Michelle Novick

Select representations include:

• Represented a bank in a contested, evidentiary stay hearing in bankruptcy court. The bank prevailed at trial and was able to pursue foreclosure of its secured, commercial property notwithstanding the bankruptcy filing.
• Represented an assignee for the benefit of creditors in a contested stay hearing in bankruptcy court. The debtor was a limited partnership with its sole asset being a single-family home in the suburbs of Chicago. The assignee prevailed at trial and was able to sell the home, which resulted in a benefit to the creditors of the bankruptcy estate.
• Represented a large condominium association in Chicago in a contested bankruptcy trial and received an order dismissing a Chapter 13 case with bar from the debtor re-filing bankruptcy for 180 days.
• Represented the same condominium association in a subsequent contested hearing and request for sanctions. The association prevailed at trial, resulting in a civil contempt hearing, rule to show cause and modification of the automatic stay given that the debtor acted as a straw man in acquiring property from another debtor in order to circumvent the 180-day bar from re-filing bankruptcy.
  
   

• Represented a not-for-profit church in preventing the foreclosure of five parcels of real estate owned by a church on the eve of a foreclosure sale. Through the bankruptcy process, the church received exemptions for real estate taxes relating to the properties used by the church for religious purposes, settled the debt with the unsecured lender for 20 percent of the total value of the claim and reorganized the loan with the secured lender, allowing for a discount of approximately 50 percent of the debt while not requiring the church to pay monthly payments to the secured lender during the pendency of the Chapter 11 case. Upon reaching the settlement with the major creditors, the church dismissed the Chapter 11 case.

On an ongoing basis, represent landlords across the country in handling bankruptcies and insolvencies of their tenants and protection of their claims in bankruptcy.