Michael focuses on representing Chapter 11 debtors and creditors’ committees and advises on virtually every aspect of financial distress and bankruptcy.

Throughout his extensive career, Michael has appeared as counsel in state, federal courts and, in particular, bankruptcy courts in nearly 20 states and territories.

Michael focuses on the representation of Chapter 11 debtors and creditors’ committees. He regularly advises and represents clients in virtually every aspect of financial distress and bankruptcy, including out-of-court restructurings, prosecution and defense of creditors’ rights litigation (including preference and fraudulent conveyance cases), individual and group secured and unsecured creditors, landlords, purchasers of assets under Bankruptcy Code section 363 and other parties in interest.

An active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, Michael has served as director (1996-2008), chairman of the board (2006-07) and president (2004-05) of that organization; and has been a member of its management and executive committees. Michael is also the founder and a performing member of ABI’s house band, the Indubitable Equivalents, which regularly performs at bankruptcy conferences around the country. A frequent speaker and lecturer on bankruptcy law and related topics, Michael is a contributing editor to the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal and, while in law school, served as the managing editor of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.

Michael is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Districts of Arizona; Colorado; Connecticut; District of Columbia; the Northern District of Illinois; the Western District of Michigan; the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York; and the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin. He is also admitted to practice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal, Second, Third, Seventh and Ninth Circuits.

Michael is an adjunct professor of bankruptcy law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Relevant Experience

• Representation of the Creditors’ Committee in O.W. Bunker Holding North America Inc., et al. chapter 11 cases in Connecticut.
• Representation of the Creditors’ Committee in Simplexity, LLC, et al. chapter 11 cases in Delaware.
• Lead counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Prince Sports (United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware).
• Defense counsel in Fairfield Sentry clawback actions against redeemers, and Tribune fraudulent conveyance litigation against former shareholders.

• Lead counsel to the Unofficial Committee of Family and Dissident GM bondholders, the principal opponents to the fast-track section 363 sale of GM’s assets to the new GM engineered by the government.
• Served as national bankruptcy counsel to one of the Big Four accounting firms.
• Served as lead counsel to Chapter 11 debtors Proxymed and Diamond Glass, Inc. (Wilmington, DE).
• Lead counsel to prospective debtors in out-of-court restructuring of companies in broadcasting and leisure travel businesses.
• Served as lead counsel to official committees of unsecured creditors in Chapter 11 cases of Centrix Financial (Denver) and NewComm Telecommunications (San Juan, PR).
• Represented debtor in Chapter 11 case of Medifacts International (Wilmington, DE).
• Served as lead counsel to a global consumer electronics retailer in defense of $250 million avoidance action litigation brought by Creditors’ Committee of Musicland (New York).
• National bankruptcy counsel to the Center for Claims Resolution in various Chapter 11 asbestos cases, including Armstrong and W. R. Grace.
• Acted as special bankruptcy counsel to Huron Consulting in its retention as advisor in St. Vincent Hospitals’ Chapter 11 cases (New York).
• Represented Goldin Capital in the successful acquisition of a business in a contested section 363 auction in Chapter 11 case of Skin Nuvo (Reno, NV).
• Served as counsel to the state of Mississippi in a $5 billion tax claim against MCI/Worldcom (New York).
• Represented Textron Financial Corporation as secured creditor in the Chapter 11 cases of Leisure Industries (Reno, NV).
• Acted as co-counsel to Credit Suisse First Boston in contested plan confirmation hearings in the OSI Chapter 11 cases (St. Louis).
• Served as counsel to agent lenders, including Bank of Nova Scotia and Textron Financial Corporation, in significant out-of-court financial workouts and restructurings.
• Served as counsel to Bank of Montreal in adversary proceedings to determine status as secured or unsecured of more than $1 billion of debt in Loewen Chapter 11 cases (Wilmington, DE).
• Represented Umbro Worldwide in dispute with debtor licensee and co-licensee (New York).
• Served as counsel to the financial services arm of a global corporation in Loews Cineplex Chapter 11.

Bar Admissions

Education
JD, Columbia Law School, 1979AB, Vassar College, 1975