Busy in bankruptcy
A partner at a top bankruptcy law firm in Westchester County says the three-year-long parade of companies into U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains might expand to include some of the county”™s largest companies and area hospitals in 2012.
For Rattet Pasternak L.L.P. in Harrison, a law firm that almost exclusively represents debtors in bankruptcy filings, business has been booming in the last three years. “2011 was a record-breaking year for the firm in terms of fees generated from bankruptcies,” said attorney Jonathan S. Pasternak. “We are carrying as many attorneys as we ever have in our 35-year existence.” The firm has nine full-time bankruptcy attorneys in addition to several paralegals and support staff.
Over the last three years, “The construction industry has been hit very hard in the county,” he said, from developers and large building contractors to specialty companies. “We have filed dozens of specialty subcontractors since the recession came about in 2008.”
Pasternak said restaurant businesses, independent grocers and speculative housing developers have sought his firm”™s services for bankruptcies or loan workouts. And the national mortgage crisis has not spared Westchester consumers. “The consumer filings continue at a pretty hefty pace in the county,” he said.
“The largest of the largest companies have been able to stave off bankruptcy pretty remarkably, but it wouldn”™t surprise me to see some seek protection in 2012,” said Pasternak.
“Health care is in terrible distress right now. It would not surprise me to see a couple of the local hospitals seek protection in 2012.”