My approach to prompt, efficient debt restructure has essentially eight elements:

• Organize knowledge of facts about debt obligations, asset values, and cash flows
• Understand fiduciary duties and restructure principles
• Formulate a fair plan and the financial justification for it
• Sell it to as many creditors as possible in negotiations
• Force it on unreasonable holdouts in a Chapter 11 case (or other adjudicative proceedings) completed in less than 120 days
• Keep control of the case by willingness to try adequate protection and fair and equitable issues
• Finish the case promptly and efficiently
• Give releases and exculpations to debtor leaders who have done their duty

This approach is premised on willingness to try adequate protection and fair and equitable issues. I was lead trial counsel for these issues in cases where billions of dollars were at stake, including Continental Airlines, Yukos Oil, Metals USA and Xacur. Very few bankruptcy lawyers have as much experience trying these issues. See About.

I can help company officers understand this approach through a Preliminary Assessment of a Prompt, Efficient Debt Restructure. They can start by using a Template I developed to organize what they already know about their debt obligations, asset values, and cash flows.

They can learn about general fiduciary duties in debt restructure, and the meaning of core restructure concepts including best interests of creditors, fair and equitable, and feasible.

From this, they can (i) develop views about major issues such as (a) the prospects for improving cash flow from business operations, (b) the value of the going concern and (c) the prospects for old shareholders; and (ii) understand what general kinds of debt restructure plans could be done.

With this knowledge, they will know how to interview excellent restructure lawyers, financial advisors, and investment bankers, assess their approaches, and choose who they think best to help them lead a debt restructure.

They can then work with those professionals to (i) develop a fair plan and the business justification for it, (ii) sell that plan in negotiations to as many creditor groups as possible, and (iii) if necessary, force it on unreasonable holdouts in a Chapter 11 case completed efficiently in less than the Bankruptcy Code’s 120-day exclusive period, substantially lowering the cost of the Chapter 11 case.

This approach helps officers and directors carry out their fiduciary duties to try to make their company more valuable and allocate that value fairly among creditors and shareholders, justifying a release at the end of the process. It is described in greater detail in About.

This approach works well for a company headquartered in Houston, Argentina, Greece, France, Australia, or England.

A similar approach works for governments at the municipal, state, or sovereign level.

I developed this approach during 40 years with Sidley & Austin, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and Norton Rose Fulbright, where I worked with many smart people restructuring billions of dollars of debt. I was lead trial counsel in bankruptcy cases for a major airline, a major steel service center company, a major Russian oil company, a cross-border involuntary bankruptcy, and a California municipality. During this time, I became a member of the American College of Bankruptcy and International Insolvency Institute. See ZACK CLEMENT’S RESUME.

Over 250,000 people have jobs in companies and governments whose debt I helped restructure. My ambition is to get that number over 1,000,000 by (i) helping clients understand this approach through a Preliminary Assessment and use it in courts willing to conduct the trials needed to move cases along promptly and efficiently, and (ii) helping lawyers try adequate protection, fair and equitable and other difficult bankruptcy issues.

I would be happy to discuss any of these issues.

Zack Clement