William H. Schrag

Practices

• Business Restructuring, Creditors' Rights & Bankruptcy

Professional Experience

Bill is a partner in the Business Restructuring, Creditors' Rights & Bankruptcy group. With more than 30 years of experience, he focuses his practice in the areas of bankruptcy, commercial litigation and creditors' rights. Bill represents clients in domestic and international bankruptcy litigation, workouts, corporate reorganization and related matters. He represents major financial institutions, including bank lenders and agents, as well as manufacturers and institutional creditors, official creditors' committees, Chapter 11 trustees, purchasers of estate assets and court-appointed examiners in U.S. and cross-border bankruptcy proceedings. Bill also represents commercial lenders in state and federal courts in actions to enforce creditors' rights and to defend against lender liability claims.

Bill is admitted to practice in the state of New York, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Education

• Brooklyn Law School, J.D., 1978
• George Washington University, B.A., 1975, Phi Beta Kappa

• Representing major creditor in Eastman Kodak Company (Bankr. S.D.N.Y).
• Representing indenture trustee of two issuances of public debt of Sino-Forest Corporation, aggregating $1 billion, in connection with insolvency proceedings pending in Canada.
• Representing agent bank on $770 million secured credit facility involving 24 lenders in Freedom Communications Holdings, Inc. and 49 of its affiliates (Bankr. Del.).
• Representing largest Mexican airline in its Chapter 15 bankruptcy case in the United States involving more than $1 billion in debt (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.).
• Representing largest secured creditor in ROL Manufacturing (Canada) Ltd., involving cross-border proceedings in both Canada and the United States (Bankr. S.D. Ohio).
• Representing largest bank creditor in Escada (USA), Inc., individually and as co-chair of the official creditors' committee (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.).
• Representing agent bank in connection with inter-creditor litigation in federal and state courts, arising out of Le-Nature's bankruptcy case and involving claims of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and aiding and abetting liability.
• Representing secured lender in Refco Inc. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) in connection with its $101 million claim. Pursuant to court-approved settlement, secured lender recovered all principal, together with interest and attorneys' fees.
• Representing agent bank on $225 million secured credit facility in Dura Automotive Systems, Inc. (Bankr. Del.).
• Representing largest creditor and target of $27 million complaint in Simplex of New York City bankruptcy case. The litigation settled at less than five cents on the dollar following successful mediation.
• Representing fee examiner in Granite Partners, L.P. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) regarding adequacy of disclosure made by three professional firms to bankruptcy court. The fee examiner's report served as the basis for a published decision on disinterestedness in bankruptcy.
• Representing Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in United Merchants and Manufacturers, Inc. and Victoria Creations, Inc. (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.) comprised of bondholders and trade creditors.
• Representing Chapter 11 trustee of Carl H. Neuman, the operator/seller of the Sarah R. Neuman Nursing Home in Mamaroneck, New York.
• Representing 12-member bank group holding $300 million in secured and unsecured debt in Chapter 11 cases of Zale corporation and affiliates (Bankr. N.D. Tex.).
• Representing global bank in defense of multimillion-dollar preference claim filed by Chapter 7 trustee of Axona International Credit & Commerce, Ltd., a Hong Kong deposit-taking company, in one of the first dual plenary bankruptcy cases filed in the United States (Bankr. S.D.N.Y.).
• Representing lender in defense of multimillion-dollar complaint filed in New York Supreme Court, alleging various breach of contract and tort claims. Case resulted in dismissal of complaint, which was affirmed on appeal.
• Representing various parties in interest in other cases of national significance, including MF Global, Lyondell, Delaco, Enron, Rockefeller Center Properties, Montgomery Ward, London Fog, Commodore, Barney's and Penrod.

• Co-author, "Cross-Border Insolvencies & Chapter 15: Recent U.S. Case Law Determining Whether Foreign Proceeding is Main, Nonmain or Neither" · International Law Practicum, New York State Bar Association, Spring 2010
• Co-author, "Cross-Border Insolvencies & Chapter 15: Recent U.S. Case Law Determining Whether Foreign Proceeding is Main, Nonmain or Neither" · Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law & Practice, October 2008
• Author, "Jurisdictional Power Play: Bankruptcy Court vs. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission", Morgan Lewis Newsletter, Fall 2006
• Contributing author, "2005 Bankruptcy Revisions: Implications for Business and Financial Advisors", AIRA; AICPA, 2005
• Co-author, "Expanding Jurisdiction of U.S. Bankruptcy Courts," · New York Law Journal, January 2005
• Co-author, "Cross-Border Insolvencies, Plenary Cases and Ancillary Proceedings Involving Foreign Debtors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court," · Business Law International, Vol. 5, No. 2, May 2004
• Co-author, "Use of United States Bankruptcy Law in Multinational Insolvencies: The Axona Litigation – Issues, Tactics and Implications for the Future", 9 Bankr. Dev. J. 19, (1992)

• Co-chair and moderator of insolvency panel, New York State Bar Association's International Section Fall Meeting, Panama City, Panama, September 2011
• Panelist, "Towards a Universal Bankruptcy Regime", New York State Bar Association's Global Law Week, May 2011
• Panelist, "Strapped Cities: The State of Chapter 9", Zaretsky Roundtable on Bankruptcy Law, Brooklyn Law School, April 2011
• Panelist, "Too Big to Fail: Bankruptcy & Bailouts", Zaretsky Roundtable on Bankruptcy Law, Brooklyn Law School, March 2010
• Steering committee member and moderator of insolvency panel, New York State Bar Association's International Section Fall Meeting, Singapore, October 2009
• "It's a Small World After All", Annual Conference of Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, June 2009
• Co-chair, First and Second Annual Restructuring and Investing Conferences of Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, Shanghai, China, Sept. 2008/Oct. 2007
• "Extraterritorial Application of the Bankruptcy Code", CLE presentation, June 2007
• "The New Chapter 15", Annual Conference of the International Bar Association, Prague, September 2005
• "Why Professionals Must be Interested in 'Disinterestedness' Under the Bankruptcy Code", CLE presentation, 2005
• "Avoidance Powers Under the Bankruptcy Code: Preferences, Fraudulent Conveyances and Other Transfers", CLE presentation, 2003

• Listed in Best Lawyers for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law, 2012
• Selected for inclusion in New York Magazine for Best Lawyers in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law, 2012
• Selected for inclusion in New York Metro Super Lawyers for Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights, 2008-2011
• Selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers, Corporate Counsel Edition, 2009-2011
• Listed in Avenue magazine's Legal Elite, 2010 and 2011
• AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell