• Leading financial institutions
• Agents for bank syndicates
• DIP lenders
• Indenture trustees
• Official and ad hoc unsecured creditors' committees
• Equity committees
• Asset purchasers
• Lenders to franchisors and franchisees
• Hedge funds
• Private equity funds
• Bondholders
• Governmental entities
• Corporations and shareholders
• Trustees, receivers and assignees
• Debtors and creditors

His practice is national in scope and has included major bankruptcy cases in New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Connecticut, Kentucky, Vermont and California.

Mr. DeLucia also has substantial experience in securities fraud enforcement actions, receiverships and state insolvency proceedings, which has lead to his court appointment as receiver in one of the largest securities fraud cases brought by the Bureau of Securities of the State of New Jersey. He also represents securities fraud receivers in similar cases commenced by state regulators.

Mr. DeLucia is also a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy and related insolvency matters including securities receiverships, the author of articles in bankruptcy and banking publications, and an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), State Bar Associations and related professional organizations.

A cross-section of his practice includes:

• Representation of major constituencies in complex Chapter 11 cases
• Representation of lenders providing DIP and exit financing
• Representation of fiduciaries and creditors in liquidation proceedings
• Representation of petitioners and creditors in cross-boarder insolvency proceedings
• Representation of purchasers of assets from bankruptcy estates
• Representation of creditors and fiduciaries in non-judicial loan restructuring, workouts and other alternatives to the bankruptcy process
• Representation of secured creditors in state court asset recoveries and foreclosures
• Bankruptcy and creditors' rights related litigation in state and federal courts
• Serving as court appointed receiver and representing receivers in substantial state securities fraud receivership and enforcement actions

Experience

Mr. DeLucia's significant representations prior to joining Schiff Hardin include:

• Counsel to principal equity security holder and creditor holding  $50 million in unsecured notes of Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization, LLC (C-BASS), a subprime mortgage investment venture, in connection with C-BASS' restructuring and the sale of Litton Loan Servicing LP (which serviced $6.58 billion in loans at or about the time of the sale) to Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
   
• Counsel to privately held national mortgage lender and its numerous affiliates in connection with the restructuring more than $1 billion of repurchase obligations, secured indebtedness and the underlying business, including full preparation of the companies for a possible complex Chapter 11 filing, and more recently in connection with the lender's rights as against Lehman Brothers Holding Co. (a counterparty to certain repurchase agreements), following Lehman's bankruptcy filing
   
• Counsel to the Note-A Senior Lenders in the workout of a $124 million loan facility secured by one of the largest luxury condominium developments in Orlando Florida
   
• Counsel to privately held $225 million exotic, high-end vehicle financing and leasing company in its efforts to restructure, and if necessary, file for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code
   
• Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 case of EnCap Golf Holdings LLC, a complex brownfield remediation and development project, with more than $1 billion in filed claims and nearly $300 million in secured debt, involving hundreds of acres in the New Jersey Meadowlands
   
• Counsel to Wilmington Trust Company, as Indenture Trustee for the 93/94 Noteholders, under two $200 million indentures in the $6.5 billion bankruptcy of Conseco, Inc., et al., the third largest bankruptcy proceeding in United States history, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, which resulted in a 100 percent distribution to all 93/94 Noteholders
   
• Counsel to Archon Group, LP, a Goldman Sachs company in the Delta Airlines, Inc., et al., Northwest Airlines, Inc., et al., EXDS Communications, Inc., et al., Global Crossing Ltd. and other bankruptcy proceedings
   
• Counsel for the First Series Indenture Trustee for approximately $100 million in secured equipment certificates in the Continental Airlines, Inc. bankruptcy case, venued in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware ("Continental II")
   
• Counsel to the Ad Hoc Committee of Certain Equity Security Holders of Mega-C Power Corporation, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada, representing the interests of more than 100 investors in a contested plan confirmation hearing, competing plan litigation and related adversary proceedings.
   
• Assisted in the contested formation of the Official Committee of Ephedra Claimants of TwinLab Corporation, et al., in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, which was appointed by the United States Trustee for the Southern District of New York for the specific purpose of representing the interests of all claimants nationwide, asserting claims against TwinLab Corporation for injuries or deaths caused as a result of or in connection with the debtors' distribution of ephedra-containing products
   
• Counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Hibbard Brown. This Chapter 11 proceeding was filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The debtor was a "penny stock" brokerage bankruptcy firm with more than $100 million in stock fraud and manipulation claims against the debtor represented by the committee
   
• Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Select Nutrition Distributors, Inc., et al., the third largest distributor of health supplements in the country, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York
   
• Counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Protarga, Inc., in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, in a case that involved the prompt sale of the debtors' intellectual property principally comprised of clinical stage pharmaceuticals (including innovative new treatments for cancer, infectious diseases and CNS disorders), following competitive bidding pursuant to §363 of the Bankruptcy Code
   
• Counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in other national cases, such as:
  • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Gilbert Robinson, Inc., G/R Holding Corp., Inc. case (a $200,000,000.00 Chapter 11 proceeding) ("Houlihans"); the Houlihans case (a restaurant chain), venued in the Southern District of New York, reorganized in less than one year with a 100 percent payment to unsecured creditors obtained by Mr. DeLucia's efforts representing the Creditors' Committee
     
  • Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in Pudgie's Chicken, Inc., which was a national and international chain of restaurant franchises, venue in the Southern District of New York
  
   
• Counsel for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Dreis and Krump Manufacturing Company, a mass tort/product liability case venued before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, in which we consensually resolved the reorganization of the debtor, with a joint Chapter 11 plan patterned after the Piper Aircraft trust, utilizing present and future creditors' trusts, which resolution garnered national press
   
• Counsel for Special Committees in Bankruptcy Proceedings such as for the KIA Owners Group, Inc. (the founding employee shareholders of KIWI International Air Lines, Inc.): Mr. DeLucia's representation began as counsel to an organized group of approximately 250 employees of the debtor, but his role expanded to serve as counsel to the Chapter 11 Ad Hoc Committee of All Present and Former Employees of Kiwi International Air Lines, Inc., a Chapter 11 case venued in the United States Bankruptcy Court of the District of New Jersey. The company had roughly 1,400 employees pre-bankruptcy
   
• Counsel for various regional and local creditors committees, including:
  • In re Berk and Berk (committee comprised of trade creditors wherein unsecured creditors received a 100 percent dividend in a successfully reorganized Chapter 11 case after restructure of more than $30,000,000 in HUD secured debt)
     
  • Metroplaza Associates (committee comprised of the building trades wherein unsecured creditors received a 100 percent, plus interest, dividend in a successfully reorganized Chapter 11 case)
     
  • In re Statewide Bancorp, (the successful liquidation of a bank holding company in New Jersey)
• Counsel for the individual creditors or groups of creditors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, such as:
  • Past employee group seeking class certification for discrimination in the national case of Payless Cashways, Inc. in the Western District of Missouri
     
  • Certain franchisees in the Ben Franklin Stores, Inc. bankruptcy proceedings in the Northern District of Illinois
• Counsel for leading financial institutions:
  • Handling of contested and consensual cash collateral issues, DIP and exit finance (In re Jillian's Entertainment Holdings, Inc., et al.)
     
  • Defending and prosecuting fraudulent conveyance and avoidance actions (In re EXDS, Inc., et al., and In re Global Crossing, Ltd., et al.
     
  • Competing plan confirmations (In re WebSci Technologies, Inc., et al.)
     
  • Out-of-court workouts and troubled debt restructurings
     
  • Statutory and custodial receiverships
     
  • Replevin and disposition of collateral
     
  • Counseling on troubled loans in asset based and real estate transactions
  
   
• Counsel for bondholders, such as:
  • Representation of the single largest bondholder, Icahn Holding Corporation, in the Trump Taj Mahal, Inc. Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, venued in the District of New Jersey
     
  • Representation of the same single largest secured bondholder in the New Valley Corp. ("Western Union") bankruptcy proceedings, venued in the District of New Jersey
  
   
• Counsel for Chapter 11 debtors, such as:
  • In re Ranch*1, Inc., et al., in their successful Chapter 11 proceeding in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York
     
  • In re Claremont Towers, which resulted in a successful reorganization as well as a published decision regarding claims allowance, rendered by the then Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey
  
   
• Counsel for Trustees, such as the Chapter 11 Trustee in Virginia Carolina Tools, Inc., resulting in a successfully confirmed plan that entailed orderly liquidation of this multi-state debtor's business
   
• Counsel for various state and governmental agencies, such as representing the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in state court and bankruptcy proceedings (In re Colpro, Inc.) involving economic recovery on multiple bond positions on a large commercial rental project undergoing environmental remediation
   
• Counsel for various municipalities, including the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, wherein we represented the redevelopment interests of Jersey City in the five consolidated Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Village Townhouse Estates, Inc., Knob Hill Victorian Estates, Inc., Liberty Harbor North, Inc., Lorraine Mocco and Peter Mocco
   
• Securities fraud receiverships, at the request of the State of New Jersey Bureau of Securities, acting as court appointed receiver and representing receivers in some of the largest securities fraud cases brought by the New Jersey Bureau of Securities to recover more than $90 million of investor funds, including Wellesley Services, LLC, et al. (Harvey v. Wellesley, et al.), CAJ Trading, Inc., et al. (Farmer v. Natale, et al.) and others

Speeches and Presentations

Mr. DeLucia is a frequent speaker on bankruptcy law issues for the American Bankruptcy Institute, New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education and other organizations.

Previous Experience

Mr. De Lucia served as Deputy Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, representing various state agencies in bankruptcy related matters including preference litigation, nondischargeability proceedings and related matters.

Awards and Honors

Mr. DeLucia was appointed to the Lawyers Advisory Committee by the Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey in 1994.