Bankruptcy Trustee Representation

Thomas H. Curran Associates represents bankruptcy trustees as special litigation and investigatory counsel appointed under section 327 of the Bankruptcy Code. The duties of bankruptcy trustees and their general counsel involve setting and examining the debtor at the initial creditors meeting, ensuring that a debtor satisfies his disclosure requirements, administering creditor claims and occasionally conducting a generalized investigation of the debtor’s business and financial affairs, objecting to a debtor’s discharge and ultimately administering the estate. By contrast, Thomas H. Curran Associates represents trustees as special counsel to investigate and pursue turnover, avoidance and recovery actions against third parties, frequently the debtor’s insider family members and business entities, under bankruptcy code sections 542, 544, 548, 550 and other applicable domestic and foreign law. Thomas H. Curran Associates’s goal is to aggressively pursue monetary recoveries for the benefit of the bankruptcy estate wherever its investigations might take it.

In connection with its bankruptcy trustee representation practice, Thomas H. Curran Associates utilizes a number of tools available to trustees and bankruptcy litigators under the Bankruptcy Code, including Rule 2004 discovery, third party subpoenas and, most importantly, decades of collective experience aggressively investigating the business and financial affairs of debtors and their insiders. The Firms’ attorneys have deep and broad experience conducting fulsome investigations of debtors, even when their pre-petition business and financial activities stretch beyond the jurisdiction in which they filed for bankruptcy protection. By way of example, the Firm’s attorneys have investigated and pursued debtors in Florida, New York, Nevada, Utah, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire domestically, and beyond that, to the UK, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, Panama and Cyprus among other domestic and foreign jurisdictions. Where necessary, Thomas H. Curran Associates also oversees foreign local counsel specially retained by the bankruptcy trustee to aid its investigations and/or to serve as a trustee’s foreign representative under the provisions of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency or its local equivalents.

Similar to its role as special counsel to Chapter 7 trustees, the Firm’s attorneys have the knowledge and experience serve as special counsel to Chapter 11 trustees, who oversee debtors in possession and often require special counsel to investigate potential causes of action against a Chapter 11 debtor’s current and former insiders and principals.

Regardless of the jurisdiction or bankruptcy context, Thomas H. Curran Associates’s broad and deep experience and aggressive litigation approach, enables the Firm to provide trustees with valuable representation that increases the likelihood of a recovery for the estate. Finally, unlike other law firms, the Firm’s capabilities and business model allow it to serve as special counsel despite the fact that bankruptcy trustees almost always serve in no asset-estates and without the availability of estate financing, making Thomas H. Curran Associates a trusted and indispensable partner to bankruptcy trustees.