Blaine F Bates

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Bankruptcy and Business Restructuring

With 37 full-time bankruptcy lawyers, Haynes and Boone has one of the largest and most experienced Bankruptcy and Business Restructuring Sections in the United States. Our lawyers have worked on many of the most high-profile Chapter 11 cases in the country. The 18 bankruptcy partners have an average of 20 years of experience guiding clients through financial crises. Restructuring a debt-laden business is not unlike multi-party military maneuvers: each creditor and party-in-interest has its own agenda, and victory requires forming multiple, and sometimes shifting, strategic alliances. Haynes and Boone lawyers have extensive experience representing debtors-in-possession, creditors’ committees, financial institutions, and other secured and unsecured creditors, as well as trustees, indenture trustees, landlords, acquirers and equity security holders committees in out-of-court restructurings and in bankruptcy court.

Our involvement in many significant corporate reorganizations representing different types of parties-in-interest, not just debtors or financial institutions, provides understanding of the dynamics of the reorganization process from each constituent's point of view. This multi-faceted, multi-billion dollar experience gives us the ability to anticipate likely developments in a restructuring which can be the catalyst for a mutually beneficial relationship between the debtor and its various creditor constituencies.

We are pro-active and resourceful in our approach to restructurings and in the use of litigation. For example:
* We negotiate and draft reorganization plans and disclosure statements involving mergers, asset sales, stock-for-debt exchanges, and cram down restructurings.
* We negotiate and draft pre-packaged and pre-negotiated plans of reorganization when parties-in-interest are amenable to prompt, consensual reorganizations and/or when a fast resolution is critical to a company’s continued viability.
* We handle complex, commercial litigation and settlement of contested matters and adversary proceedings in the bankruptcy courts and in federal appellate courts, including complicated fraudulent conveyance and preference actions involving leveraged buyouts, lender liability, equitable subordination and pre-petition insider transactions.

In addition, our partners are noted industry thought leaders, prolific writers and speakers and leaders with national, international, state and local organizations such as the American Bankruptcy Institute, the American College of Bankruptcy, the American Bar Association, the International Bar Association and the International Insolvency Institute.

Whether creditor, trustee, or debtor, bankruptcy means doing business under difficult circumstances. The Haynes and Boone Bankruptcy and Business Restructuring team stands ready to guide you through these difficult circumstances.

Board Certified, Business Bankruptcy - American Board of Certification

Blaine F Bates
Haynes & Boone LLP
1221 McKinney St #2100
Houston TX 77010
Tel: 713 547-2000
Fax: 713 236-5633
E-mail: blaine.bates@haynesboone.com

Areas of Practice
* Bankruptcy and Business Restructuring
* Energy
* Chapter 11 Trustee and Examiner
* Companies Facing Environmental Challenges
* Creditors Committee and Equity Committee
* Cross-Border and International Insolvencies
* Debtor-in-Possession Lender
* Energy and Petrochemical Industry
* Indenture Trustees, Successor Trustees and Secured Creditors
* Unsecured Creditor
* Airline Reorganization

Blaine Bates, who is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification, is in the Bankruptcy and Business Restructuring Practice Group of Haynes and Boone. From 1994-1996 Mr. Bates served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert C. Jones, Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Nevada and member of the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (1986-1999).

Blaine has a nationwide practice focused in the areas of bankruptcy law, including representation of Chapter 11 corporate debtors, secured creditors, unsecured creditors committees and bankruptcy trustees.