Robert J. Labate

Robert J. Labate is an attorney in Holland & Knight’s Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights group. He focuses his practice on representing financial institutions, secured lenders and creditors in major cases around the country, particularly with respect to the real estate, energy and transportation sectors. He also advises real estate, banks and corporate clients with respect to issues arising in connection with restructuring, bankruptcy and receiverships.

Mr. Labate is an Advisory Board member of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), Southwest, and regularly writes and speaks on bankruptcy issues.

Between 2007 and 2014, Mr. Labate was an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University College of Law, where he taught "Corporate Workouts and Restructuring." Since 2010, he has co-authored chapters in the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education practice guide on special bankruptcy and restructuring issue concerning real estate and land use law.

Recent engagements by Mr. Labate in connection with his Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors' Rights Practice include representation of a wide range of clients on a breadth of matters, including:

• Working with six law school professors from Columbia University, University of Chicago, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California, and with a team of Holland & Knight attorneys, prepared an amici curiae brief filing in the U.S. Supreme Court in Husky International Electronics, Inc. v. Ritz; the Supreme Court reversed the opinion of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals 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 Bankruptcy Code
• Representing Blue Tee Corp. as part of a settlement of $1.6 billion in environmental liability claims against Peabody Energy Corp. in its Chapter 11 (Case No. 16-42529-399 Bankruptcy Court Eastern District of Missouri), the largest coal producer bankruptcy in U.S. history
• Representing individuals and companies in mediation with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding resolution of more than $1 billion in governmental claims for 18 remediation sites to obtain a settlement with the DOJ, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), six states and seven Native American Tribes without the need of a bankruptcy filing – a result rarely obtained
• Representing a significant investor group in connection with the restructuring of high-end hotel and commercial real estate projects developed and managed by a major Los Angeles-based real estate management company that recently appointed a chief restructuring officer
• Representing the Jicarilla Apache Nation in opposition to attempts by the debtor to assume operating rights for oil and gas wells located on Tribal land; re Platinum Oil Properties, LLC, Case No. 09-10832, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, D. N.M.
• Representing the purchaser in the $53.5 million acquisition of a 50-story senior residential tower located in the Water Tower district of Chicago; In re The Clare at Water Tower, Case No. 11-46151, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Ill.
• Representing the debtor-in-possession lender to the debtor that owned a continuing care retirement community consisting of 154 residential apartments, 10 cottage units and a 33-unit licensed assisted living facility; re Clare Oaks, Case No. 11-48903, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Ill.
• Representing the Hinsdale Bank & Trust Co., as pre-petition and debtor-in-possession lender to continuing care retirement community debtor in which substantially all of debtor's assets were sold pursuant to a 363 sale; re Fairview Ministries, Inc., Case No. 11 B 04386, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.D. Ill.
• Providing out-of-court representation of Opus Northwest LLC, a real estate development company, in the restructuring of $300 million in participant bank obligations
• Representing land investment companies, created to own and develop parcels of real estate, in connection with resolution of claims arising from municipal limited obligation bonds issued for the purpose of financing improvements, paying off existing parcel assessment and to pay certain incidental costs
• Representing one of the largest China-based aircraft financing companies in connection with claims asserted by the trustee appointed in the Zetta Jet USA and Zetta Jet Pte Chapter 7 cases (pending in the Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California) in connection with leased and ordered aircraft
• Representing a major financial institution in connection with the ongoing consensual restructuring of a number of ESOP credit facilities
• Representing Cortland Capital Market Services LLC as administrative agent and collateral agent for itself and the Prepetition and Postpetition Lenders in a number of major Chapter 11 cases and in acquisition of significant intellectual property (IP) assets in the AlphaMetrix Federal Receivership filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• Representing the primary secured lender to the producer of 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
• Representing an Alaskan Tribally-owned corporate group regarding oil exploration and production equipment in connection with restructuring of its secured and long-term debt
• Representing the petitioning creditors which successfully commenced an involuntary case filed in the Central District of California against Layfield & Barrett LLP, a law firm accused of failing to pay millions in settlement proceeds to its clients

Additionally, Mr. Labate has served as Holland & Knight's Chicago office Public and Charitable Service Committee chair, supervising dozens of pro bono and community service representations and projects in the Chicago metropolitan community.