Liquidating Outside of Chapter 11: Considerations for Cannabis and Other Companies Not Eligible for Chapter 11

Suzzanne Uhland is a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins and represents companies, creditors and investors in chapter 11 reorganizations and out-of-court restructurings. She has represented debtors-in-possession, creditors, and DIP lenders in chapter 11 cases of public and private companies; businesses in connection with out-of-court restructurings and debt-renegotiations; private-equity and hedge fund clients in distressed investments and portfolio company restructurings; and financial institutions and public and private companies in connection with credit financing transactions. In addition, she has also represented licensors and licensees of intellectual property in connection with preserving or acquiring intellectual property rights in distressed situations.

Ms. Uhland has been listed in Benchmark Litigation as a Local Litigation Star for Bankruptcy (2019- 21) and a National Litigation Star (2021), and in Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Global & Insolvency Lawyers (2020), Chambers USA (2019). She also received the Global M&A Network’s Top USA Woman Dealmakers Award in 2019 and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for 2020 in Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights/Insolvency & Reorganization Law.

Ms. Uhland received her A.B. in 1984 with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa, and her M.A. in 1986, from Stanford University, and her J.D. from Yale University in 1988, where she was co-editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation.

Hon. Rosemary Gambardella was sworn in as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge on May 3, 1985, in the District of New Jersey in Newark, becoming the first woman to serve on its bankruptcy court. From 1980-85, she was senior staff counsel to Hugh M. Leonard, then U.S. Trustee for the Districts of New Jersey and Delaware. Judge Gambardella served as Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey from Aug. 12, 1998, to Aug. 11, 2005. She is a member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, a member and former president of the New Jersey Bankruptcy Inn of Court, and a member of the Bankruptcy Committee of the Third Circuit Task Force on Equal Treatment in the Courts - Gender Commission. In addition, she is a member of the National Association of Women Judges, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, ABI and the Turnaround Management Association, and is a former member of the Bankruptcy Judges Advisory Group for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Judge Gambardella was the bankruptcy judge representative to the Judicial Conference of the United States (2009-11) and is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. She received the Rutgers School of Law – Newark Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012, the New York Institute of Credit Women’s Division Judge Cecelia H. Goetz Award, the William J. Brennan, Jr. Award in 2013 and the Conrad B. Duberstein Memorial Award in 2015.

Judge Gambardella earned her B.A. in history in 1976 from Rutgers University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After receiving her J.D. from Rutgers Law School-Newark in 1979, Judge Gambardella served as law clerk to the late Chief Bankruptcy Judge Vincent J. Commisa from 1979-80.

Bill Brandt has been in the business of workout, turnaround and insolvency consulting for more than 45 years and is widely recognized as one of the foremost practitioners in the field. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of DSI.

For more than 45 years, Bill Brandt has been a fixture on the national stage in the fields of business, civic and political endeavors. A talented business strategist and political counselor, he is the founder and Executive Chairman of Development Specialists, Inc., better known worldwide as DSI and widely recognized as one of the foremost firms in the corporate restructuring industry. While Mr. Brandt and his firm have been and continue to be involved in some of the most celebrated and complex restructuring and insolvency matters in the arenas of business and government reorganization, for example, Mr. Brandt currently serves as the Chapter 11 Trustee in the largest cross-national insolvency pending in the United States, China Fishery Group, the firm also lends its expertise to other matters in the broader economic and political realms. An example of that was Mr. Brandt’s stewardship and resolution of the infamous Ohio “Coin Fund” scandal at the request of the Attorney General of the State of Ohio.

In 2015, Mr. Brandt finished his third consecutive term serving as Chair of the Illinois Finance Authority, having first been appointed by the Governor in 2008 and confirmed unanimously by the Illinois Senate that same year, and then subsequently reappointed as Chair in 2010 and 2012. The IFA is one of the nation’s largest state-sponsored self-financed entities principally engaged in issuing taxable and tax-exempt bonds, making loans and investing capital for business, nonprofit organizations and local governments. Mr. Brandt, again by gubernatorial appointment, was also a member of the Illinois Broadband Deployment Council, whose mission is to ensure that advanced telecommunications services are available to all of the citizens of Illinois. He is also part of the ownership group that controls Chicago’s second-largest daily newspaper, The Chicago Sun-Times. More recently, in the political realm, Mr. Brandt was a member of the United States Electoral College for the 2016 Presidential Election, serving as an Elector from the State of Illinois.

Mr. Brandt has advised Congress on matters of insolvency and bankruptcy policy, and in that capacity was the principal author of the amendment to the Bankruptcy Code permitting the election of trustees in Chapter 11 cases. He was involved in drafting several amendments to the Bankruptcy Code revisions enacted into law in April 2005 as part of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which substantially rewrote the nation’s bankruptcy laws. Mr. Brandt also served as a member of the Commission empaneled by the American Bankruptcy Institute several years ago to address the reform of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code and the nation’s corporate restructuring regime.

Referred to several years ago by one media outlet as one of the ten most influential political figures in Illinois, Mr. Brandt was a member of the President’s National Finance Board during the Clinton administration, and was elected a Delegate from the State of Florida to the 1996 Democratic National Convention. During that decade as well, and upon the invitation of business and political leaders in the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Brandt worked with various public policy, law and banking leaders in China on approaches to the reorganization and restructuring of some of that nation’s state-owned industries. In 2000, he was a member of the Democratic Party’s National Convention Platform Committee, and in 2002, he served on the Illinois Gubernatorial Transition Team, as well as on the State of California’s business delegation dispatched to Cuba to discuss politics, business and trade potential. In 2008, Mr. Brandt was again elected a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, this time from the State of Illinois.

As part of his longstanding commitment to higher education and to civic endeavors, Mr. Brandt chaired the National Advisory Council for the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, serving a total of 12 years, from 2006 to 2018, as a member or chair of that board. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Loyola University Chicago from 2007 to 2016, and is a Life Trustee of Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois. Mr. Brandt is also a member of the Board of Directors of New York-based The Honorable Tina Brozman Foundation for Ovarian Cancer Research (Tina’s Wish).

Mr. Brandt served several terms as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Bankruptcy Institute, as well as also serving, for a number of years, as a member of the Advisory Board for that organization’s Law Review. He is a member of the Board of Advisors for the ABI’s annual New York City Bankruptcy Conference, having earlier served for 15 years in a similar capacity for the ABI’s Bankruptcy Battleground West Seminar held each year in Los Angeles. Mr. Brandt was a member of the Executive Committee of the Bankruptcy Section of the Commercial Law League of America and served on their National Government Affairs Committee, as well as completing three terms as a member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum.

Mr. Brandt is active in the industry internationally, and is a member of the International Insolvency Institute, as well as INSOL, and is a U.S. Participant in the 100-member cross-border consortium known as the International Exchange of Experience in Insolvency.

For 20 years, Mr. Brandt was a member of the private Panel of Trustees for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and briefly served as a member of the same panel for the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in the late 1980s.

Mr. Brandt has written for publications spanning a broad spectrum of thought, ranging from Maclean’s, Canada’s Weekly Newsmagazine, to Directors & Boards, Corporate Board Magazine, the Florida Real Estate Journal, and the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Law Review, published in conjunction with St. John’s University School of Law. He is the co-author of the “Due Diligence” chapter in the 2nd edition of Bankruptcy Business Acquisitions published by the American Bankruptcy Institute. He is a frequent lecturer and speaker on topics of corporate restructuring, bankruptcy and related public policy issues and regularly appears on CNN, CNBC, CNNfn, Bloomberg, Canada’s BNN, and the Arise America news network, as well as the CBS Radio and National Public Radio networks. He has been profiled and interviewed in a wide array of periodicals including, among others, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Business Week, The Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, Billboard Magazine and Bank Bailout Litigation News.

Among many other professional and trade organization memberships, Mr. Brandt is a member of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Urban Land Institute. His biography appears in a number of reference works including Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, and Who’s Who in American Law. For well more than a dozen years, his firm, Development Specialists, Inc., has been rated as one of the Outstanding Turnaround Management Firms in the world by the publication Turnarounds & Workouts, and he is routinely listed on annual rosters of the country’s top restructuring advisors. Mr. Brandt received his B.A. from St. Louis University and his M.A. from the University of Chicago, where he also completed further post-graduate work toward a doctoral degree.

Gerard DiConza is a partner in the Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Insolvency Litigation Group at Archer. Gerry represents debtors, trustees, foreign liquidators, distressed buyers in section 363 sales, chapter 11 plan fiduciaries and creditors, both in and out of court. Gerry has over 25 years of experience in chapter 11 restructurings and representing estate fiduciaries in complex bankruptcy litigation.

Gerry represents trustees, plan administrators, foreign liquidators and other fiduciaries in litigation involving issues of fraud, alter ego, breach of fiduciary duties, bad faith, fraudulent and preferential transfers. Gerry also advises investment bankers, financial advisors and other professionals in connection with retention and payment issues under the Bankruptcy Code.

Gerry received a B.B.A. in 1991 from Hofstra University and a J.D. with honors in 1994 from St. John’s University School of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review. Gerry received an LL.M. in corporate law from New York University School of Law in 1998. After graduating law school, Gerry served as law clerk to the Honorable Jeremiah E. Berk, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York. Gerry frequently speaks on bankruptcy topics and is currently a lecturer on restructurings at the New York University School of Professional Studies.

Marc E. Hirschfield is a partner with Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld LLC in New York, where he leads its Business Restructuring & Bankruptcy practice and is a member of the firm’s corporate and litigation departments. He regularly represents debtors, committees, DIP lenders, secured and unsecured creditors and acquirers of assets in both out-of-court workouts and bankruptcy cases.

Mr. Hirschfield has served as an expert witness on bankruptcy matters. He also is an experienced mediator and is on the mediation panels for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of Delaware. Having served as one of the lead counsel to the trustee in the Madoff liquidation and in other Ponzi scheme cases, he has specialized expertise in financial fraud matters.

Mr. Hirschfield has been included Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and is a New York Super Lawyer. He received his B.A. with honors and Phi Beta Kappa in 1989 from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and his J.D. magna cum laude in 1992 from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law, where he was editor of the Buffalo Law Review and a member of the Moot Court Board.

Jennifer L. Rodburg is a Restructuring and Insolvency partner with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in New York, where she focuses her practice on the representation of creditors and investors in corporate restructurings both in and out of court. She represents hedge funds, private equity funds, banks, property owners, asset-acquirers and other strategic parties in connection with prepackaged and traditional bankruptcy proceedings, DIP and exit financings, ? 363 sales and other distressed situations.

Ms. Rodburg has a broad range of experience in representing official and unofficial creditors’ committees and equity committees in connection with chapter 11 cases and out-of-court restructuring situations. She also counsels investment funds, financial institutions and other clients on issues involved in trading distressed debt, analyzing the risks associated with potential investments and acquiring financially distressed companies.

Ms. Rodburg is consistently recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as a leading individual in Bankruptcy/ Restructuring and by Legal 500 in Corporate Restructuring. She also was named an “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyer” in the April 2009 issue of Turnarounds & Workouts.

Ms. Rodburg lectures on bankruptcy-related matters for seminars and panels sponsored by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and other professional organizations. She is a member of ABI, the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the New York City Bar, and she is admitted to the bar in New York, New Jersey, the District of Columbia and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Ms. Rodburg received her B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997 and her J.D. in 2000 from New York University School of Law.