Bradley Receives 2018 Turnaround Atlas Award for Work on Chapter 11 Restructuring Case

Bradley is pleased to announce that a team led by William L. Norton III, a partner in the firm’s Nashville office, is the recipient of a 2018 Global M&A Network Turnaround Atlas Award for work on the Vanguard Healthcare, LLC (VHC) Chapter 11 restructuring. Other key members of the Bradley team are partners James Blake Bailey and Michael D. Brent.

The case was among the winners for “best value-creating Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization” in the Middle Market Segments category. Bradley and other award winners were honored at the 10th Annual Gala Dinner July 19 in New York.

“We congratulate Bill and his team on their outstanding work on the Vanguard Healthcare LLC Chapter 11 case,” said Bradley Nashville Office Managing Partner Lela Hollabaugh. “The Turnaround Atlas Awards represent the gold standard of performance in the turnaround industry.”

More than 320 eligible restructuring and distressed M&A deals covering five continents were evaluated for this year’s Turnaround Atlas Awards. In addition to the awards, Global M&A Network also produces conferences for the mergers, acquisitions, turnaround and alternative investor communities.

A Tennessee Limited Liability Company headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., VHC owns and operates 12 long-term care facilities that provide rehabilitation and skilled nursing services in Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia. The joint plan of reorganization that provided for the payment of all allowed claims in full was approved by the Bankruptcy Court in Nashville, Tenn., in October 2017. 

A member of Bradley’s Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Distressed Investing Practice Group, Mr. Norton focuses his practice in the business bankruptcy area, dealing in all aspects of bankruptcy cases, creditor rights and insolvency. His primary focus is Chapter 11 business cases, representing debtors, secured creditors, unsecured creditors, committees, and trustees.

Mr. Norton is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and is an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt Law School. He is the Editor in Chief of Norton Bankruptcy Law & Practice 3d, a 13-volume treatise on bankruptcy law published by Thomson Reuters and is the Editor in Chief of several other bankruptcy law newsletters and publications published by Thomson Reuters. Mr. Norton is a frequent speaker on bankruptcy law and conducts seminars on bankruptcy law through his firm known as Norton Institutes on Bankruptcy Law.  He is a leader in the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the Business Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) and currently serves as chair of the ABA’s subcommittee on Individual Chapters 11. In addition, Mr. Norton has served as past president and board member of the American Board of Certification, the Tennessee Turnaround Management Association and the Mid-South Commercial Law Institute.

Based in the firm’s Birmingham, Ala., office, Mr. Bailey has experience with debtor and creditor representation in bankruptcy, out-of-court workouts and restructurings, and bankruptcy-related litigation. He also regularly represents commercial lenders and mortgage servicers in federal court commercial litigation. In addition, he has transactional experience negotiating and documenting out-of-court workouts.

Based in the firm’s Nashville office, Mr. Brent focuses on business law, representing clients in a wide range of transactional, regulatory and operational matters. Chair of Bradley’s Long Term Care and Senior Housing, and Tennessee Certificate of Need practice teams, Mr. Brent represents for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare providers and investors, especially those involved in the long term care and senior housing industries, as well as lenders to the healthcare community. He has represented numerous clients in complex acquisitions, mergers and financing transactions, including tax-exempt bond and REIT financings.