Jonathan P. Friedland

Tel

312.476.7528

Fax

312.346.8434

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Jonathan Friedland leads the firm’s Restructuring & Insolvency Service Group.

He has extensive experience in guiding companies and their constituents through a variety of challenging situations, with an emphasis on out-of-court workouts and chapter 11 proceedings. He also provides general legal counsel to healthy companies and their principals.

The wide range of issues he advises clients on include: fiduciary duties; structuring issues; credit negotiations; and buy/sell transactions. His litigation practice emphasizes representing business owners in disputes and bankruptcy litigation including preference, fraudulent conveyance, equitable subordination, substantive consolidation, and confirmation issues. Jonathan also represents several private equity funds on the buy-side, assignees, and liquidating trusts.

Jonathan’s Chapter 11 debtor representations have included: Hydraulic Technologies, Inc.; Musicland Corporation; HomeLife Corporation; Polymer Group, Inc.; and Globe Holdings, Inc. His chapter 11 committee representations have included InGEAR Corporation; Universal Food & Beverage, Inc; and Capital Engineering & Manufacturing Company.

Capital Engineering is a good example of the creativity and tenacity Jonathan brings to his clients’ matters. The case was filed as a result of a shareholder dispute and then lingered for nearly a year. The dissident shareholders sought to convert the case to Chapter 7. The Debtor sought to sell the assets to insiders. Jonathan helped the client organize an informal committee of creditors. He then persuaded the Office of the United States Trustee to appoint an official committee and to then appoint the members of the unofficial committee to be the members of the official committee. Less than two months after Mr. Friedland got involved in the matter, there was a successful sale and subsequent 100% distribution to non-insider unsecured creditors, without the cost or time delay of a Chapter 11 plan.

Jonathan is currently working on two books, both of which will be published by West in the next year. He is a frequent speaker and writer on the areas of law in which he practices, and is as an Adjunct Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Jonathan was also a 2006 Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law Visiting Professor of Business Law at The University of Tennessee College of Law. He has also been profiled, interviewed, and/or quoted in publications such as Bankruptcy Court Decisions; Daily Bankruptcy Review Small Cap; Daily Deal and Dow Jones’ LBO Wire.

Memberships

• American Bankruptcy Institute- Board of Directors
• The Corporate Counselor - Editorial Board
• American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review - Advisory Board
• Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice- Principal Contributing Editor
• American Bankruptcy Institute Journal - Co-Executive Editor

 

Honors & Awards

• AV Rated, Martindale-Hubbell
• Super Lawyer - Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights, Illinois Super Lawyers
• Rated “Superb” (10 out of 10) by the attorney rating service, AVVO
• Leading Lawyers Network - Bankruptcy & Workout Law:  Commercial; Creditor's Rights/Commercial Collections Law