Jeffrey D. Ganz

Senior Partner / Litigation

Boston and New York Offices

617-880-3568

617-692-3568 fax

jganz@riemerlaw.com

Jeff has substantial experience in bankruptcy law representing asset-based lenders, established financial institutions, creditors in the secondary loan market, commercial property owners, and other secured and unsecured creditors in a variety of contexts. This experience has included addressing issues associated with use of cash collateral, implementation of debtor in possession financing, obtaining relief from the automatic stay, investigation of fraudulent conduct, challenges to exemptions, defense and prosecution of fraudulent transfer and preference claims, prosecution of objections to and exemptions from discharge, challenges to plan confirmation, as well as the pursuit of conversion and dismissal of bankruptcy proceedings. Jeff’s work in the bankruptcy field includes a variety of trials and evidentiary hearings in the Bankruptcy Courts for the Districts of Massachusetts, the Bankruptcy and District Courts of Delaware, the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York, and the Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida.

In addition to his bankruptcy practice, Jeff also has experience litigating commercial cases in the state and federal courts of Massachusetts involving the enforcement of commercial contracts and loan arrangements, litigating disputes among secured creditors, and litigating on behalf of commercial landlords. Jeff has tried a number of cases in the Superior and District Courts of Massachusetts and he has argued appeals before the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit, a single justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and the Appellate Division of the Massachusetts District Courts.

Representative Cases

• Represented an asset based lender in connection with his opposition to a clothing retailer’s proposed plan of reorganization before the Bankruptcy Court of the Northern District of New York, and conducted the associated evidentiary hearing
• Represented an unsecured creditor in connection with the serial bankruptcy filings in the Bankruptcy Court of Massachusetts of an international manufacturing and technology company, resulting in the appointment of a Chapter 11 trustee within two weeks of the second filing
• Represented the senior secured mortgage lender in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding of a real estate developer in the Bankruptcy Court of Connecticut, resulting in denial of confirmation of a plan of reorganization, conversion to Chapter 7, relief from the automatic stay, and payment in full
• Represented an unsecured creditor in the related voluntary and involuntary proceedings of a network of real estate developments and their principal before the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern Division of Texas, including substantial investigation of the various debtors’ pre-petition fraud and the successful pursuit of a complaint seeking to exempt the creditor’s claim from any discharge
• Successfully defended at trial a group of asset-based lenders being pursued for alleged breach of an indenture governing the relationship between the debtor and its bondholders before the U. S. District Court of Delaware. Prepared brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Third Circuit which resulted in affirmance of trial verdict
• Obtained Summary Judgment for the same group of lenders in the related fraudulent transfer and equitable subordination case brought on behalf of the debtors in a proceeding in the U.S. District Court, District of Delaware, and represented these lenders in underylying bankruptcy proceeding pending before the Bankruptcy Court of Delaware in connection with adequate protection, substantive consolidation, plan confirmation, and other issues
• Represented secured lender in Middlesex County Superior Court, Massachusetts in connection with enforcing its loan arrangement and pursuing the fraudulent conduct of its borrower and its officers and directors
• Represented the successor to institutional lenders and the Trustee in Bankruptcy in pursuing breach of fiduciary duty claims against the directors and officers of a Rhode Island publicly traded company in an action before the Providence Superior Court, Rhode Island
• Represented the successor to an institutional lender in all aspects of a Chapter 7 proceeding pending before the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, including obtaining relief from the automatic stay, resolving the Trustee’s challenges to the creditor’s security interests, and coordinating the liquidation of the Debtors’ assets for the benefit of the client
• Coordinated the litigation and resolution of dozens of preference claims on behalf of the Trustee in the Bankruptcy of a publicly traded company in a Chapter 11 proceeding before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts
• Represented secured creditors and bankruptcy trustees in the defense of debtors’ efforts to increase the benefit of Massachusetts homestead exemption for purpose of avoiding judicial liens and exempting property from the bankruptcy estate
• Represented a commercial landlord in connection with claims of intentional interference with prospective business relations brought by a tenant seeking to establish a material breach of a lease to avoid liability under the lease
• Represented bankruptcy trustees and creditors in connection with various actions where debtors have attempted to conceal or transfer assets into sham trusts and other entities
• Prosecuted declaratory judgment actions seeking to avoid sham trusts and the related avoidance actions in order to increase recovery of assets for bankruptcy estate and eventual distribution to creditors

Cases Of Interest

• Hechinger Liquidation Trust v. Bank Boston Retail Finace, Inc. (In re: Hechinger, Inv. Co.), 2005 U.S. App, LEXIS 15733 (3d Cir., July 29, 2005).
• Rockland Trust Company v. Snyder (In re: Snyder), 249 B.R. 40 (Bankr. 2000)
• Liquidation Trust of Hechinger Inv. Co. of Del., Inc. v. Fleet Retail Finance Group (In re: Hechinger Inv. Co. of Del., Inc.), 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14386 (July 19, 2005)

Speaking Engagements

• Panelist, Assault on the Secured Creditor, American Bankruptcy Institute Northeast Conference, July 9 – 10, 2010
• Panelist, Trying Your “1st” (or Next) Bankruptcy Case, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., February 25, 2009, December 17, 2009

Affiliations

American Bankruptcy Institute

American Bar Association

Massachusetts Bar Association

Massachusetts Bar Foundation

Admissions

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1993

U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, 1994

U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, 1994

U.S. Supreme Court, 1999

State of New York, 2005

U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 2006

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 2009

U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York, 2010

Education

Boston College Law School, J.D., 1993

Tufts University, B.A., 1989