Throughout her career, Kathleen has developed a practice dedicated to representing clients in all facets of Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases; including significant litigation experience both in and out of the courtroom. Kathleen frequently appears in the bankruptcy courts for both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Kathleen primarily represents Chapter 7 trustees in large, medium and small wind-downs and liquidations, including asset sales, litigation against former directors and officers, and claims objections. Kathleen has represented debtors in Chapter 11 reorganizations, as well as fiduciaries appointed to operate the debtor in liquidating Chapter 11 cases. In addition, Kathleen has significant experience representing creditors’ rights in Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, including landlord rights, secured lenders and other unsecured creditors and defense of claims objections. She has experience performing this work in a variety of industries, including real estate development, restaurants, transportation and retail. Kathleen also prosecutes and defends clients in Chapter 5 avoidance actions in both Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, including a large national furniture chain, a major financial institution, an international media company, healthcare and transportation.

Representative Matters:

• Successfully reorganized four, related real estate development companies in Chapter 11 by restructuring multi-million dollar mortgages, encumbering two parcels of real property in various stages of development into shopping centers, including the release of personal and corporate guarantees for the Debtors’ officers and family members.
• Represented Chapter 11 Trustee in case involving a debtor who is the co-owner of multifamily rental properties in Bronx, New York, which involved significant oversight and management of the properties and ultimately liquidation of the properties to confirm a plan of reorganization.
• Represented mortgagee with security interest in real property owned by a religious school in Brooklyn in Chapter 11 and successfully negotiated satisfaction of foreclosure judgment through replacement financing in connection with a Chapter 11 plan support agreement.
• Represented Chapter 7 Trustee in winding down a large, international law firm, including closing debtor’s remaining offices; assessed assumption or rejection of equipment and property leases; preserving assets with value for liquidation; managed a team of attorneys and outside agents to implement a process for former clients and attorneys to retrieve client files from off-site storage; and oversaw accounts receivable collection.
• Represented Chapter 7 Trustee in administering the bankruptcy cases of four real estate investment companies, alleged to be perpetuating a fraudulent, Ponzi-like investment scheme.
• Represented Chapter 7 Trustee of the single asset real estate holding company of the H&H Bagel operations and successfully sold real property for amount exceeding scheduled value by several million dollars, which resulted in a 96% distribution to general unsecured creditors.
• Represented a financial institution in a bankruptcy court action involving the valuation of several hundred complex interest rate swaps terminated as a result of Lehman Brothers’ failure.
• Represented Chapter 7 Trustee in prosecuting approximately 500 avoidance actions against defendants in the shipping and transportation industries. Along with a team of Fox attorneys, Kathleen oversaw approximately 100 of the proceedings and was involved in researching and drafting summary pleadings.
• Represented Chapter 7 Trustee in liquidation of a NY-based broker-dealer and its parent company in the wake of criminal convictions of several of the debtor’s officers and directors for orchestrating an international bribery scheme in violation of anti-money laundering regulations and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Before Fox Rothschild

Kathleen was previously a senior associate in the Forensic Services practice group at KPMG LLP, where she worked with lawyers, former prosecutors, FBI agents, journalists and law enforcement officials, on various aspects of corporate investigations, including an international fraud scheme in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Her work at KPMG was primarily focused on performing anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing compliance reviews for several large financial institutions in Korea, Japan, China and the United States. She was integral in developing proprietary tools to assess compliance in response to regulatory examinations, including creating and performing transaction look-back database to analyze bank transactions for indicia of suspicious activity to satisfy regulatory reporting requirements. Kathleen also conducted a Foreign 5 Corrupt Practices Act investigation in the Sao Paolo, Brazil branch of a U.S.-based online gaming company.

During law school, Kathleen was a law clerk in the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. She was also a participant, board member and recipient of an award for Top 10 Brief in the Rutgers School of Law-Camden’s Moot Court and a practitioner in the Children’s Justice and Street Law Clinics.

Beyond Fox Rothschild

Kathleen is active in the local community and previously served on the junior board and fundraising committee for Breast Treatment Task Force, a New York-based nonprofit that raises money to facilitate breast cancer screenings and treatment for patients without health insurance. Kathleen is also an active fundraiser and co-leader of Fox Rothschild’s team for Cycle for Survival, a non-profit dedicated to raising money for rare cancer research in connection with Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Honors & Awards

• Selected as a Super Lawyers  "Rising Star" in the New York Women’s Edition (2016)
• Included in Super Lawyers ’ New York Metro Rising Stars (2016)
• Selected as a Super Lawyers  "Rising Star" in the New York Metro Edition (2015)
• Hunter Moot Court, Rutgers-Camden, Board Member (2007-2008)
• Award for Top 10 Brief written in Hunter Moot Court Competition (2007)

Court Admissions

• U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey

Education

• Rutgers University School of Law, Camden (J.D., 2008)
• Georgetown University (B.S., 2002)

Memberships

• American Bankruptcy Institute
• Turnaround Management Association
• New York Institute of Credit
• New York County Lawyers Association