Richard A. Bixter Jr.
Partner
Overview
Rick Bixter is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Chicago office and a member of the Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors' Rights Practice Group. Mr. Bixter's practice focuses on advising parties involved in complex commercial insolvency and restructuring proceedings, insolvency-related litigation and transactional matters, as well as structuring transactions in anticipation of potential future insolvency events.
Mr. Bixter represents creditors, lenders, debtors and court-appointed trustees, receivers and liquidators in complex corporate restructurings and liquidations, including Chapter 11 and Chapter 15 cases, non-bankruptcy insolvency proceedings such as receiverships, as well as under consensual, out-of-court "workout" agreements. He has extensive litigation experience in connection with disputes involving financial fraud and financially distressed companies.
Throughout his career, Mr. Bixter has represented clients in numerous state and federal actions throughout the country in connection with all types of corporate malfeasance claims and clawback actions on behalf of creditors and court-appointed fiduciaries. He previously served as an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University College of Law, where he has taught a course titled "Corporate Workouts and Restructuring."
In addition, Mr. Bixter represents creditors and financial institutions, as well as court-appointed fiduciaries, in major restructurings and bankruptcy cases throughout the U.S., particularly with respect to the finance, energy, technology, maritime and entertainment sectors. He also advises real estate and corporate clients on issues arising in connection with restructuring, bankruptcy and receiverships.
Mr. Bixter has experience in all aspects of the litigation process and routinely acts as counsel on litigation, judgment enforcement, fraud, cross-border insolvency, asset tracing and asset recovery matters.
Representative Experience
- Represented a holder of $500 million in environmental remediation claims in Peabody Energy Corporation's Chapter 11 case filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and participated in extensive negotiations with the debtor and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the settlement of claims against Peabody and its subsidiary, Gold Fields Mining LLC
- Represented building owners in connection with the court-supervised receivership of two of Rhode Island's largest long-term care rehabilitation centers, and successfully negotiated a complex settlement with the receiver and the sale of the building in a manner that ensured payment to the building's equity owners
- Served as U.S. counsel for the joint official liquidators of Platinum Partners, a purported billion-dollar hedge fund, appointed by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, in connection with the company's Chapter 15 bankruptcy pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- Represented creditors in the insurance rehabilitation proceedings for two of the most significant insurance insolvency proceedings of the past several years, PHL Insurance and Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania
- Represented the Norwegian liquidators of Norske Skogindustrier ASA, the largest paper manufacturing company in the world prior to its bankruptcy filing in Norway
- Represented the secured lender for Implant Sciences Corporation, a defense and security contractor, in connection with the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware Bankruptcy Court and the sale of the company's assets for more than $100 million
- Represented the agent for post-petition debtor-in-possession financing in a number of Chapter 11 cases filed in Delaware and New York bankruptcy courts
- Represented the primary lender to the production company for more than 60 television series distributed throughout the United States and Canada in connection with the producer's bankruptcy case filed in Canada under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act
- Advised on the acquisition of intellectual property (IP) and licenses in AlphaMetrix's federal receivership filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Represented the pre- and post-petition lender in Marbles Holding Inc., which owned and operated dozens of retail stores nationwide, in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case filed in the Northern District of Illinois
- Represented several Chicago-area municipalities in connection with bankruptcy cases filed in the Northern District of Illinois
- Contributed to a team of Holland & Knight attorneys that prepared and submitted an amici curiae brief in U.S. Supreme Court in Husky International Electronics, Inc. v. Ritz on behalf of six bankruptcy law school professors from Columbia University, University of Chicago, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania and University of Southern California; the Supreme Court reversed the opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on March 1, 2016, on grounds advocated by the Holland & Knight team regarding the appropriate definition of the term "actual fraud" in the context of "strong arm" powers created by the U.S. Bankruptcy Code
- Represented numerous foreign liquidators, trustees and court-appointed fiduciaries in connection with litigation, asset investigation and asset recovery matters throughout the U.S. and as Chapter 15 bankruptcy counsel
- Represented numerous judgment creditors in connection with post-judgment enforcement and discovery, as well as asset recovery
- Represented corporate entities and creditors in commercial litigation involving claims of corporate malfeasance, including claims of fraudulent transfers, civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, fraud, conversion and embezzlement
- Obtained a favorable jury verdict on behalf of joint official liquidators of Platinum Partners, following a two-week trial against the founder of Platinum Partners
- Obtained numerous favorable judicial decisions in insolvency-related litigation that were matters of first impression, including issues such as the U.S. Bankruptcy Code's safe harbor as applied to avoidance actions governed by foreign law, the standard for aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty claims under Delaware law, the standing of foreign-based liquidators to utilize Chapter 15 bankruptcy to seek discovery within the U.S. and the processes by which U.S.-based litigants may seek discovery outside the U.S.
Credentials
- Purdue University, B.A., Communications
- Chicago-Kent College of Law, J.D.
- Illinois
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. Supreme Court
- American Bankruptcy Institute, Young & New Member Leadership Committee, 2014-2018
- Chicago Bar Foundation, 2023-Present
- American Bankruptcy Institute, 2014-Present
- Holland & Knight Pro Bono All-Star, 2020
- ABA Military Pro Bono Project Outstanding Services Award, 2014
