Reliable Expertise.

Solutions: Courts

Whitmer & Ehrman honor judicial needs for efficiency, even-handedness and resourceful action when courts must resolve difficult financial issues. Our perspective comes from decades of experience in state and federal courts. Our dependability comes from understanding that courts require practical partners in bringing order to complex, unruly asset disputes.

Courts rely on us as appointed receivers, trustees or executors—and as legal counsel to such fiduciaries—when they must count on

• neutrality with regard to all parties

• fidelity to the court’s requirements

• procedural efficiency

• foresight in finding ways to streamline case management

• creativity responding to financial crisis management and administrative setbacks

• experience in virtually every type of commercial case, across many industries

• knowledge of regulatory issues and procedures relevant to matters at hand

• benefits of state-of-the art inventory/accounting software

• clarity about financial information and ability to generate intelligible documents for asset disposition and other complicated transactions

• reporting efficiency, accurate and timely for the court and parties

• value-driven performance and billing

An insolvency practice embracing legal necessities, business realities

Capable receivership is not just a matter of knowing the law or understanding financial statements, both second nature to us. Effective service to the Court hinges on hands-on knowledge of how businesses really work. That’s key to timely action and sound judgments about everything from locating and protecting assets to finding the wisest options for winding down a distressed enterprise.

That’s where Whitmer & Ehrman excel. As appointed counsel, we join legal acuity with grasp of the daily realities of industries from mining and heavy equipment to professional services, retail to financial operations, healthcare to recycling, and a range of real estate situations. We efficiently apply real-world knowledge to businesses in receivership in light of issues before the Court. Resources developed through hands-on experience enable us to move energetically to find and protect assets, quickly detect fraud, respond creatively to crises, and stabilize business operations.

Our expertise includes preparing a thorough receivership order the Court can trust. In addition, our updated Comprehensive Guide to Receivership is a useful judicial reference for statutory and case law.

The ABC: Alternative to receivership or bankruptcy

For some closely held businesses facing insolvency, there’s an alternative to the expense and combativeness that so often infect court proceedings: an assignment for the benefit of creditors (ABC). In brief, the company transfers all debts and assets to a trust and selects a trustee with appropriate expertise to liquidate assets, pay all creditors, and wind down operations or sell the business as a going concern to a buyer who assumes no liability for unsecured debt.

For an Ohio Probate Court overseeing an ABC, the nature of this insolvency strategy can produce a streamlined, flexible process with predictability as to trustee fees. From the perspective of long and varied practice handling business insolvency issues, the attorneys of Whitmer & Ehrman reliably identify when Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors is a workable approach for the debtor, creditors, and the Court.