Bio

Adam Rogoff provides senior corporate governance advice to boards and C-level executive management in all aspects of restructuring, whether in court or out of court, and also represents significant creditor and other interests in complex restructuring matters. In particular, Adam counsels and represents a diverse range of corporate debtors, directors and sponsors; official and ad hoc creditors’ committees; secured creditors, including debtor-in-possession financing lenders; distressed asset purchasers; and other significant parties in complex transactional, litigation, corporate governance and advisory matters relating to restructuring, Chapter 11 bankruptcy, “prepackaged” Chapter 11 cases and out-of-court workouts. Adam is a leading adviser to distressed companies, including directors and sponsors. He has successfully guided companies through nonbankruptcy restructurings. He has also served as lead debtor’s counsel in numerous cases in courts throughout the United States, including Delaware, New Jersey, Michigan, Virginia and New York. His company-side clients include health care providers, including acute care hospitals and skilled nursing providers; consumer products companies; manufacturers, notably in steel, alcohol and metals mining; international shippers, including dry bulk and tankers; national retailers; and service providers, particularly in the airline and hotel industries. Adam’s current out of court company representations include advising a large operator of international franchised quick service restaurants. He is also independent counsel to the board of directors of Cineworld Group Plc in its chapter 11 case. He previously represented a large New York City acute-care, community-based teaching hospital (at the forefront of New York’s COVID-19 response) in its complex financial and operational nonbankruptcy restructuring. Adam’s other prior debtor work includes representing Constellation Enterprises and its subsidiaries (Jorgensen Forge, Commercial Metals, Zero Manufacturing and Columbus Steel Co.) in their Chapter 11 cases, involving going concern sales of the majority of the debtors’ businesses to a group of the debtors’ secured noteholders. Adam also represented St. Vincent’s Hospital, the historic New York City acute-care hospital, and related entities, including the nursing and rehabilitation homes and the behavioral health hospital, as debtors in possession in their Chapter 11 cases; and advised Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. and 57 affiliates in their contested prepackaged Chapter 11 cases, in which the company successfully converted over $1.2 billion of secured and unsecured debt into equity, raised $100 million of new equity and restructured two other secured term loan facilities. Some of his other prior debtor engagements include Targus (consumer products), General Maritime Corp. and related entities (shipping), Bayonne Medical Center (hospital/health care); Lodgian Inc. (hotels/hospitality), Casual Male Corp. (retail), Bradlees Stores Inc. (retail), Just For Feet Inc. (retail), Best Products Co. Inc. (retail), R.H. Macy & Co. (retail), The Grand Union Co. (supermarket), G. Heileman Brewing Co. Inc. (manufacturing), Metallurg Inc. (mining), The Drexel Burnham Lambert Group Inc. (financial services) and Ionosphere Clubs Inc. (Eastern Airlines). Adam also has represented the official unsecured creditors’ committees in some of the largest and most well-known bankruptcies in the country, including the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Stanadyne/PurePower Technologies, Eagle Hospitality (REIT), Ruby Tuesday Inc., California Pizza Kitchen Inc., Forever 21, Toys “R” Us, NII Holdings Inc. (an international telecommunications company and a leading provider of mobile communication services operating under the Nextel brand in Latin America), the Patriot Coal Corp., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC cases, and the Committee of Ad Hoc Unsecured Creditors of K’s Merchandise Mart in an out-of-court restructuring. His work also involves representing key parties in interest, including secured, undersecured and unsecured creditors, as well as debtor-in-possession lenders, including in bankruptcy litigation. His more notable representations include two large automotive manufacturers, Subaru Corp. and Mazda Corp., in connection with the global restructuring of Takata Corp. and its affiliates; the Renco Group, the equity owner and control group, in connection with the Chapter 11 restructuring of WCI Steel Inc.; and the State of Vermont Department of Public Service, as regulator of FairPoint Communications, in all aspects of the utilities’ Chapter 11 cases. He also represented interested parties in the bankruptcies of American Business Financial Services, DVI Inc., Wilsons – The Leather Experts (an out-of-court restructuring), Renaissance Cosmetics Inc., The Wiz, Plymouth Lamston Stores Corp., Sage-Dey Inc., Coleco Industries Inc. and Edgell Communications Inc. Adam has successfully represented various real estate or “hard money lenders” in single asset real estate cases in New York City in which, on behalf of his clients, the lenders successfully prosecuted competing Chapter 11 plans for the sale of the underlying collateral. This includes successfully obtaining the appointment of a Chapter 11 Trustee for “cause” (based on, among other things, fraud and dishonesty) for The Williamsburg Hotel. Adam also advises and represents purchasers of substantially all of a Chapter 11 debtor’s assets. He represented the acquirer of the assets of Airways Inc., MobileAira (a subsidiary of Delphi), Norstan Apparel, Jacobson Stores, Today’s Man and Filene’s Basement. He has also been involved in extensive distressed real estate acquisitions, including well-known matters such as Service Merchandise. Among his other noteworthy work over the course of his career, Adam was part of the litigation team that defended Merrill Lynch & Co. and affiliates against significant litigation claims brought in the landmark Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy case filed by Orange County, CA. He also has extensive experience under the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA), including representing the SIPA trustee in the SIPA liquidation of Stratton Oakmont Inc. (the brokerage firm featured in “The Wolf of Wall Street”). In addition to his representation of U.S.-based clients, Adam also has substantial international experience, representing foreign representatives in ancillary proceedings, including the trustee in In re Terence R. Ramsden, a high-profile personal insolvency in the United Kingdom that involved investigating and recovering assets being sheltered in the United States, and the administrators in TXU Europe. He maintains a particular focus on international financial restructuring, and his clients have included Goldman Sachs (Japan), The World Bank and the government of Slovakia. Chambers USA has recognized Adam as a leading practitioner in bankruptcy and corporate restructuring, quoting sources who say, “He is one of the smartest guys from a technical standpoint. He’s a specialist in work related to our sector, which is a very busy area. He is also very aware of potential areas of risk” (2020). He is not only “well trained and very competent” but also “very effective at getting things done” — “a bulldog [who] fights issues well when needed” (2014) and who possesses a “really impressive level of commitment and intelligence” (2015). His outstanding record led Global Insolvency & Restructuring Review to name him one of its “Top 40 Under 40” global insolvency practitioners in 2000. He has been listed multiple times in both Chambers and Legal 500 and named among Leading U.S. Bankruptcy and Restructuring Lawyers by Lawdragon 500 (2021, 2022). Adam has contributed extensively to the most important publications in the area of bankruptcy and corporate restructuring. He has served as a member of the LexisNexis Advisory Board. He also assisted in the development of the Collier Guide to Chapter 11, in which he authored the chapter on hospital and health care businesses in Chapter 11. This Guide has now been merged with the Collier Bankruptcy Practice Guide. He is the general editor and co-author of the Collier International Business Insolvency Guide, serves as a contributing author to Collier on Bankruptcy and Collier Bankruptcy Manual, and is an editorial board member of and frequent contributor to The Bankruptcy Strategist. He is on the advisory board of and a regular contributor to Law360’s expert series on bankruptcy matters. In 2005, he received the Burton Award for Legal Writing for his co-authored article in the New York Law Journal, “China Takes Active Steps Towards Reform.”