Nathan Q. Rugg

Practice Areas

Bankruptcy & Creditor Rights

Career

Nathan draws on over two decades of insolvency and workout experience to provide practical and insightful advice to clients. He builds relationships to obtain favorable results in both transactional and litigation matters.

Nate is the chair of BFKN’s Bankruptcy & Creditor Rights Group. He has extensive experience in all aspects of business reorganizations, workouts, and bankruptcies, inside and outside of court restructurings. This includes the representation of creditors, suppliers, equipment lessors, lenders, landlords, OEMs, and asset purchasers in small to large, complex Chapter 11 cases.

Nate also counsels parties in business restructuring and liquidation situations outside of bankruptcy, such as assignment for the benefit of creditors, receivership, workout, and forbearance situations. He represents suppliers to bankrupt and other distressed entities, including counseling on and prosecuting 503(b)(9) claims, advising on post-petition credit, and defending preference claims and avoidance actions. He also works with transactional lawyers on distressed deal structures and provides legal opinions that support secured financings.

Nate is distinguished among his peers, consistently recognized in the areas of Bankruptcy and Reorganization in the Illinois Super Lawyers, in Creditor Rights in The Best Lawyers in America publication, and in the Commercial Bankruptcy and Workout Law categories in the Leading Lawyers publication, and has received the Peer Review Rating – AV Preeminent, the highest peer rating standard by Martindale-Hubbell. He is band ranked for Bankruptcy/Restructuring in Chambers USA.

Nate is actively involved in volunteer and charity work. Locally, he served as co-chair of the Bankruptcy Court Liaison Committee and serves on the Volunteer Attorney Panel in the Northern District of Illinois. The judges for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois awarded Nate for “Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service” in 2022. He is also a member of the Receivership Legislation Subcommittee of The Chicago Bar Association, actively working to develop uniform receivership law for Illinois.

Outside the practice of law, Nate has worked with World Bicycle Relief for years to fundraise and raise awareness for its mission to provide large-scale, comprehensive bicycle distribution programs to aid poverty relief in developing countries around the world. In 2024, Nate completed a years-long campaign of fundraising through running challenges to generate over $70,000 for WBR.

Nate is an active runner, often racing all distances from 5ks to marathons, and has completed the six original World Marathon Majors. Combining charity work with running is a passion. Nate has used running to raise tens of thousands of dollars collectively for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Asha for Education, Doctors Without Borders, and World Bicycle Relief.

To learn more, please visit www.bfkn.com/nathanrugg.