(Including Cases Prior to Forming the Law Office)

For 17 years, Mr. Madris has represented businesses and individuals in primarily Chapter 11 and 7 bankruptcy proceedings.  Mr. Madris has represented creditors and creditors' committees, debtors and debtors-in-possession, adversary defendants and plaintiffs, fiduciaries such as trustees and assignees for the benefit of creditors, as well as asset purchasers and shareholders. 

 Having "sat on both sides of the fence," Mr. Madris has gained insight into what strategy the other side might adopt in certain types of contested matters.  For instance, Mr. Madris has litigated many preferential transfer and fraudulent conveyance cases on behalf of corporate defendants, and at other times on behalf of  trustees and assignees for the benefit of creditors.  (See Mr. Madris's articles "Preference Defense Checklist" and  "Understanding Process is Key to Defending Adversary Proceeding" in this site's Articles Section.)  He has also represented bidders for assets at Sec. 363(b) sales, while at other times he has represented sellers.  (See his article "Stalking Profits.")  He has represented both plaintiffs and debtors in non-dischargeability proceedings, and has written on the subject.  (See his article "O.J. Simpson's Civil Judgment is Not Dischargeable.")   Mr. Madris has also represented vendors asserting reclamation claims and debtors defending such claims; holders of unsecured claims and trustees objecting to claims; secured creditors objecting to Chapter 11 plans and debtors seeking to confirm plans over creditors' objections; and creditors moving to appoint Chapter 11 trustees and debtors opposing such appointment.

Many of Mr. Madris's corporate clients are nationwide providers of goods or services.  His clients have conducted business in areas such as wholesale food distribution (for instance, a national pie manufacturer and an importer of canned fish), temporary employee staffing, nutritional supplements, banking, real estate, pharmaceuticals, imported goods, electronics, media and entertainment, paper, healthcare, steel and construction, and in other areas. 

Representative cases include the following: In one case in the Orange County, California bankruptcy court, Mr. Madris represented the president of a Japanese-owned bankrupt U.S. hi-tech company.  Through Mr. Madris’s efforts, his client successfully stymied a creditor’s repeated efforts to have the hi-tech company’s bankruptcy case dismissed, based on the creditor’s apparent view that with a dismissal, the company’s board of directors would be replaced and legal action would be taken against the president.  Not only was no legal action taken against Mr. Madris’s client, but his client even received a dividend from the bankruptcy estate at the conclusion of the bankruptcy case.

In another case, Mr. Madris, in association with local Ohio counsel, represented an international wholesale distributor in defending an Ohio bankruptcy adversary proceeding where the plaintiff sought to recover a substantial dollar amount in alleged preferential transfers.  After establishing that his client had provided substantial "new value" and had a strong "ordinary course of business" defense, Mr. Madris's client obtained a favorable settlement.  

Most recently, Mr. Madris obtained a favorable result for a temporary employee staffing company that was sued for recovery of alleged preferential transfers by the Bankruptcy Trustee for Axium International.      

In addition, Mr. Madris represented a Chapter 11 debtor in proceedings in the Santa Barbara, California bankruptcy court.  Despite aggressive actions from judgment creditors, Mr. Madris was able to thwart the creditors' actions for sufficient time until the debtor obtained a favorable ruling on appeal from a state court judgment.  The debtor thereafter settled with his creditors.