Understanding and Enhancing the Business Value of Post-COVID-19 Distressed Businesses

Soneet R. Kapila is a founding partner of Kapila Mukamal, LLP in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he focuses on litigation support, restructuring, insolvency, fiduciary and creditors’ rights matters. He regularly advises clients about the insolvency implications involved in business transactions, and represents debtors, secured creditors and creditors’ committees in formulating, analyzing and negotiating plans of reorganization.

Mr. Kapila is a recognized expert in fraudulent conveyance, Ponzi scheme and insolvency issues. He has provided expert testimony and extensive litigation support services to law firms involving complex insolvency issues and in commercial damages. To that end, he has worked in conjunction with the SEC, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and has served both as a consultant and expert witness for litigation matters in state and federal courts.

Mr. Kapila is a federal bankruptcy trustee and has served as an examiner, chief restructuring officer, chapter 11 trustee, liquidating trustee, corporate monitor (SEC appointment), and state and federal court-appointed receiver of operating businesses in numerous matters in the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida. He has spoken to various groups, including New York Law School, St. Thomas University Law School, National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, Receiver’s Forum, Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, National Business Institute, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees (NABT) and ABI on topics related to insolvency, underperforming businesses and insolvency taxation.

Mr. Kapila is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and was named best trustee in the Daily Business Review’s “Best of 2012.” He is also on the board of directors and is a past president and past chairman of the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, co-chairs ABI’s Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop, and co-authored Fraud and Forensics: Piercing Through the Deception in a Commercial Fraud Case (ABI 2015).

Mr. Kapila received his M.B.A. in 1978 from Cranfield School of Management.

Chris Creger is a principal of CohReznick LLP’s Restructuring & Dispute Resolution Practice in New York and provides financial advisory, business restructuring and transaction support services to corporations, debtors, bondholders, hedge funds, law firms, lending institutions, private-equity firms, secured lenders, unsecured creditors and other constituents. His industry experience includes media, consumer goods, distribution, retail, manufacturing, oil & gas, telecommunications, publications, textiles, health care, nonprofit and energy.

Mr. Creger advises his clients on matters involving turnaround, bankruptcy, out-of-court workouts, litigation, lender and M&A due diligence, transactional support and profit improvement. His areas of expertise include liquidity/ vendor management, organizational and process reformation, capital-sourcing, and business and creditor workout/ management/restructuring.

Prior to joining CohnReznick, Mr. Creger built his career as a consultant with niche bankruptcy and turnaround consulting firms such CR3 Partners, BDO Consulting and Epiq Systems. He has served the New York Turnaround Management Association in various roles, including chair of the NextGen Committee. He also was an integral part of the deal team that was recognized as M&A Advisor’s 12th Annual Turnaround Award Winner “Chapter 11 Reorganization of the Year.” Other engagement honors include the 2018 Turnaround Atlas Awards for the Corporate Turnaround of the Year, and separately for the Energy Restructuring of the Year. 

Mr. Creger received his B.S. in financial economics from Centre College and a degree in international business and managerial finance from the University of Nicosia (Intercollege), Lefkosia, Cyprus.

Jill B. Bienstock is a managing director with PwC in New York and heads its Bankruptcy Consultation & Facilitation Team. She previously was a partner with Cole Schotz P.C., where she focused her practice on a variety of areas, including creditors’ rights, avoidance actions and reorganizations for both individuals and corporate entities. She has represented Fortune 500 companies, various debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, landlords, equipment lessors, restaurants, hedge funds and banks, creditors’ committees and liquidating trustees, both in and out of bankruptcy court.

Ms. Bienstock’s work has been recognized in New Jersey Super Lawyers and New York Metro Area Super Lawyers. Prior to joining Cole Schotz, Ms. Bienstock was a judicial intern for Hon. Ronald J. Hedges, a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and a summer associate for the firm.

Prior to attending law school, she worked for a publicly traded company in its in-house legal department, supporting and managing its U.S. and out-of-country boards of directors, Section 16 pre-clearances and corporate governance initiatives, as well as the integration and training for new technology.

Ms. Bienstock is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey, as well as in the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She received her B.A. magna cum laude from Lafayette College, where she was a member of the National Honor Societies for Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Delta Pi and Pi Sigma Alpha, and received her J.D. cum laude from New York Law School.

Amir Agam, CIRA is a senior managing director in FTI Consulting, Inc.’s Corporate Finance & Rrestructuring practice in Los Angeles and has more than 17 years of experience advising senior management and creditors regarding companies that are stagnant or underperforming. He specializes in the revitalization of underperforming businesses, as well as in advising creditors and potential acquirers of financially distressed companies.

Mr. Agam has been a financial advisor or Chief Restructuring Officer for Corinthinan Colleges, THQ, Inc., Fresh & Easy, LLC and Fleetwood Enterprises, and worked on the turnaround plan of a Fortune 500 manufacturer of auto-related equipment. He is a member of ABI, the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors and the Turnaround Management Association, and in 2015, he was named one of the restructuring industry’s “40 under 40” emerging leader service professionals by The M&A Advisor.

Mr. Agam received his B.A. with honors in business-economics with a minor in accounting from the University of California and his M.B.A. with honors from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.