Mass Tort Chapter 11 Cases Today: Sexual Abuse, Opioid and Asbestos Cases

James I. Stang is a founding partner of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP in Los Angeles and has broad experience in bankruptcy reorganization. He has acted as a chapter 11 trustee and receiver in numerous cases, primarily for car dealerships and real property cases.

Mr. Stang has lectured and written extensively on both bankruptcy and receivership issues. He is representing the official tort committee in the Takata chapter 11 case, involving the largest recall in the history of the U.S. He has also been lead counsel for creditors’ committees in Catholic Church-related bankruptcies, including Spokane, Stockton, Gallup, Davenport, Wilmington, Milwaukee, Fairbanks, Helena, Great Falls and San Diego, and in religious order bankruptcies, including Christian Brothers of Ireland and the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province.

Mr. Stang is a member of the American College of Bankruptcy. He holds an AV-Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, has been named a “Super Lawyer” in the field of Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights every year since 2005 in a peer survey conducted by Law & Politics and the publishers of Los Angeles magazine, and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America. In 2010, the Century City Bar Association named him “Bankruptcy Lawyer of the Year,” and in 2011 he was inducted as a Fellow into the American College of Bankruptcy.

Mr. Stang is admitted to practice in California. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and received his J.D. from Hastings College of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and editor-in-chief of the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review.

Everett J. Cygal is a partner with Schiff Hardin LLP in Chicago and practice group leader of its Insurance and Reinsurance department. He is a trial lawyer who has represented domestic and global insurance and reinsurance companies (cedents and reinsurers) over the last 25 years in complex, high-exposure cases before both trial courts and arbitration panels; his trials have included a variety of property and casualty and life and health issues. Beyond his work for reinsurers, insurance companies call on Mr. Cygal to litigate sophisticated declaratory judgment actions concerning estoppel, lost policies and advertising injury. He is entrusted with complex issues of first impression, including the attempted importation of the continuous trigger theory into molestation coverage cases.

Mr. Cygal has successfully litigated leading cases relating to the Federal Arbitration Act, confidentiality, and the conduct of arbitrators and umpires. Over the years, he has devoted a significant part of his practice to pro bono representations that have included several trials. He was the lead trial lawyer in both a statewide class action concerning the treatment and conditions of civilly committed individuals and a later individual action.

Mr. Cygal is admitted to practice in Illinois and New York, and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois and the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York. He is a current member of the board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union Illinois (ACLU) and previously served nine years on the board of directors of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF).

Mr. Cygal is a member of the AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society (ARIAS•U.S.), American and Chicago Bar Associations, and the Association of Life Insurance Counsel (ALIC). He received his A.B. in 1989 from the University of Chicago and his J.D. cum laude in 1993 from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he was admitted to the Order of the Coif.

Matthew K. Babcock, CPA, CFF, CFE, CIRA is a director with Berkeley Research Group, LLC in Salt Lake City and more than 23 years of experience providing services in bankruptcy, forensic/ investigative accounting and litigation support. Prior to BRG, he worked with LECG LLC, Neilson Elggren LLP, Arthur Andersen, Neilson Elggren Durkin & Co. and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As an honors intern with the FBI, he was assigned to work with the Office of Independent Counsel investigating former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy.

Mr. Babcock has served in numerous bankruptcy and insolvency matters, including court appointments as trustee, receiver, accountant to the trustee, accountant to the liquidating estate manager, accountant to the debtor, financial advisor to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and financial advisor to the Official Committee of Tort Claimants. His experience includes the investigation of alleged insider dealings; investigation and pursuit of preferences, fraudulent transfers and other causes of action; tracing of funds; financial data reconstruction; liquidation and substantive consolidation analyses; plan feasibility analyses; plan preparation; solvency analyses; claims analysis/resolution and liquidation of assets. He also has assisted trustees in operating chapter 11 companies, including analyzing prior and ongoing operations, developing cash-flow projections, budgeting, and managing other day-to-day accounting activity.

Mr. Babcock has experience investigating fraud and mismanagement, including financial statement fraud, Ponzi schemes, embezzlement schemes, check-kiting, bank fraud and bankruptcy fraud. He serves as a volunteer professional faculty member at the University of Utah, assisting in the instruction of the university’s Fraud Examination & Forensic Accounting course. He also has conducted numerous presentations relating to the investigation and analysis of business fraud, financial statement fraud, bankruptcy fraud and other fraud schemes.

Mr. Babcock has provided both civil and criminal litigation support services, including the investigation of fraud and mismanagement, tracing of funds, partner disputes, lost-profit damages, patent-infringement damages, breach of contract, economic analyses and financial record reconstruction. He received his B.S. magna cum laude in accounting and his M.P.A. from Brigham Young University in 1998.

Derek represents Fortune 1000, local, international and other organizations as lead or Delaware counsel in bankruptcy proceedings and litigation on behalf of debtors, creditors, official and ad hoc committees and transactional case constituents.

Derek regularly works with debtors-in-possession (“DIP”) and exit financing lenders, as well as outside and inside counsel, turnaround professionals, crisis management firms, and investment and non-investment bank professionals. His recent client representations include AT&T Inc., General Motors Corporation, Quality Care Properties, Philips International, Viacom Inc., TD Bank, and Nortel Networks.

Derek is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, receiving a B.S. in 1987. He has made the honor, leadership, and discipline that are the hallmarks of that institution the cornerstones of his professional career. In 2016, he was invited to join the 28th Class of Fellows of the American College of Bankruptcy. In 2018, he was presented the Delaware State Bar Association’s Access to Justice Commitment Award, recognizing his sterling commitment to pro bono work throughout his career. In 2011, he was the recipient of the Caleb R. Layton III Service Award, given by the judges of the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts for the District of Delaware to an attorney who personifies the qualities of a federal practitioner: legal acumen, professional decorum, and public service. Derek’s Delaware community activities are frequent and diverse ranging from assisting the Delaware Legal Services Community with fundraising activities, to serving as legal counsel for a variety of indigent clients through Delaware Volunteer Legal Services. He chairs the Morris Nichols pro bono committee and sits on the Firm’s recruiting committee.

He frequently presents before national and Delaware bar associations, bankruptcy organizations and other business and professional audiences. His client and peer recommendations are numerous and have resulted in his recognition by Chambers USA: Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

Hon. Robert D. Drain is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York in White Plains. Since his appointment, he has presided over such chapter 11 cases as Loral, RCN, Cornerstone, Refco, Allegiance Telecom, Delphi, Coudert Brothers, Frontier Airlines, Star Tribune, Reader’s Digest, A&P, Hostess Brands, Christian Brothers and Momentive. He also has presided over the ancillary or plenary cases of Corporacion Durango, Satellites Mexicanas, Parmalat S.p.A. and its affiliated U.S. debtors, Varig S.A., Yukos (II), SphinX, Galvex Steel, TBS Shipping, Excel Maritime, Nautilus, Landsbanki Islands, Roust and Ultrapetrol. He also has served as the court-appointed mediator in a number of chapter 11 cases, including New Page, Cengage, Quicksilver, LightSquared, Molycorp and Breitburn Energy.

Prior to his appointment to the bench in May 2002, Judge Drain was a partner in the bankruptcy department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, where he represented debtors, trustees, secured and unsecured creditors, official and unofficial creditors’ committees, and buyers of distressed businesses and distressed debt in chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings and bankruptcy-related litigation. He was also actively involved in several transnational insolvency matters.

Judge Drain is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member and board member of ABI, a member of the International Insolvency Institute, a member and Secretary of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and a founding member and chair of the Judicial Insolvency Network. He also is the current chair of the Bankruptcy Judges Advisory Group established through the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and was appointed to the FDIC’s Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee through May 1, 2021.

Judge Drain was an adjunct professor for several years at St. John’s University School of Law’s LL.M. in Bankruptcy Program and currently is an adjunct professor at Pace University School of Law. He has lectured and written on numerous bankruptcy-related topics and is the author of the novel The Great Work in the United States of America. He received his B.A. cum laude from Yale University and his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar for three years.