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Overview

Goldberg Kohn’s Litigation Practice Group has extensive experience defending banks, lenders, private equity firms and other financial institutions in litigation in courts throughout the country as well as protecting the rights of creditors in bankruptcy and insolvency litigation in courts nationwide.

Our attorneys often represent secured creditors in the full range of issues arising in bankruptcies, including cash collateral disputes, financing objections, adequate protection fights, fraudulent conveyance allegations, preference suits, priming litigation and confirmation matters. Goldberg Kohn has also been involved in bankruptcy court litigation relating to the protection of claims respecting intellectual property.

As lenders increasingly use all of the tools in their toolbox to exercise their rights in collateral, our litigators have been on the cutting edge of validating and securing those rights in court.

Representative Matters

  • After an adverse decision by the Circuit Court of Cook County, Goldberg Kohn was engaged by a major bank to intervene in litigation in which the issuance of $1 billion worth of state agency bonds was challenged and found unconstitutional. The validity and enforceability of the bonds were at risk. The firm took the matter directly to the Illinois Supreme Court and obtained a reversal of the trial court decision. This issue was resolved within nine months of the firm’s engagement and has become a leading case on the use and propriety of special purpose state agency financing techniques.
  • Defending a national bank against UCC and tort claims arising from a $50 million-plus fraud perpetrated on the bank’s municipal account holder by its fiduciary.
  • Prosecuting and successfully resolving complex intercreditor claims on behalf of a national bank against co-lenders in a multi-tranche, commercial real estate loan facility.
  • Securing emergency injunctions against deposed board member after lender client exercised its stock pledge and proxy rights in defaulted borrowers, ultimately resulting in payment in full to the client.
  • Representing a Fortune 25 national bank in a 15-day FINRA arbitration involving defamation, among other claims.
  • Defending a Fortune 25 national banking client in a multi-party adversary proceeding pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada contesting our client’s automatic sweep of a collection account that included more than $10 million in funds allegedly owned by a third-party. After extensive discovery, including multiple depositions, and the assertion of a counterclaim seeking recovery of several million dollars, led client through a multi-day mediation resulting in a favorable settlement.
  • Winning summary judgment for a Fortune 50 national banking client in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California on an issue involving a complex UCC conflicts-of-law analysis over a retention-of-title dispute that was central to the secured lender’s ongoing business practices.
  • Achieving judgment in various contested intercreditor disputes involving substantial borrower assets.
  • Protecting successful trial court ruling in bank vs. bank litigation involving check fraud through argument and decision from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
  • Representing a private equity firm that had formed a business to acquire the majority lender position in a secured credit facility. A disappointed auction participant and minority lender in the facility sued the client in the Southern District of New York, attempting to use the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing to extract one-third of the value of the purchased company. After trial, defeated the minority lender’s claim that the client breached the credit agreement’s “sharing provision” when, instead of tendering cash at closing, the client tendered court-approved non-cash consideration.
  • Representing a middle-market specialty finance firm in defense of an action by a vendor of its borrower seeking to recover millions of dollars from the client (the secured lender) and several other defendants. The case was being litigated as a contested matter in the main bankruptcy case and as an adversary proceeding pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. After aggressive motion practice and discovery to shape the client’s defenses, led a complex, multi-party, multi-day mediation, which ultimately led to a resolution extremely favorable to the client.
  • Defending private equity firm in a dispute regarding allocation of residual profits and investment rights.
  • Representing finance company in a negligence lawsuit against an appraiser of manufacturing equipment.
  • Defending bank in fraudulent conveyance action arising out of leveraged buyout of a trucking company.

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