Howard Seife

Partner

Practice Description

Representative Matters

• Representing the receiver appointed in the Russian bankruptcy proceedings of Yukos Oil Company in the first major test of Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code.
• Representing the ad hoc committee of swap counterparties in the restructuring of the monoline insurance company, ACA Financial Guaranty.
• Represented a number of the largest creditor banks and insurance companies in Enron Corporation’s Chapter 11 and some of the largest creditors and account holders in the Lehman Brothers and Refco Chapter 11s.
• Counseled the Chapter 11 creditors’ committee in Spiegel, Inc./Eddie Bauer Inc.; Parmalat USA Corp.; Metromedia Fiber Network; New York Daily News (Maxwell Newspapers, Inc.); New York Post; and Pocket Communications.
• Advised multiple companies in cross-border insolvency issues, including the European bank group in the Lernout & Hauspie/Dictaphone cases.
• Served as debtor’s counsel in the successful reorganization of ATC Group Services.
• Represented Sabena Airlines in its ancillary bankruptcy proceeding.
• Represents Ernst & Young as the Australian and Bermudian liquidators in the insurance insolvency of New Cap Reinsurance Corporation Ltd.
• Represents PricewaterhouseCoopers as provisional liquidators for Independent Insurance Company, Folksam International Insurance Company Ltd., and Black Sea & Baltic General Insurance Company Ltd.
• Represents KPMG as provisional liquidator for Manhattan Investment Fund and Belvedere Insurance.
• Represented the reinsurer Hopewell International in its ground breaking ancillary bankruptcy where, after an eight-day trial, a U.S. court for the first time recognized and enforced the terms of a scheme of arrangement for a solvent company.

Honors

Activities and Affiliations

Mr. Seife is frequently invited to comment on bankruptcy issues on national media networks such as CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, and PBS and on National Public Radio and is often quoted in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

• Member: International Insolvency Institute – an invitation-only organization of leading insolvency professionals, judges and academics 
• Member of the Board of Directors of INSOL International (2007 - )
• Co-Chair, Group of Thirty-Six Committee, INSOL International, 2007
• Chair, American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), International Insolvency Symposium, panel on new Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, London, 2006
• Program Chair, INSOL Annual Americas Conference, Scottsdale, 2006
• Chair, INSOL International’s Asian Conference, panel on cross-border insolvency, Beijing, October 2002
• Chair, INSOL International, Technical Research Committee, 2003-2005
• Mediator for the Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, 1996-present
• Arbitrator for the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, 1985-present

Publications

Speeches and Events