Fraud and the Implications for Claims Trading and Plans

Jennifer Taylor is a partner in O’Melveny’s corporate finance and restructuring practice groups. She is also a member of O’Melveny’s Fintech and Emerging Technologies industry groups. Jennifer has deep experience negotiating debt financing transactions of all varieties, including financings for leveraged buyouts, secured and unsecured working capital facilities, venture debt facilities, and other structured financings, including mezzanine loans, high yield, and DIP financing for debtors in bankruptcy.

In the restructuring realm, Jennifer represents clients in connection with workout transactions and Chapter 11 reorganizations. She also regularly represents investors in connection with distressed acquisitions of businesses and debt.

Jennifer was recently selected as a member of ABI’s 40 under 40 Program (2019). Jennifer has been recognized by Legal 500 (2017) and recognized as a “Rising Star” by Law360 (2016) and the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (2014).

Scott has a wealth of experience navigating complex insolvency issues and has been involved in some of the largest corporate restructuring cases in the country. He has represented the interests of creditors' committees, investor groups, financial institutions, and debtors in numerous restructuring and insolvency proceedings in bankruptcy courts. Scott has advised clients on complex issues, including the auction and sale of debtor assets, setoff rights, preference and fraudulent transfer liability issues, substantive consolidation, and employee retention programs. He has also represented parties in connection with negotiations over the purchase and sale of claims in insolvency proceedings.

Most recently, Scott represented customers and creditors in the multibillion-dollar liquidations of Lehman Brothers and MF Global, which involved novel and complex issues concerning the intersection between bankruptcy law applicable in Chapter 11 cases and the law governing the liquidation of business entities under the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 (SIPA).

Scott has lectured on numerous bankruptcy- and insolvency-related issues for industry credit groups and professional organizations across the country, discussing topics including trends in Chapter 11 cases, preference liability issues, litigation tactics in insolvency proceedings, the intersection between the Bankruptcy Code and the Uniform Commercial Code, and obligations relating to service on creditors' committees. He is a frequent contributor to periodicals published by the National Association of Credit Management and the American Bankruptcy Institute on topics ranging from the "safe harbor" provisions of the Bankruptcy Code to emerging issues concerning the purchase and sale of bankruptcy claims.

Scott Williams focuses his practice on bankruptcy, reorganization and creditors' rights and commercial litigation. He represents creditors and debtors in complex bankruptcy matters and has substantial experience in handling complex commercial litigation cases. In addition, Scott’s experience extends to litigation and transactional work in a number of areas including: automotive, energy, healthcare and manufacturing sectors.

Scott is active in the Bankruptcy Bar on both local and national levels. He was a contributing editor to Collier on Bankruptcy, and co-authored Bankruptcy Litigation Manual: What Civil Litigators Need to Know. (American Bankruptcy Institute, 2007). In 2007, Scott became the first practicing attorney from Alabama to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Bankruptcy Institute ("ABI") and is currently a member of the Executive Committee. He also currently serves as Co-Chair of the ABI Litigation Skills Symposium and is a frequent lecturer and author on bankruptcy and commercial law topics.

Prior to entering private practice, Scott served as counsel within several administrative units within the U.S. Government. He served as Counsel to U.S. SenatorHowell T. Heflin on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts and Administrative Practice (1988-1992), and then served as Legislative Liaison to the Federal Courts Study Committee (1989-1990). Scott played a significant role in drafting the United States Bankruptcy Code Amendments enacted in 1995, while serving as Counsel to Senator Heflin.

Mr. Williams received his B.A. from the University of Illinois in 1985 and his J.D. from the University of Alabama in 1988, where he was an editor of the Journal of the Legal Profession.

Hon. Michelle M. Harner is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, appointed in 2017.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, she was the Francis King Carey Professor of Law and the Director of the Business Law Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where she taught courses in bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, business associations, business planning, corporate finance and the legal profession. Judge Harner lectured frequently during her academic career on various topics involving corporate governance, financially distressed entities, risk management and related legal issues. Her academic scholarship is widely published, with her publications appearing in, among others, the Vanderbilt Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Fordham Law Review (reprinted in Corporate Practice Commentator), Washington & Lee Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, University of Illinois Law Review, Arizona Law Review (reprinted in Corporate Practice Commentator) and Florida Law Review.

Judge Harner has served as the Associate Reporter to the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the Reporter to the ABI Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, and a member of the Dodd-Frank Study Working Group for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. She also served as the Robert M. Zinman ABI Resident Scholar for the fall of 2015. Judge Harner is an elected member of the American Law Institute and Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. She previously was in private practice in business restructuring, insolvency, bankruptcy and related transactional fields, most recently as a partner at the Chicago office of the international law firm Jones Day.

Judge Harner received her B.A. cum laude from Boston College in 1992 and her J.D. summa cum laude from The Ohio State University College of Law in 1995.