Additional Restructuring Issues

Environmental Issues – Our environmental, health and safety practice provides excellent support for our related work in bankruptcy and restructuring matters. We have handled a broad array of matters that may come into play in this area pertaining to:

• Soil and groundwater contamination
• Hazardous waste management
• Industrial permitting and compliance including issues arising under the major federal environmental statutes including Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, also known as Superfund), the Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) including its Underground Storage Tank (UST) provisions and the Clean Air Act
• Our environmental lawyers also have experience in matters arising under less frequently encountered statutes, such as the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and National Historic Preservation Act

One notable example of Squire Sanders’ success both in consensually resolving and litigating thorny “bet the company” environmental issues was the EaglePicher Chapter 11 cases. A critical aspect of the reorganization was the resolution of environmental issues and funding for cleanup of real property located on 14 sites in three EPA Regions and five states. In a settlement, unprecedented for its complexity and speed, in just a few months our environmental/bankruptcy team reached favorable settlements for 12 of the 14 sites, resolving disputes with the EPA in Washington DC, two EPA Regions and four of the five states. On the two sites for which settlements were not reached, we achieved success through litigation in which the bankruptcy court essentially adopted our client’s cleanup estimates in the face of a more than ten-fold higher request by the EPA.

Intellectual Property and Technology Issues – Protecting and making productive use of intellectual property is a critical element of long-term business growth and success. Companies know that patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets are often among their most valuable assets. In light of the substantial investment that businesses make in research and development, brand management and product awareness, programs for the protection, exploitation and enforcement of intellectual property rights should be key elements of a company’s business plan including in bankruptcy and restructuring related plans. Our intellectual property practice is multidisciplinary and actively involves lawyers from the business, regulatory and litigation practices. Our experience in intellectual property law, combined with our ability to handle the largest of litigation cases and all forms of dispute resolution, enables us to assist businesses both in actively protecting their intellectual property rights and in properly defending them from charges of violating the intellectual property rights of others.

Restructuring-Related Litigation – We have some of the most experienced trial lawyers in the United States. In complex restructurings, our trial lawyers work closely with our corporate and bankruptcy lawyers. We have done so in cases associated with contested commercial financial restructurings, including claim disputes, breach of contract litigation, warranty disputes, tax, environmental, securities and antitrust litigation, as well as plan confirmation and related litigation. Our unified approach to litigation and restructuring has been the hallmark of our firm’s involvement in many of the largest and most complex restructurings in the United States.

• From Enron to WorldCom and the AMERCO/U-Haul restructuring, our firm has brought to bear a sophisticated and savvy team of trial lawyers that understands the restructuring process. That experience and understanding allows us to develop and implement litigation strategies unique to the client and the situation.
• In the Baptist Foundation restructuring, the largest not-for-profit restructuring in the United States, our trial lawyers crafted and executed a strategy whereby a “reverse class action” was filed in the bankruptcy cases. This creative litigation tactic expedited the completion of the restructuring and substantially increased distribution to creditors.
• Our trial lawyers are experienced in expedited trial procedures that are commonplace in many large restructurings. In the TECO-Panda restructuring, which involved more than US$3 billion in debt and equity interests, our trial lawyers devised and successfully implemented an expedited trial plan dealing with a contested plan confirmation process.

If restructuring requires litigation support such as preparing and presenting evidence, which our litigation practice does daily in courts across the United States, or a strategic approach to litigation, our combined experience and approach sets our firm apart – experienced trial lawyers working with experienced restructuring and corporate lawyers with common goals and approach.

Tax Issues – Our tax lawyers are nationally recognized as experts in the tax implications of complex commercial financial restructurings offering a wide variety of related services including:

• Assisting, advising and counseling in all aspects of the commercial financial restructuring to maximize tax benefits, such as preservation of net operating losses, and to minimize adverse tax effects.
• Leveraging to our clients’ advantage their thorough practical understanding of the tax issues that arise in leasing, tax exempt bonds and other financing structures frequently used in the aviation industry.
• Negotiating or litigating with the Internal Revenue Service.
• Counseling with respect to the design and administration of tax-qualified pension plans, welfare plans, ESOPs, severance benefit plans and other benefit programs as well as the funding thereof in financial restructuring situations.
• Finding solutions to employee benefit issues often found in restructuring.

Our tax lawyers work with our bankruptcy and finance lawyers to design incentive plans and compensation strategies that help retain and attract quality employees while implementing financial reorganization.