Judy A O'Neill

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The Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations Practice of Foley is one of the nation's oldest, largest, and most prestigious. Our highly regarded attorneys have extensive experience in all aspects of bankruptcy law and practice, and continue to garner recognition for their services and successes. Most recently, Foley was ranked by Bankruptcy Law360 as one of the nation's top 10 firms in the area of bankruptcy based upon new and recent engagements.

Foley's Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations Practice is national, with a unique breadth of senior practitioners and generalists as well as lawyers with significant experience in particular industries. The practice includes attorneys from Foley's offices in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Madison, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, San Diego, Tallahassee, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.

Our attorneys work integrally with the firm's other highly regarded practices, including a number of the firm's industry-focused practices, forming multidisciplinary industry restructuring teams in such areas as:
* Automotive
* Air/transportation
* Energy and utilities
* Financial services/securities
* Health care
* Heavy industry
* High-tech/intellectual property
* Corporate trust and bondholders' rights
* Real estate, including sub-prime and homebuilding
* Retail
* Sports and recreation
* Telecommunications

Our attorneys regularly represent parties in all aspects of bankruptcy law, from pre-filing workouts on behalf of companies and creditors to Chapter 11 engagements on behalf of debtors, creditors, creditors' committees, indenture trustees, equityholders, bondholders, contract parties, debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders, asset purchasers, institutional creditors, claims purchasers, professional advisors, examiners and trustees, and various other parties in interest. These engagements have included public and private debtors with revenues ranging from multiple millions of dollars to multiple billions of dollars, sales of debtor assets, litigation involving insiders and affiliates of debtors, and other significant adversary proceedings. We regularly handle creditors' rights litigation, including collection and foreclosure matters and enforcement of security interests, and are skilled in assisting creditors in obtaining early payment of claims. Our attorneys also have experience with cross-border insolvencies and cases under Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Developing Proactive Strategies

Our Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations attorneys are creative in assisting in anticipating the types of decisions that need to be made by our clients and the potential outcomes from those decisions. We are skilled at managing and working collegially with teams, including external and internal financial analysts and economic advisors, to accomplish these objectives. For example, when a debtor must choose between the option of restructuring or selling a division, our Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations attorneys work with appropriate analysts to create a strategy that maximizes the return for our clients in the circumstances.

Maximizing Financial Results Through Litigation and Settlement

We also develop litigation strategies for all types of claims pertaining to parties in interest in bankruptcy cases as well as for creditors under state and federal law. This litigation includes lender liability actions, fraudulent conveyance litigation, and all types of creditor-related litigation.

By understanding and utilizing the litigation process, our attorneys are keenly sensitive to settlement opportunities and are able to obtain results through settlements that in many cases are far more desirable, on a cost-benefit basis, than litigating to conclusion.

Client Service Through Networked Intelligence

Foley uses state-of-the-art technology to promote collaboration between our clients and attorneys. Clients benefit in many ways, including efficiencies in attorney and staff productivity as well as from direct use of client-accessible systems such as extranet technology, which provide quick, effective, and secure communication from most any computer worldwide.

The integration of Web-based technologies, especially extranets, permits legal teams operating from different offices or remote locations to share documents and collaborate on conceptual and substantive matters without difficulties or delays. By granting access to invaluable knowledge, this collaborative approach enables our attorneys to better and more quickly respond to clients' needs.

Certified Specialist, Business Bankruptcy - American Board of Certification

Judy A O'Neill
Foley & Lardner LLP
500 Woodward Ave #2700
Detroit MI 48226
Tel: 313 234-7113
Fax: 313 234-2800
E-mail: joneill@foley.com

LEGAL PRACTICES:
Bankruptcy & Business Reorganizations

INDUSTRY TEAMS:
Automotive

Judy A. O'Neill is a partner with Foley & Lardner LLP and is the firm's national Automotive Crisis Insolvency chair.

Ms. O'Neill practices in bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, commercial transactions and corporate law and business transactions, concentrating on issues arising under the Bankruptcy Code. Her experience has spanned a variety of industries including the automotive, retail and healthcare industries. She has represented clients in all aspects of debt restructurings, counseling companies as to strategies to prevent court proceedings and representing troubled public and private companies in bankruptcy and in out-of-court proceedings. Her cases include the representation of purchasers and sellers in acquisitions arising from receiverships and bankruptcy proceedings, and unsecured creditors committees, and secured lenders in bankruptcy and out of court restructurings. Her representations of troubled companies has included Blue Water Automotive Systems, Inc. and its affiliates, Intermet Corporation and its subsidiaries, Venture Holdings, LLC and its subsidiaries, The 1/2 Off Card Shop, Steinbach Stores, Inc., Pilot Industries and their subsidiaries, Metaldyne Corporation and its affiliates, and special counsel to Oxford Automotive, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Her representations of unsecured creditors has included The Unsecured Creditors Committee of J.L. French, The Unsecured Creditors Committee in Folands, Inc, the Unofficial Committee in Fort Wayne Foundry Inc, and The Official Unsecured Creditors Committee of River City Plastics.

In addition, the Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Michigan Bankruptcy Court appointed her as an Examiner by the Court in the Collins & Aikman Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. In that role, she examined the causes and timing of the issues thwarting the reorganization of the multi-billion dollar revenue auto supplier, and the impact of those issues on the fees incurred by professionals. She also represented a significant creditor in the Alleghany Health and Education Foundation, Mariner Healthcare and Sun Healthcare bankruptcy proceedings. She represented several purchasers in the Michigan Healthcare Corporation bankruptcy.

Ms. O'Neill is also a member of Foley's Sub-prime Task Force for the Distressed Real Estate Initiative, whereby she counsels companies and lenders in connection with perceived threats to their business, and offers them viable options for dealing with and planning for such threats.

At her former firm, Dykema, Ms. O'Neill managed the Business Department which housed the real estate, bankruptcy, tax, employee benefits and corporate practice groups. Prior to that time, she assisted in the leadership of the Bankruptcy and Creditor's Rights/Reorganization Practice group.

Ms. O'Neill has been an adjunct faculty member of both the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Toledo Law School, teaching classes on the Chapter 11 reorganization process.

She is a facilitator for the Eastern District of Michigan Bankruptcy Court. Prior to practicing law, she was a mathematics teacher.

Ms. O'Neill received her law degree from University of Michigan Law School in 1980, with high honors, and her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 1976, magna cum laude.

Ms. O'Neill is a member of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, the Michigan Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. She is a past regional membership director of the American Bankruptcy Institute and its Unsecured Trade Creditors Committee, a past advisory board member of the American Bankruptcy Institute Central States Conference, a past advisory committee member of the Eastern District of Michigan Bankruptcy Court, and a past Debtor/Creditor Committee chairperson of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association. She also is an American Board of Certification Bankruptcy and Creditor's Rights Certified Attorney.

Ms. O'Neill is a member of the American Board of Certification. She has been a fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy Fellows since 2002, and is a life member of the National Registry of Who's Who, 2001 edition. Ms. O'Neill has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America®, for more than the past decade. She is also listed in Who's Who Legal USA: Insolvency & Restructuring 2006, and Who's Who in American Law, 2000 edition. Ms. O'Neill was selected by Crain's Detroit Business as one of the "100 Most Influential Women in Michigan," March 2002. She is included in the Guide to the World's Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers, 2003 and 2006. Ms. O'Neill has been recognized, since inception, in the lists of "Super Lawyers" for her work in bankruptcy, creditor and debtor rights. In addition, she has been named one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers and Top 50 women lawyers in Michigan for receipt of the highest point totals in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Michigan Super Lawyers® nomination, research and blue ribbon review process. She was selected for inclusion in the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Best Lawyers in America, 2008. She has been recognized by Corporate Counsel as one of the Top Lawyers.