J Michael Booe

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K&L Gates LLP is an international law firm positioned at strategic intersections in the global economy, and represents capital markets participants, entrepreneurs, growth and middle market companies, leading FORTUNE 100 and FTSE 100 global corporations, and public sector entities.

J Michael Booe
K&L Gates LLP
Hearst Tower - 47th Floor
214 N Tryon St
Charlotte NC 28202
Tel: 704 331-7556
Fax: 704 353-3256

Certified Specialist in Business Bankruptcy - American Board of Certification

Restructuring & Bankruptcy

K&L Gates has a diverse national and international restructuring and bankruptcy practice serving a broad range of clients. We represent debtors, creditors’ committees, trustees, credit providers, asset purchasers, vendors, landlords, state court receivers and other interested parties. Our clients include companies in manufacturing, health, technology, engineering, publishing, entertainment, construction, the Internet, real estate, banks, institutional lenders, insurance companies, nonprofit organizations and individuals with needs for legal services in restructuring their personal financial affairs.

Our London office is the center of our insolvency practice in the United Kingdom and Europe and our 18 offices in the United States enable K&L Gates to represent our clients economically and efficiently on a national basis. Together, the combination of our United States, the United Kingdom and our offices in Asia provide K&L Gates with a platform that allows us to represent clients wherever they are confronted with bankruptcy, finance or restructuring issues nationally and internationally.

K&L Gates’ business reorganization, restructuring and bankruptcy group offers creative solutions through combining bankruptcy expertise with additional expertise and experience such as corporate law, asset-based lending, secured transactions, real estate and intellectual property. Because of the group’s collective experience on both the debtor and creditor side of the practice, we are able to understand all sides of a problem and structure creative, informed and practical solutions to our clients’ concerns and provide efficient and economic legal services. Even though K&L Gates bankruptcy practitioners are able to assist clients in strategic planning, documentation, negotiation, litigation and all aspects of any case filed under any state or federal insolvency law in the United States or under the insolvency laws of other countries and, in particular, the United Kingdom, we do not hesitate to call on the collective experience and knowledge of K&L Gates’ other lawyers. By involving lawyers who are technically skilled in other areas, such as health care, the Internet, environmental law, securities law and enforcement, tax, and ERISA, a complete overview beneficial to our clients is obtained and no issue, however minor, is overlooked. Due to our ability to apply these diverse legal skills to analyze, solve and resolve the problems that confront our clients, we can look beyond the immediate issues and see the total picture in order to provide the best legal advice and avoid the repetition of the problem in the future.

This description highlights K&L Gates’ experience in the areas of corporate reorganization, business restructurings and insolvencies, creditor-debtor relationships and bankruptcy. K&L Gates’ objectives in these areas of practice are to achieve positive results for our clients, to protect our clients’ interests and rights both in and out of bankruptcy proceedings on an expeditious and cost-effective basis, to reduce litigation risk and expense wherever possible and, if not possible, to tenaciously represent our clients to achieve the best result. When assisting our clients in these areas, whether they seek to enforce contract rights, recover assets, turn around a troubled company, or sustain a viable business entity, reform its contractual business relationships, or buy assets from or finance a debtor, every effort is made to staff matters only with those persons necessary to achieve the desired result in a cost-effective manner.

K&L Gates prides itself on its responsibility to its clients and to their needs. Every relationship is a personal one to us. We encourage you to review the credentials of our lawyers who practice in this area. Many are well known in their field and regularly write, lecture and, through their various associations, are leaders in the profession.

Areas of Practice

* Business Restructurings and Workouts

K&L Gates represents a wide variety of clients in both formal bankruptcy proceedings and out-of-court business restructurings and workouts. Financially-distressed companies require legal expertise to reorganize with or without the protection of the courts and to realize the maximum value for their assets and the best recovery for their creditors. The issues confronting a company in distress may involve strengthening management, “cleaning up” the balance sheet, abandoning worthless properties, structuring compromises and settlements with creditors or negotiating with lenders for new or restructured financing. Whatever the issues confronting troubled companies, we counsel and formulate strategies with our clients to promote their goals and assist in the solution to the problems. We have had extensive experience in representing real estate owners, developers and contractors, and in other matters relating to debt restructuring and project finance. A substantial amount of our practice involves regular representation of banks and other financial institutions in asset-based lending, secured transactions, subordinated debt financings, participations, and syndications. However, business restructuring and bankruptcy-related issues involve more than just representing a troubled company or its lender. Our practice encompasses representing purchasers, sellers, financing sources, real estate developers, management and advisors in a wide variety of public and private transactions, including leveraged buyouts, cash-out and stock-for-stock mergers, tender-offers, spin-offs, recapitalizations, joint ventures, and strategic investments. Our expertise with all types of corporate reorganizations, joint ventures, partnerships, licensing arrangements, franchises, public and private debt offerings and leveraged transactions allows us to give our clients meaningful and practical advice based on years of experience.

* Out-of-Court Restructurings

We have completed transactions, out of court.

* Court-Supervised Corporate Reorganizations

For companies seeking court protection, we have successfully consummated plans of reorganization in Chapter 11 for debtors-in-possession.

* Committees

K&L Gates is frequently chosen to represent committees of unsecured creditors, banks and bondholders in Chapter 11 cases. Among our most recent committee representations are the following: equity security holders in the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation Chapter 11 case; a committee of twelve banks in the Chapter 11 case of In re Heck’s, Inc.; unsecured creditors committee in the Chapter 11 case of the New York Racing Association, Inc. K&L Gates has a depth of experience in the representation of committees in the grocery and retail sectors, including recent representations of committees in the Brown & Cole Stores, LLC and Larry’s Markets, Inc. Chapter 11 cases. In connection with its committee representations, K&L Gates has developed significant experience in dealing with rights of creditors under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (“PACA”), and suppliers of goods holding Bankruptcy Code § 503(b)(9) priority rights

* Creditor Representations

In various creditor capacities, K&L Gates has been involved in most of the major Chapter 11 cases that have been filed in recent years. As a result of such involvement, we have acquired a vast amount of experience and knowledge, which better enables us to serve our clients. A few of the recent cases in which our lawyers have been involved are: Delphi Corporation, Delta Air Lines, Inc., United Airlines, Dana Corp., Northwest Airlines Corporation., ASARCO LLC, Hawaiian Airlines, Inc., Mirant Corporation, Enron Corp., New York Racing Association, Inc., Harvard Industries, Inc., Imperial Home Décor Group, Montgomery Ward, Bradlee's, Integrated Resources, Maxwell Communication Corp., National Gypsum Company, Allegheny International, Inc., Columbia Gas Transmission, Harnischfefer Credit Corporation, Ponderosa Fibres of Pennsylvania, Sharon Steel Corporation, Texaco, Inc., Video Update, Inc., Lafeyette Paper and Stage Stores.

* Financial Institutions

K&L Gates’ diverse base of financial institution clients includes banks, commercial finance corporations, savings and loan and thrift institutions, brokerage firms, mutual funds, insurance companies, investment banks, and venture capital funds. In addition to the many legal services provided to these clients for their general business purposes, K&L Gates provides highly specialized advice and counsel on the whole panoply of problems arising with troubled borrowers, complex debt issues, syndicated credits, lender liability and asset-based finance. Specific examples of services that lawyers at K&L Gates have performed for financial institutions are:
- Banks and Institutional Lenders
- Brokerage Firms, Hedge Funds, Distressed Debt, and Mutual Funds
- Asset Acquisitions
- Insurance Companies and Related Entities
- Other Representations

* Lessors

Among our clients are equipment and real estate lessors. Whether these clients seek to recover their leased assets or simply to protect their positions from eroding in a workout or court-supervised restructuring, we have the knowledge to achieve their objectives.

* Insurance Company Insolvencies

K&L Gates represents a variety of clients with respect to insolvency proceedings of domestic and foreign insurance companies. Insurance insolvency proceedings generally take place outside of a federal bankruptcy system and involve statutory receivership in state court, or, in some cases, in the courts in foreign jurisdictions, principally the United Kingdom. Lawyers in the firm negotiate with domestic and foreign receivers, prosecute claims and litigate objections to claim determinations and domestic insolvencies. K&L Gates has advised most of its insurance coverage clients on insolvency matters. The major issues relate to coverage for environmental claims and for asbestos bodily injury and property damage claims.

* Asbestos-Related Bankruptcies

K&L Gates is one of the nation’s premier law firms involved in asbestos-related bankruptcy cases. From the early bankruptcies of companies like Johns-Manville Corporation and National Gypsum Company to the more recent cases of the subsidiaries of Halliburton Company, and Harbison-Walker Refractories, Inc., AC&S Inc., Federal-Mogul Corporation, and Asbestos Claims Management Corporation, K&L Gates has been involved in more than a dozen bankruptcy cases that span the entire 21-year history of asbestos-related bankruptcies. K&L Gates lawyers bring a strategic, interdisciplinary, and integrated approach to asbestos-related bankruptcy cases, combining their experiences in representing debtors, bankruptcy litigation and counseling on asbestos matters, pursuit of insurance coverage for asbestos liabilities, national and regional coordination of the defense of asbestos cases, and transactional, tax and securities counseling relating to the impact of asbestos claims. K&L Gates has represented a diverse group of clients in the asbestos-related bankruptcies, including the debtors, their creditors, directors, officers, shareholders, parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, asbestos trusts, asbestos claimants, and co-defendants, as well as the defendants in fraudulent conveyance actions. K&L Gates lawyers have been on the forefront of groundbreaking developments throughout the history of asbestos-related bankruptcies.

* Professional Activities

Lawyers at K&L Gates are active members of the Business Law Section and the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the American Bar Association and of various local bar associations.

We also participate in numerous bankruptcy, bar and professional organizations.