“Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.” –Warren Buffet
Johnston Clem Gifford routinely represents secured lenders, commercial landlords, distressed debt buyers, and other real estate market participants in complex restructurings, out-of-court workouts, foreclosures, receiverships, replevins, and bankruptcy litigation matters in Texas and elsewhere. We design and implement cost-effective and creative workout solutions in complex restructuring transactions involving real estate interests. The firm uses a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to challenging legal issues confronting real estate market participants, including environmental, land use, and corporate issues.
Our services include:
- Reviewing and analyzing leases, loan documents, security agreements, deeds of trust, and other transactional documents to identify problems before starting the workout or negotiation process.
- Documenting pre-negotiation agreements, forbearance agreements, and loan or lease modifications or amendments.
- Negotiating and documenting deeds in lieu of foreclosure, pre-litigation sales, or other alternatives to judicial foreclosure or bankruptcy.
- Imposing special-purpose receiverships to take possession of the property, control bank accounts, maintain the books and records, collect rents, pay expenses, maintain budgets and operating reports, present information to the courts and other lenders, or to sell or lease the property.
- If transfer of the debtor’s property interest to the mortgagee is in our client’s best interests, we help manage and protect the property pending disposition.
- Litigating payment and preference matters in the bankruptcy court.
- Seeking to lift the bankruptcy stay to pursue commercial foreclosure, fraudulent transfer claims, deficiency claims, and other avenues of recovery.
- Managing post-sale issues that may confront the REO department of lender clients, such as the removal of owners and tenants, the disposition of personal property and equipment, and the restructuring of leases.
Our experience includes:
- Adequate protection
- Appeals
- Asset sales & other uses of property in bankruptcy
- Appointment of trustees and examiners
- Automatic stay relief
- Bankruptcy adversaries and contested matters
- Bankruptcy case dismissals and conversions
- Cash collateral & DIP financing
- Causes of action
- Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidations
- Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcies
- Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganizations & liquidations
- Claim & asset acquisition
- Claims filing, objections, & trading
- Collateral protection & recovery
- Compromises & settlements
- Creditor representation
- Debt restructuring
- Discharge & dischargability litigation
- Equitable subordinations
- Examinations & discovery
- Exempt assets analysis & objections
- Landlord & lessor representation
- Leases & executory contracts
- Lender liability issues
- Letters of credit
- Personal property repossessions and dispositions
- Plan negotiations & confirmation litigation
- Plans of arrangement
- Preference, fraudulent transfer, & other avoidance action litigation
- Prepacks & contested confirmations
- Purchaser representation
- Reorganizations