Venable's receivership practice is known for its attorneys who have served as court-appointed receiver or monitor over numerous companies and financial institutions in significant federal and state enforcement actions. Our highly experienced team of attorneys have represented receivers, monitors, trustees, and foreign fiduciaries for over 25 years.
Venable's receivership team is unique in its ability to effectively and efficiently handle even the most complex receivership by virtue of the particular experience and capabilities of its specialty groups, which include asset recovery, insolvency and insurance coverage litigators, former federal prosecutors, crypto-digital asset, bankruptcy, tax, real estate, corporate transaction specialists, former federal and state regulators, judges, and state attorneys general, and the firm's national physical presence.
Our receivers are regularly appointed by courts and requested by the federal and state agencies that bring enforcement actions, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Our lawyers have an enviable track record of success and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of the federal and foreign receivers and bankruptcy trustees they represent. They have also obtained multiple multi-million-dollar recoveries for state agency receivers over failed insurance companies.
Ensuring the best possible outcome in receiverships—an area where there are few hard-and-fast rules—requires scrupulous ethics and excellent judgment. Our team's enduring track record in this space is indicative of the trust placed in us by judges, federal agencies, state attorneys general, and insurance commissions to deliver maximum value for stakeholders in all of our receivership engagements.
Our Team
Our receivership practice chair serves as the current president of the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers (NAFER), the only national organization devoted to federal receiverships and the unique issues receivers, judges, and regulators face in receivership cases. Previously, he served on NAFER's board of directors and chaired its best practices committee, which developed guidelines followed by receivers throughout the United States. Our receivership attorneys also regularly lecture on receivership, asset recovery, and insolvency litigation issues and are active in the other leading insolvency organizations, including INSOL International, the ABI Caribbean Insolvency Symposium, the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, and the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.
Judicial Opinions
Members of our team are responsible for numerous published judicial opinions, by district courts and the Eleventh Circuit, on cutting-edge legal issues affecting receiverships. These decisions have established or confirmed the right and standing of receivers to obtain turnover of assets, and to investigate and pursue all manner of claims that can benefit the receivership estate. As such, they have benefited not only receiverships where our attorneys have served, but receiverships nationally.
Scope of Service
A large part of our practice is directed to representation of receivers, trustees, committees, and defrauded investors. Thus, in addition to being adept at operating businesses in receivership/bankruptcy, we have a great deal of experience investigating and pursuing claims and assets in connection with all varieties of deceptive schemes, and in the recovery of assets from wherever they are located. In so doing, we have developed relationships with counsel, investigators, and law enforcement authorities overseas that aid us in efficiently navigating the multi-jurisdictional situations with which we are presented.
Our Approach
For a receivership to be successful, it is often necessary to draw upon the extensive experience of our complementary practice areas across the firm to provide integrated support. These include tax lawyers; corporate transaction lawyers; our regulatory group; our real estate team; insurance, cryptocurrency, and insolvency attorneys; and other professionals. We also rely on our bankruptcy attorneys, who have frequently served as debtors' counsel and counsel for official committees and understand the nuances of complex receiverships.