped and many homeowners were without completed homes and their deposits were in jeopardy. Working together with the bank, and a number of very angry, unpaid contractors and material-men, Agentis lawyers facilitated the building of all the unfinished homes and the closing and delivery of the completed houses to the purchasers, as well as a partial dividend to contractors.
• DMI: Agentis lawyers were lead counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the ultimate liquidation and sale of the manufacturer of Vita Spas.
• Dunkin Donuts: Agentis lawyers served as counsel for the national franchisor in the chapter 11 case of a Dunkin Donuts franchisee with multiple locations. Agentis’s expertise in bankruptcy law, where it interfaces with restaurant operational and franchise issues, was called into play. A powerful and unrelenting litigation strategy put us in a position where the debtor was allowed to successfully reorganize. Our client’s claim was paid and our client’s marks protected.
• Fountainbleau Las Vegas: Agentis lawyers represented an ad hoc committee of construction lien claimants which totaled approximately $350 million. This ad hoc committee successfully appealed $24 million in cash collateral orders which attempted to prime their lien claims. This committee also successfully argued that their claims should prime those of certain construction term lenders before the Nevada Supreme Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Golden Corral: Agentis lawyers served as counsel for a high net worth individual chapter 11 debtor who was the sole owner of a corporation that owned and operated five Golden Corral restaurants. In this case, the debtor sought to sell the Golden Corral restaurants along with the debtor’s interest in several business ventures, most of which were subject to the claims of numerous secured creditors. In order to satisfy those secured claims and provide a return to unsecured creditors, Agentis lawyers teamed up with industry professionals who helped effectuate the sale of the restaurants and other business ventures via private sales, as well as private and public auctions.
• Hear USA: Agentis lawyers were lead counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the largest chapter 11 retailer of hearing aids. The case was complex and involved several secured creditors and multiple inter-creditor agreements. The committee ultimately delivered a 100 percent dividend to creditors, with interest, and a dividend to certain classes of equity holders.
• Levitt: Agentis lawyers represented an ad hoc committee of deposit holders which was given official recognition by the court. The Official Committee of Deposit Holders was instrumental in delivering a material dividend to its constituents and protecting, where possible, the deposits’ purchasers.
• Pan American Hospital: Agentis lawyers were lead counsel for the debtor in the largest independent, not-for-profit hospital bankruptcy in South Florida. The case spanned the course of three years and encompassed nearly every conceivable issue that a bankruptcy practitioner might confront – healthcare issues, organized labor issues, and litigation.
• Restaurant Group: Agentis lawyers served as counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in a case involving a chain of Church’s Fried Chicken franchises. Faced with a reorganization plan that paid little to unsecured creditors, the committee wrested exclusivity from the debtor and operated a sales process that was successful in delivering a meaningful dividend to creditors, and which allowed the restaurants to continue operations and serve the neighborhoods where they were located.
• Supra Telecomm: Agentis lawyers were counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of a large telecommunications entity and worked closely with investment bankers and financial consultants to facilitate an excellent dividend for creditors via the sale of substantially all of the debtor’s assets for approximately $27 million, under section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Other Representative Matters

• • Agricultural: Represented chapter 7 trustee in a converted chapter 11 case with a leading decorative foliage company. We prosecuted and resolved 144 adversary proceedings to recover preferential and fraudulent transfers.
  • Clinical research: Represented chapter 11 Debtor in Possession in jointly administered cases for a clinical research and development organization that conducted early and late phase clinical trials for pharmaceutical companies. During the chapter 11 process, we analyzed numerous leases maintained throughout the United States and assisted the company in rejecting certain leases and liquidating its assets. By structuring an employee termination process for those locations, we obtained court approval to institute a severance program that protected the company from potentially multiple-millions of dollars of potential WARN Act claims liability. We spear-headed a complex due diligence process, which resulted in the sale of the company’s two lines of business to competitors, and ultimately preserved hundreds of jobs.
  • Education: Represented two affiliate private schools as debtors in possessions in their respective chapter 11 cases, wherein chapter 11 plans of reorganization were confirmed, resulting in the salvaging of approximately 50 jobs, while returning a dividend to creditors and restoring equity interests.
  • Healthcare: Represented a medical imaging company as a chapter 11 Debtor in Possession facing financial difficulties resulting from a cessation of Medicare payments that accounted for 40 percent of its revenues. Brought a lawsuit against the United States, seeking to lift the Medicare review process that had placed the client in its precarious financial situation. The lawsuit was successful and the review process was lifted. Thereafter, Medicare payments began coming in on a regular basis, allowing the company to meet its operational costs and propose a chapter 11 plan.
  • Healthcare: Represented chapter 11 physician and medical practice in two jointly-administered cases, where Medicare had ceased payments. We drafted a complaint to sue Medicare in bankruptcy court, which directly resulted in the restoration of Medicare payments and the ability to fund a chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
  • Healthcare: Served as counsel to the Debtor in Possession in the reorganization of a not-for-profit hospital, resolving, labor and union disputes, labor transactions, medical staffing issues, executive compensation, change of ownership transactions, litigation over Medicare license transfers, and an ultimate going concern sale in the approximate amount of $44 million.
  • Hospitality: Defense in a dispute arising from material interests of a hotel in a Florida liquidation matter.
  • Individual chapter 11 case/lien disputes: Represented a lender in a title dispute in a case of an individual chapter 11 Debtor in Possession, where our client stood to have a multi-million dollar claim extinguished. We moved for termination of exclusivity and proposed a chapter 11 plan which was confirmed and restored the lender’s claim in full.
  • Individual chapter 11/real estate: Represented a secured creditor in a case involving over $100 million of claims related to real estate holdings in central Florida. After extensive litigation, we negotiated the terms of a chapter 11 plan and post-confirmation trust which restored our clients claim in full and conveyed interests in future litigation.
  • Individual chapter 11: Successfully represented and confirmed a chapter 11 case for an attorney with approximately $50 million in assets. Restructured and re-amortized all liens and negotiated a payment plan with the IRS for payment of a claim in excess of $3 million over a period of seven years.
  • Medical devices: Represented chapter 7 trustee of a publicly-traded medical device company, wherein we assisted the trustee to liquidate substantially all of the debtor’s company, and successfully prosecuted an action against the company’s former directors and officers.
  • Real estate development/construction: Representation of an official committee of creditors in the liquidation of a major South Florida home builder, resolving over 300 homeowner claims.
  • Telecom: Represented a creditors’ committee in a telecom case. Once the assets were sold, the trade creditors were faced with the possibility of losing any dividend they might receive to the large regional carrier, who had dominated the case. Our lawyers worked closely with investment bankers and financial consultants to facilitate a sale of substantially all of the debtor’s assets for approximately $27 million that delivered an excellent return to the trades.