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About Lawrence V. Gelber
Lawrence V. Gelber is a partner in the Business Reorganization group of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, practicing in the areas of distressed M&A and financing, corporate restructuring, creditors’ rights, debt and claims trading, and prime brokerage insolvency/counterparty risk, with a focus on representation of investment funds and other financial institutions in distressed situations. His extensive experience in out of court restructurings and Chapter 11 cases includes his representation of clients as debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, lenders, investors and acquirers. He is a regular contributor to numerous trade publications, including Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice, The Bankruptcy Strategist, Bankruptcy Law 360 and Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser, and a frequent speaker at industry conferences and seminars. He received his B.A. from Tufts University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Articles by Lawrence V. Gelber
Investing in Bankruptcy Claims as a Cash Investment
Investing in bankruptcy claims can be very profitable or can result in a significant, or even total, loss. Bankruptcy claims are a creditor’s right to payment from a debtor. A bankruptcy claim can be secured by the debtor’s property or can be unsecured. Claims are classified in chapter 11 plans of reorganization according to their […]
Location, Location, Location – Where to File Bankruptcy
The Hows and Whys of Which Bankruptcy Venue to Choose Are you confused where to file bankruptcy? Do you wonder why you should file a bankruptcy case here instead of there? An entity, and more so a group of entities, may be legally permitted to file for bankruptcy in any one of a number of […]
How Unsecured Creditors Push Ahead of Lenders Who in Fact Invested, Part III – Equitable Subordination vs. Recharacterization
In part one of our series on recharacterization, we discussed the elements of judicial recharacterization of loans as equity interests.[i] In part two of the series, we considered how debtors can “claw back” putative “loans” that they may have repaid years earlier because the “loans” were in fact equity investments and their repayment was invalid.[ii] […]
How Unsecured Creditors Push Ahead of Lenders Who in Fact Invested, Part II – Clawback of “Loan Repayments”
In our last article[i], we discussed the judicial recharacterization of loans as equity interests. As we described, a court will recharacterize a lender’s debt claim as equity if it determines the “loan” actually was intended to be, and was treated by the parties as, an equity investment. Recharacterization is a powerful tool for creditors and […]
How Unsecured Creditors Push Ahead of Lenders Who in Fact Invested, Part I – What is Recharacterization in Bankruptcy?
In bankruptcy, a debt claim has a higher priority than an equity interest (or share) in the debtor company, and should be (and ordinarily is) paid in full before equityholders receive any distribution from the debtor. Better, then, to acquire or hold a debt claim — an elegant swan — than to hold an equity […]
Ousting the Debtor in Possession: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Replacing a Debtor’s Management with a Chapter 11 Trustee
The mere act of filing a chapter 11 bankruptcy petition significantly alters the relationship between a debtor and its creditors, yet, perhaps surprisingly, the filing does not automatically trigger removal of the very management team that led (or maybe drove) the debtor into bankruptcy in the first place. Why? Because, in enacting the Bankruptcy Code, […]