Bill Bensinger

Practice Areas

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Appellate

Bankruptcy & Restructuring

Business Services & Commercial Litigation

Professional Memberships

American Bankruptcy Institute

American Bar Association

Alabama State Bar

Publications

Author, Findings of Fact In a Section 523(a)(2) Exception to Discharge Action: The Converging Grey Areas of Intent, the Totality of the Circumstances, and Clear Error, 2020

Author, Proving Reliance in a Section 523(a)(2)(B) Case, Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice (December 2019)

Author, Severance Claims Pursuant to Pre-Petition Employment Contracts Are Not Entitled to Administrative Expense Priority, Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice (December 2018)

Author, The Facts of the Legal Fiction – Extending the Automatic Stay to Non-Debtors, Norton Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law, Part I (September 2015)

Author, Alabama’s Southern District Bankruptcy Court Addresses Differences Between Claims on Open Accounts, Claims for Accounts Stated, Christian & Small Nonstop Insights Blog (February 2015)

Author, If You Want a Third-Party Release, You Have to Prove It, Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice (May 2012)

Author, Context is King-Twombly, Iqbal and the Art of Pleading in Bankruptcy, Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser (November 2010).

Author, Jasco Tools, Inc. v. Dana Corp. – A Primer for Summary Judgment in Bankruptcy, Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice (April 2010).

Presenter – “Landlord-Tenant Rights in Bankruptcy,” University of Alabama School of Law CLE (August 2009).

Author, Modification of Collective Bargaining Agreements: Does a Breach Bar Rejection?, 13 Am. Bankr. Inst. L. Rev. 809 (2005).

Author, Are Proceeds Paid Under a Post-Bankruptcy Statute on Account of a Debtor’s Prepetition Loss Property of the Estate?, Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser (August 2005, at 2)

Contributing Author, Norton Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law

Work Highlights

Counsel to lender in state court receivership litigation on $22 million in defaulted loans that resulted in the sale of the borrowers’ assets and full satisfaction of the lender’s claims.

Represented a chapter 7 trustee in a fraudulent transfer action in a three-day trial, obtaining a judgment and recovery of the value of the assets that the debtor had transferred prepetition.

Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Premier Kings, Inc., and related debtors, in all aspects of a successful sale and plan confirmation process of 174 Burger King franchise locations located in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. After plan confirmation, represented the Plan Administrator in bringing fraudulent transfer, preference, D&O, and other claims to fund additional distributions to creditors.

Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the bankruptcy case of In re Premier Cajun Kings, LLC, a group of 24 Popeye’s Chicken franchise locations.

Represented funds managed by Franklin Advisers, Inc. (FILO Term Loan Lenders and Exit Term Loan Lenders) in Remington Outdoor Company, Inc.’s most recent bankruptcy case (In re Remington Outdoor Company, Inc.) in the Northern District of Alabama. Remington, a firearms and ammunition manufacturer, sold its assets in a series of § 363 transactions.

Represented the Atherotech, Inc., chapter 7 trustee in liquidating estate assets through sale and litigation in the Bankruptcy Court and District Court for the Northern District of Alabama; obtained a reversal of an adverse judgment in the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; and successfully opposed a cert petition before the Supreme Court of the United States. Through sale and litigation, the trustee was able to recover in excess of $38 million for the benefit of creditors.

Represented Mission Coal Company, LLC and its affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The company was headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee with coal mining operations in West Virginia and Alabama. Mission Coal entered Chapter 11 to complete a sale process and, after an auction, received winning bids for three of its metallurgical coal mines. The company also successfully obtained court approval to modify its collective bargaining agreements through sections 1113 and 1114. After a highly contested plan and sale process, Mission Coal obtained the support of its DIP Lenders, reached a settlement with the unsecured creditors committee, and as a result, in May 2019 the Court simultaneously approved the sales and confirmed the plan.

Counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors of Walter Energy, Inc. and its affiliates in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Walter, a major producer of metallurgical coal, struggled as a result of the precipitous fall in the price of metallurgical coal in 2015 and eventually was forced to seek bankruptcy protection in July 2015 in an effort to restructure its more than $3.1 billion in debt.

Counsel for the creditor-appellant in Blue Bell Creameries, Inc. v. William Kaye, Trustee (In re BFW Liquidation, LLC), 2018 WL 3850101, 17-13588 (11th Cir. August 14, 2018), reversing 30 years of erroneous application of the new value defense statute within the Eleventh Circuit and holding that a creditor’s new value does not have to remain unpaid in order to qualify for the new value defense.

Bullock v. BankChampaign, N.A., 133 S. Ct. 1754 (2013) – Counsel for respondent BankChampaign, N.A., in the Supreme Court’s only bankruptcy case in the October 2013 term, concerning a dispute over an exception to the bankruptcy discharge for debts incurred through “defalcation while acting in a fiduciary capacity.”

Burgess v. Sikes, 438 F.3d 493 (5th Cir. 2003) – counsel for amici professors of law before the en banc Fifth Circuit, concerning the question of whether a crop disaster relief payment was property of the debtor’s estate.

HB Logistics, LLC v. Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 5223 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. December 13, 2013) – counsel for defendant in a preference action successfully arguing that the Eleventh Circuit’s case In re Jet Florida System, Inc., does not require that the new value “remain unpaid.”

Education

Awards