THE BANKRUPTCY PRACTICE

Barry Glaser, Mike Slattery and Tom Kelch are L&K’s bankruptcy team. Each of them has over 35 years practice experience.

Mike and Tom currently represent an unofficial committee of California municipal entities in the PG&E bankruptcy case. Barry represents a number of individual counties as creditors in that case. Each of them has represented both bankruptcy debtors and creditors.

On the creditors’ side, the team has litigated motions for relief from stay, objected to the treatment of creditors’ claims and landlord’s leases in bankruptcy reorganization plans (in both Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 cases), and defended actions to recover allegedly preferential payments and objections to claims. Each has represented potential purchasers of assets from a bankruptcy estate.

Barry has represented the County of Los Angeles in several significant Chapter11 cases including the bankruptcies of Johns Manville (asbestos exposure damages claims), a mental health care provider, and a large customer of the Department of Water and Power. He also represents and, has in the past represented, San Bernardino County, Placer County, Napa County, and Contra Costa County and San Diego County in many bankruptcy related matters. Barry also represented the County of San Luis Obispo in the Chapter 9 bankruptcy of one of its service districts. Barry and Mike both represented creditors in the Orange County Chapter 9 case.

Tom has represented debtors, creditors, creditors' committees and asset purchasers in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, including representing major creditors in cases like Enron, the first PG&E case and Mirant Energy. Tom also taught bankruptcy law for many years at Whittier Law School. He and Mike co-authored a treatise—REAL PROPERTY ISSUES IN BANKRUPTCY—as well as a law journal article on waivers of bankruptcy privileges. On their own, Tom and Mike have published articles on bankruptcy, corporate and commercial law. Tom, Barry and Mike have spoken on bankruptcy law at conferences of the County Counsels’ Association and other legal organizations.

Our experienced team has handled almost all of the types of disputes that are part of a bankruptcy case. They do the work themselves, hands on, and without tiers of junior lawyers. The team provides our clients with both careful and cost-effective advice. We have no problem providing an up-front estimate of the cost of our service and with our clients holding us to our estimates. We are willing to work under alternative billing arrangements such as fixed or capped fees for a project.