Preti Flaherty’s insolvency practice focuses on business restructuring, formal bankruptcy proceedings and creditors’ rights litigation. We have one of the largest and most experienced practice groups in Northern New England. The practice group is large enough to handle complex cases and is also able to call upon additional litigation, tax and corporate support from the firm’s Litigation and Business practice groups.

Our attorneys practice in all areas of bankruptcy, representing secured and unsecured creditors, DIP lenders, purchasers and sellers of claims and acquirers of distressed companies, creditor committees, bank groups, debtors-in-possession, and Chapter 11 Trustees.

Each attorney in the Bankruptcy group brings broad expertise in various areas of commercial and consumer finance. The group is led by John M. Sullivan, who is a member of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Bars and is the only New Hampshire attorney Board Certified in both Business Bankruptcy and Consumer Bankruptcy Law.

As part of a multi-disciplinary firm, we benefit from the ability to draw on other talented individuals at Preti Flaherty. For example, our corporate practice group assists in sales and restructurings and our seasoned litigators provide depth and breadth to our services on litigated issues.

Representative Matters:

• Preti Flaherty represented National Pasteurized Eggs, LLC (NPE) through complex litigation in Bankruptcy Court involving patent law issues, which led to a negotiated purchase of Pasteurized Eggs Corporation’s (PEC) innovative in-shell egg pasteurization technology. Although PEC’s stated goal was to use bankruptcy as a means to impair NPE’s existing business, our Bankruptcy group was able to create a solution that places NPE as a worldwide leader in pasteurized eggs technology.
  
  
• Preti Flaherty assisted the Town of Rockingham, VT in the acquisition of a hydroelectric generating facility located in the Town. In this case, US Gen, a bankrupt hydroelectric firm, attempted to enjoin the Town from proceeding with an eminent domain proceeding under Vermont law.  Preti asserted that the eminent domain proceedings could not be stayed.  After trial, negotiations resulted in US Gen agreeing to sell the generating facility to the Town or its designee for $72 million, the price that the Town had been asserting in eminent domain case.  Following the successful negotiation, Preti then assisted in the negotiation and financing of the acquisition. 
  
  
• Preti Flaherty's Bankruptcy Group represented over 100 major industrial power consumers in Maine who were locked in to long term, expensive power contracts with Enron.  Early in the Enron bankruptcy, Preti Flaherty moved to cancel these contracts on the unusual ground that the contracts were "forward contracts," (that is, essentially, commodities contracts, not mere long term supply contracts) and thus cancelable under special bankruptcy rules for forward contracts.  Enron opposed cancellation and sought to assume and assign these contracts, something routinely done with a valuable asset in bankruptcy.  After aggressive briefing, several hearings in the Southern District of New York, and intense negotiations with counsel for Enron, its Creditors Committee, and its lenders, Enron was forced to compromise with the Maine industrial consumers, saving Maine industries tens of millions of dollars in energy costs.