The COVID-19 Crisis: How Deep, How Long, and Its Impact on Bankruptcy Filings

Tom Beckett is a shareholder of Parsons Behle & Latimer. He works in the firm’s litigation practice group and practices primarily in commercial litigation. Mr. Beckett is head of the firm's bankruptcy practice group, and he has been trained as a mediator at the Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation.

For several years following the Great Recession, Mr. Beckett represented creditors’ committees in the bankruptcies of numerous high-end luxury resorts in Utah, Nevada, and Montana. Notably, in the Yellowstone Mountain Club bankruptcy matter, as counsel to the Creditors Committee, he obtained the equitable subordination of a $370 million secured loan to enable unsecured creditors to be paid first.

Over the length of his career, Mr. Beckett has represented a diverse group of clients in Chapter 11 bankruptcies: debtors, committees, committee members and committee chairs; trustees and receivers; secured and unsecured creditors; bondholders, equity holders, and royalty holders; asset acquirers, equipment lessors, Ponzi scheme victims, employees, and independent contractors.

He has represented clients in all manner of bankruptcy and creditor rights issues including commercial litigation in state and federal courts, out-of-court workouts, equitable subordination, lift stay, plan confirmation, secured and unsecured financing, exculpation clauses, force majeure clauses, case conversion, allegations of bad faith and alter-ego and non-dischargability.

Prior to joining Parsons Behle & Latimer, Mr. Beckett was an associate in the financial workout department of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York City. He remains an active member of the New York State Bar Association.

Mr. Beckett’s work experience includes one year on the staff of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. He recently completed three terms as chairman of the Board of Directors of Clark Planetarium. He currently serves on the Utah Supreme Court’s Ethics and Discipline Committee and has maintained a whitewater river guide's license and wilderness first responder certification for more than 30 years.

Hon. Kevin R. Anderson is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Utah in Salt Lake City, appointed on Sept. 4, 2015. Previously, he served for 17 years as the standing chapter 13 trustee for the District of Utah, administering more than 70,000 chapter 13 cases.

Judge Anderson served as president of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT), and he also served on several national committees regarding chapter 13 legislation, rules, forms and policy. He has frequently written and presented on chapter 13 issues, including for the Norton Bankruptcy Law Advisor, the ABI Journal, the NACTT Quarterly and the NACTT Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education. He is also a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy.

Prior to his appointment as chapter 13 trustee, Judge Anderson practiced for 13 years as a commercial litigator with an emphasis on civil fraud, real property, and representing chapter 11 and 7 trustees. He also clerked for Hon. David N. Naugle, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California.

Prior to law school, Judge Anderson worked for two years as a data systems specialist testing military and commercial jet engines for General Electric. He received his J.D. cum laude from the J. Ruben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.