March 04, 2013

Venable Opens Delaware Office, Led by New Bankruptcy Partner Jamie Edmonson

4 min

Wilmington office plants Venable flag in key corporate and litigation jurisdiction.  Edmonson expands firm’s leading bankruptcy and creditor practice; she’s served as counsel in large Chapter 11 filings.


Wilmington, DE (March 4, 2013) – Planting a flag in one of the country’s most important jurisdictions for corporate litigation and bankruptcy matters, Venable LLP announced that it has opened a Wilmington, Delaware office and added experienced bankruptcy counsel Jamie L. Edmonson, as a partner, to lead the new office.
 
Ms. Edmonson arrives from the Wilmington-based Bayard law firm, where she was a director.

The new office is located at 1201 North Market Street in Wilmington.

At Venable, Ms. Edmonson joins one of the country’s premier bankruptcy and creditor rights’ practices.  The firm was a principal player during the Enron bankruptcy, recovering approximately $1 billion in assets for creditor clients.  American Lawyer named group chair Gregory Cross “Bankruptcy Dealmaker of the Year” in 2010 based on the firm’s success in high-profile Chapter 11 cases, including General Growth Properties and New York’s famed residential complex, Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village. 

“This is a terrific development for our firm and obviously for the bankruptcy practice, given how often our work leads to Delaware,” Mr. Cross said.  “And we’re getting a top-flight partner to lead our new office – Jamie Edmonson has been intimately involved in a wide range of Chapter 11 cases coming out of Delaware, including some of the biggest filings.  She is superbly positioned to help raise our profile in the Delaware bar and leverage our deep bench of bankruptcy, litigation and transaction attorneys, giving our clients a strong role in major corporate matters in Delaware.”

With more than 16 years of experience handling commercial bankruptcies, restructurings, insolvencies, and liquidations, Ms. Edmonson has regularly served as Delaware counsel in large Chapter 11 filings.  She has represented lenders, debtors, creditors, statutory committees (creditor and equity), asset purchasers, landlords and lessees in a wide range of industry sectors, including information technology, retail, food, energy, construction, real estate, telecommunications and manufacturing.

Ms. Edmonson has also been on the business side of bankruptcy matters at a national turnaround firm, which assisted distressed companies in navigating restructurings and the Chapter 11 process.

Among the matters that Ms. Edmonson has handled:

  • Three regional grocery chains in their chapter 11 cases
  • The Chapter 11 trustee in a large discount chain bankruptcy
  • A Los Angeles-based retail chain through Chapter 11, in which all creditors were paid in full
  • Creditors and defendants in preference actions in several homebuilder cases
  • Debtors in two separate condo/office projects
  • Manufacturers of medical devices
  • Manufacturer of plastic bottles used in retail distribution of bottled water and soda
  • The official committee of unsecured creditors in the case of a large paper/pulp manufacturer
  • Equity holders in the case of a manufacturer of TV set-top boxes
  • Liquidating trust of a solar panel manufacturer
  • Special counsel to a large electricity service provider during its Chapter 11 case
  • Unsecured creditors in a large commercial real estate lending company

Ms. Edmonson said, “Venable has a renowned national bankruptcy platform and I was thrilled to hear that the firm was launching a Delaware office.  Delaware is such an important hub for corporate bankruptcies and restructurings and the firm is well-positioned to become a bigger factor in creditor committee work and other representations.  It will be exciting to harness my experience here with Venable’s practice.”

Ms. Edmonson served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Alex Kozinski in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1995 to 1996.  She received her J.D. from Loyola Law School (1996) and her B.S.B.A. from American University (1990).

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Note: An American Lawyer 100 law firm, Venable serves corporate, institutional, governmental, nonprofit and individual clients throughout the U.S. and around the world.  Headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in California, Maryland, New York, Virginia and Delaware, Venable LLP lawyers and legislative advisors serve the needs of our domestic and global clients in all areas of corporate and business law, and complex litigation.