Overview

Jennifer L. Maleski helps clients find a path forward when financial distress puts businesses, investments and lending relationships at risk. Having represented lenders, borrowers and other stakeholders in restructurings, workouts and bankruptcy proceedings, she understands the competing pressures that shape these matters and uses that perspective to anticipate obstacles, preserve value and pursue solutions that make business sense.

Jennifer L. Maleski is a partner in Dilworth Paxson’s Bankruptcy, Insolvency and Creditors’ Rights Group and Litigation Department. She represents clients in complex restructurings, commercial workouts, bankruptcy proceedings and disputes arising from distressed financial relationships, with substantial experience on both the lender and borrower sides. Her work has taken her into businesses facing financial distress across industries including hospitality, mining, telecommunications, waste management and real estate, where the legal strategy must account for creditors, operations, assets and the realities of keeping or winding down a business or exiting a lending relationship. Because Jennifer has sat on different sides of these matters, she can anticipate what is driving the other parties, recognize where there may be room for agreement and determine when negotiation is likely to preserve more value than a prolonged fight.

Jennifer has developed particular insight into merchant cash advances and the problems they can create for financially distressed businesses and their traditional lenders. She advises financial institutions on how to identify MCA activity among existing borrowers, assess its effect on cash flow, collateral and loan compliance, and respond when an MCA threatens the lender’s position. That work reflects a broader aspect of Jennifer’s practice: she looks beyond the immediate matter for signs of where the next problem may emerge. For lenders, that includes bringing lessons learned in workouts and enforcement matters back to loan documentation, covenants and administration practices so clients can identify risk earlier and enter a future workout from a stronger position.

Jennifer’s experience spans the negotiating table and the courtroom, allowing her to adapt the strategy as a distressed situation evolves. She handles complex, multiparty restructuring negotiations as well as judgments, receiverships, foreclosures, distressed asset sales and Chapter 7, 11 and 13 proceedings. Whether the client is trying to restructure debt, preserve a business, recover an investment or enforce its rights, Jennifer focuses first on what a successful outcome actually looks like for that client and then evaluates the available legal tools to obtain that objective. She is highly responsive and takes the time to explain both her recommendations and their likely consequences, giving clients a clear understanding of their options when the next move may have significant financial consequences.

Representative Experience

  • Represented the Chapter 11 trustee of Reading Broadcasting Inc. in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and successfully confirmed a Chapter 11 plan of liquidation over objections and a competing plan filed by a major unsecured creditor.
  • Represented Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in a liquidating Chapter 11 bankruptcy and successfully negotiated a cooperative and structured liquidation, distribution of remaining estate assets and dismissal of the case with numerous constituents.
  • Represented Chapter 7 trustees in numerous bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, including estate administration and litigation involving collection actions, avoidance claims and D&O matters.
  • Represented a large financial institution in Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and successfully negotiated the workout of a $30 million loan.
  • Represented the owner of a landfill in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and successfully confirmed a plan of liquidation that allowed for an orderly wind-down of the business.
  • Represented LaGuardia Associates LP in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and successfully confirmed a plan of reorganization restructuring more than $55 million in secured debt.
  • Represented Creekside Associates Ltd. in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and successfully negotiated a consensual restructuring of secured debt.
  • Represented Limitless Mobile LLC in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and successfully negotiated a consensual plan of reorganization with multiple constituents, including federal and state taxing authorities.
  • Represented a medical marijuana dispensary, as tenant, in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey and negotiated the successful sale of the debtor’s property to an affiliate of the tenant, minimizing disruption to the client’s business.
  • Represented a nonprofit school in the successful restructuring of secured debt.
  • Represented National Medical Imaging LLC in a Chapter 11 proceeding pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
  • Represents First Franchise Capital Corporation, a division of First Financial Bank, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases filed by its borrowers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.
  • Represents Meridian Bank in judgment and receivership proceedings involving two stalled redevelopment projects in Philadelphia.
  • Represents Byline Bank in multiple matters involving enforcement of defaulted SBA loans in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, including obtaining money judgments, enforcing mortgages against real estate collateral and negotiating proposed offers in compromise for SBA consideration.
  • Represented Meridian Bank in proceedings to foreclose a leasehold mortgage and billboard in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, navigating the foreclosure of mixed real estate and personal property collateral and successfully obtaining ownership of the billboard for the bank.
  • Represented Citizens Bank in litigation in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas to recover amounts loaned to owners of residential apartment buildings, including obtaining the appointment of a receiver to manage the properties.
  • Represented PNC Bank as senior secured creditor in Chapter 11 proceedings filed by a distillery in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, by which the business was sold through a Section 363 sale.
  • Represented PNC Bank in Chapter 11 proceedings filed by a manufacturing company in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, including negotiating consensual plan treatment for the restructuring of the bank’s secured loans.

Professional & Community Activities

  • Law Clerk to the Honorable Bruce I. Fox, Chief Bankruptcy Judge, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 2002 – 2004
  • Subcommittee Chair, Local Rules Advisory Committee, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference
  • Participant, Education Committee, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference
  • Participant, Homeless Advocacy Project Clinic
  • Member, American Bankruptcy Institute and Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference

Publications

Representative Experience

  • Represented the Chapter 11 trustee of Reading Broadcasting Inc. in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and successfully confirmed a Chapter 11 plan of liquidation over objections and a competing plan filed by a major unsecured creditor.
  • Represented Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in a liquidating Chapter 11 bankruptcy and successfully negotiated a cooperative and structured liquidation, distribution of remaining estate assets and dismissal of the case with numerous constituents.
  • Represented Chapter 7 trustees in numerous bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, including estate administration and litigation involving collection actions, avoidance claims and D&O matters.
  • Represented a large financial institution in Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and successfully negotiated the workout of a $30 million loan.
  • Represented the owner of a landfill in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and successfully confirmed a plan of liquidation that allowed for an orderly wind-down of the business.
  • Represented LaGuardia Associates LP in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and successfully confirmed a plan of reorganization restructuring more than $55 million in secured debt.
  • Represented Creekside Associates Ltd. in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and successfully negotiated a consensual restructuring of secured debt.
  • Represented Limitless Mobile LLC in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and successfully negotiated a consensual plan of reorganization with multiple constituents, including federal and state taxing authorities.
  • Represented a medical marijuana dispensary, as tenant, in a Chapter 11 proceeding in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey and negotiated the successful sale of the debtor’s property to an affiliate of the tenant, minimizing disruption to the client’s business.
  • Represented a nonprofit school in the successful restructuring of secured debt.
  • Represented National Medical Imaging LLC in a Chapter 11 proceeding pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
  • Represents First Franchise Capital Corporation, a division of First Financial Bank, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases filed by its borrowers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.
  • Represents Meridian Bank in judgment and receivership proceedings involving two stalled redevelopment projects in Philadelphia.
  • Represents Byline Bank in multiple matters involving enforcement of defaulted SBA loans in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, including obtaining money judgments, enforcing mortgages against real estate collateral and negotiating proposed offers in compromise for SBA consideration.
  • Represented Meridian Bank in proceedings to foreclose a leasehold mortgage and billboard in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, navigating the foreclosure of mixed real estate and personal property collateral and successfully obtaining ownership of the billboard for the bank.
  • Represented Citizens Bank in litigation in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas to recover amounts loaned to owners of residential apartment buildings, including obtaining the appointment of a receiver to manage the properties.
  • Represented PNC Bank as senior secured creditor in Chapter 11 proceedings filed by a distillery in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, by which the business was sold through a Section 363 sale.
  • Represented PNC Bank in Chapter 11 proceedings filed by a manufacturing company in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, including negotiating consensual plan treatment for the restructuring of the bank’s secured loans.

Insights