Cautionary Tales in Asset Sales

Chad J. Husnick is a partner in Kirkland & Ellis LLP’s Restructuring Practice Group in Chicago and represents debtors, creditors, equity-holders and other stakeholders in all aspects of corporate restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings. He has represented clients in a variety of industries, including energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, transportation, hospitality and gaming, real estate, retail, automotive and printing. His most recent client representations include Energy Future Holdings Corp., Macy’s, Cirque du Soleil, Neiman Marcus Group, Barney’s New York, Toys“R”Us, Oasis Petroleum, RGN-Group Holdings and Cobalt International Energy.

Most recently, Mr. Husnick was recognized in the 2017 edition of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and was named “Dealmaker of the Year — 2016” by The American Lawyer for his role in the $40 billion restructuring of Energy Future Holdings Corp., as well as “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyer — 2017” by Turnarounds & Workouts. He also is a lecturer in the law at the University of Chicago Law School and a contributing author for Collier on Bankruptcy.

Mr. Husnick received his B.S. in 2001 in political science and behavioral science and law, with distinction, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his J.D. with honors in 2004 from the University of Chicago Law School.

Isley M. Gostin is counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Washington, D.C., and has experience representing clients in all stages of complex litigation and bankruptcy proceedings, including discovery, motions, mediation, trial and appeals. She has litigated seven trials, many cases in the courts of appeals, and three merits cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, focused primarily on bankruptcy issues.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Gostin clerked for Hon. Robert E. Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. She is a 2020 honoree of ABI’s “40 Under 40” class, co-authored ABI’s Quick Evidence Handbook, Second Edition, and currently serves as the Education Director for the ABI’s Litigation Committee.

Ms. Gostin received her B.A. cum laude from Harvard College and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Michael J. Bujold is the associate general counsel for General and Administrative Law in the Executive Office for U.S. Trustees at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He also currently serves as the acting assistant U.S. Trustee (AUST) for the U.S. Trustee Program’s Houston field office.

As associate general counsel, Mr. Bujold provides leadership and guidance on complex administrative issues to both EOUST senior leadership and to U.S. Trustee field offices, oversees all aspects of the USTP Ethics Program, assists the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) in its implementation of policy initiatives. He also manages a broad range of administrative and general law matters on the USTP’s behalf, such as those related to the Privacy Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, the Equal Access to Justice Act and the Department’s Touhy regulations. In addition,he supervises a team of OGC trial attorneys and received an Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service. As Acting AUST, Mr. Bujold manages the administrative and legal operations of the USTP’s Houston field office, including supervision of personnel, the implementation of USTP policies and priorities and enforcement strategies to combat fraud and abuse in the bankruptcy system, and the supervision of private trustees. Prior to becoming associate general counsel, he served as a trial attorney in OGC and focused on chapter 11 proceedings. Before joining OGC in 2014, he served as a trial attorney in the U.S. Trustee’s Riverside field office and clerked for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Mr. Bujold has lectured on bankruptcy retention and compensation, chapter 11 creditor committees and USTP case oversight. He is an active ABI member and a published author in the ABI Journal.

Mr. Bujold received both his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Liz Boydston is a shareholder with Polsinelli PC in Dallas, where she focuses her practice on complex chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, adversary proceedings, fraudulent transfer and preference litigation, ? 363 sales and workouts throughout the U.S. She represents public and private, for-profit and nonprofit hospitals, municipalities, assisted living, retirement and senior housing centers, health care providers, public oil and gas-development companies, refining and fuel-marketing corporations, drilling and exploration companies, financial institutions, and large multinational and multi-subsidiary corporations in complex restructuring and insolvency matters.

Ms. Boydston has Ponzi scheme defense litigation experience and has defended investors in schemes valuing up to $3.6 billion. She also clerked for Chief Bankruptcy Judge Bill Parker in the Eastern District of Texas.

Ms. Boydston is a 2020 honoree of ABI’s “40 Under 40” class won the Turnaround Atlas Award for Private Equity Turnaround for Adeptus Health Bankruptcy in 2018. She also has been listed as a 2014-20 Super Lawyers “Rising Star,” was listed in “Best Lawyers Under 40” for 2019 by D Magazine, was selected for the inaugural Dallas Bar Association WE LEAD (Women Empowered to Lead) program in 2018, and was listed in both “Up-And-Coming 50: Women Texas Rising Stars” and “Up-And-Coming 100: Texas Rising Stars” from 2017-20.

Ms. Boydston received her B.A. magna cum laude from Baylor University and her J.D. cum laude from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.

Joel M. Cohen, a trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor, is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is a member of the Gibson Dunn’s White Collar Defense and Investigations, Securities Litigation, Class Actions and Antitrust Practice Groups. Mr. Cohen has led or participated in 24 civil and criminal trials in federal and state courts. Mr. Cohen is equally comfortable leading confidential investigations, managing crises or advocating in court proceedings. Mr. Cohen’s experience includes all aspects of FCPA/anticorruption issues, insider trading, securities and financial institution litigation, class actions, sanctions, money laundering and asset recovery, with a particular focus on international disputes and discovery.

Mr. Cohen was the prosecutor of Jordan Belfort and Stratton Oakmont, which is the focus of “The Wolf of Wall Street” film by Martin Scorsese. He was an adviser to OECD in connection with the effort to prohibit corruption in international transactions and was the first Department of Justice legal liaison advisor to the French Ministry of Justice. The Am Law Litigation Daily named Mr. Cohen as one of its Litigators of the Week after winning a jury defense verdict in an insider trading case on behalf of Nelson Obus, general partner of Wynnefield Capital.

Mr. Cohen received his bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College, his master’s degree in History from Duke University and his Juris Doctor from Duke University Law School, where he was a moot court champion. He is a member of the bars of New York and Massachusetts.

Mr. Cohen is committed to pro bono work. He serves on the board of or acts as outside counsel to several prominent nonprofit entities, including New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Lawyers Without Borders and Jericho Project. He successfully led a team of Gibson Dunn attorneys in representing all plaintiffs in a high-profile immigration civil rights case (Barrera v. Boughton) in Connecticut federal court, which resulted in the largest settlement in history for such claims, for which Gibson Dunn was awarded the National Legal Aid & Defender Association’s 2010 Beacon of Justice Award, and The New York Times noted the accomplishment in an editorial, and his team received the National Law Journal’s Hot Pro Bono 2012 designation