Winding Down Companies When Chapter 11 Is Not an Option

Geoffrey L. Berman is a senior managing director with Development Specialists, Inc. in Los Angeles, which he joined in 1997. He served as ABI’s president from April 2011 to April 2012 and previously served as ABI’s Vice President-Publications, with oversight of the ABI Journal and other publication projects and a member of ABI’s Executive and Management Committees.

Mr. Berman chaired the Task Force on General Assignments and wrote the ABI manual on general assignments, Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors: The ABCs of ABCs, which is now in its fourth edition. In Addition, he authored an article published in the ABI Law Review.

Mr. Berman brings over 40 years experience in the extension of secured and unsecured credit and the liquidation of numerous businesses. He has expertise in all types of insolvency case administrations with a specialty in the area of general assignments for the benefit of creditors (in various businesses and industries including wholesale seafood, retail auto parts, various manufacturing concerns, wholesale nursery operations and high-tech companies), and liquidating and creditor trusts under chapter 11 plans of reorganization.

Mr. Berman is a certified mediator and serves on the Bankruptcy Mediation Panel for the Central District of California, as well as the Register of Mediators for the District of Delaware, and he has served as a Federal Court Receiver. He served as trustee of the USACM Liquidating Trust, the post-confirmation estate for USA Commercial Mortgage in Las Vegas. He also served as the post-confirmation trustee for the Syntax Brillian Corp. Liquidation and Lender Trusts, as established by the confirmed plan in these District of Delaware cases.

Mr. Berman has previous experience with Union Bank (of California) and Mitsui Manufacturers Bank. Prior to joining DSI, Mr. Berman was with Credit Managers Association of California for 11 years, where he was the manager of its Adjustment Bureau and a member of the Association’s senior management. He is a member of the Los Angeles, Orange County and Bay Area Bankruptcy Forums and the Association of Insolvency Accountants, and is a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy and insolvency subjects.

Mr. Berman received his B.B.A. with honors from the University of the Pacific in 1975 with a degree in business administration (accounting and finance) and his J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles.

Eve H. Karasik is a partner at Levene, Neale, Bender, Yoo & Golubchik L.L.P. in Los Angeles and focuses her practice on corporate restructuring and bankruptcy, including the representation of chapter 11 debtors, unsecured creditor and equity committees, trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, and parties involved in bankruptcy litigation and appeals. Her prior debtor engagements include Valley Economic Development Corp. Marshall Broadcasting, Inc., Cornerstone Apparel, Inc., Anna’s Linens, Inc., Associated Third Party Administrators and Allied Fund Administrators LLC, Imperial Capital Bancorp, Inc., Utah 7000, LLC, Falcon Products, Inc., Clark Retail Group and U.S. Aggregates, Inc. Her creditor and equity committee cases include PHI, Inc., New Meatco Provisions, LLC, Circus and Eldorado Joint Venture, Riviera Holdings Corporation, Eurofresh, Inc., USA Capital First Trust Deed Fund, Aladdin Gaming, Inc. and Amerco.

Ms. Karasik has represented clients in state and federal receiverships, and assignments for the benefit of creditors. She served as trustee’s counsel in SIPA liquidations (W.S. Clearing, Inc.), examiner’s counsel in Fontainebleau Las Vegas Holdings, LLC and counsel to Bankruptcy Code ? 524(g) settlement trusts.

Ms. Karasik is an American College of Bankruptcy Fellow and is ranked in Chambers USA as a Band 3 Bankruptcy and Restructuring attorney. She received the Century City Bankruptcy Attorney of the Year (2015) and the Turnaround Management Association’s “2007 Large Company Transaction of the Year” award.

Ms. Karasik serves as ABI’s newly created Vice President-Diversity & Inclusion, is the incoming president of the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum, and is a member of several other professional organizations. She received her B.A. with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984 and her J.D. from the University of Southern California in 1991, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif.

Geoffrey S. Goodman is a partner and litigation lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP in Chicago, where his practice covers broad areas of bankruptcy and insolvency law and has focused on commodities and securities bankruptcies, as well as health care and energy bankruptcies. He is co-chair for the firm’s Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations Practice and a member of its Appellate Practice.

Mr. Goodman has represented chapter 11 debtors, official creditors’ committees, ad hoc committees, trustees, secured lenders, purchasers of assets and unsecured creditors in chapter 11 cases, including some of the largest chapter 11 cases in the country. In addition, he counsels clients in liquidations, workouts, assignments for the benefit of creditors and transactions, and handles bankruptcy and creditors’ rights litigation in both federal and state court. Mr. Goodman has experience in the area of commodities and securities bankruptcies, having represented a consortium of customers holding over $100 million in claims in the MF Global bankruptcy case and serving as special commodities counsel to the chapter 7 trustee in the Peregrine Financial Group, Inc. bankruptcy.

Mr. Goodman also served as counsel to one of the largest creditors in the multi-billion dollar chapter 11 case of In re Refco, Inc. in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and as counsel to an ad hoc committee of customers in the billion dollar case of In re Sentinel Management Group, Inc. in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He has counseled large mutual funds, hedge funds, futures commission merchants, exchanges and other entities in this area. His practice also covers the areas of health care and energy bankruptcies, having served as counsel to the debtor and large secured and unsecured creditors in significant health care cases and counsel to the creditors’ committee in the large chapter 11 cases of coal companies Horizon Natural Resources Co., Trinity Coal Corp. and Black Diamond Mining Company, LLC.

Prior to joining Foley, Mr. Goodman clerked for Hon. Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He received his B.A. in political science with honors in 1996 from Illinois Wesleyan University and his J.D. summa cum laude in 1999 from the University of Illinois College of Law, where he was notes editor of the Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif.

Sara L. Chenetz is a partner with Perkins Coie LLP in Los Angeles, where she represents clients with varied interests in bankruptcy, restructuring, workout and litigation matters. She has served as first chair in multiple trials, arbitrations and mediations, in addition to having served as a courtappointed chapter 11 trustee in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada and as a mediator in bankruptcy cases in New York and California. In this capacity, she helps clients formulate and implement complex restructuring, workout, litigation and settlement strategies in a variety of situations, including bankruptcies, out-of-court workouts, federal and state litigation and arbitration, receiverships, assignments for the benefit of creditors, distressed asset sales, capital and transaction structures, and conducting business with financially troubled companies.

Ms. Chenetz has worked with businesses in an array of industries, including aerospace, biotech, defense, ecommerce, entertainment and media, finance, investment management, health care, hotels and leisure, lending, manufacturing, mining, professional services, real estate, retail, sports, technology, transportation, unmanned vehicles systems and wineries. Through the course of her career, she has represented all parties involved in bankruptcy, restructuring, workout and litigation matters. She regularly counsels first- and second-lien holders, asset, business and debt acquirers, official and unofficial committees, debtors in possession, bond and equity holders, directors and officers, and trustees and examiners. Her clients include vendors, employee benefit plans, landlords, tenants, retained professionals, plaintiffs and defendants.

Ms. Chenetz is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and has been recognized in Chambers USA. She is also a frequent speaker and author on bankruptcy, restructuring, workout and litigation issues.

Ms. Chenetz received her B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1980 and her J.D. in 1983 from American University Washington College of Law.