Akerman LLP, a top 100 U.S. law firm serving clients across the Americas, announced the continued expansion of its Dallas office with partners John Mitchell and David Parham. They join Akerman's Bankruptcy & Reorganization Practice Group from Baker & McKenzie with nearly four decades of combined experience in complex bankruptcies, corporate restructurings, and bankruptcy-related litigation across the United States. They build upon Akerman's core strengths in the mergers and acquisitions, financial services and real estate sectors, and broaden the firm's significant experiences in the retail, restaurant, transportation and energy sectors.
"John and David have a tremendous reputation in the bankruptcy courts and have been instrumental in representing U.S. and international clients in bankruptcies and restructurings," said Andrea Hartley, chair of Akerman's Bankruptcy & Reorganization Practice Group. "Their arrival to the Dallas office expands our ability to serve clients in key industry sectors nationally and adds a new dimension to the breadth and depth of our bankruptcy and reorganization practice."
Mitchell handles all aspects of commercial restructurings and focuses his practice on complex bankruptcies, out-of-court workouts and sales, voluntary liquidations, receiverships, and asset sales and general insolvency related litigation. He represents lenders, creditors, debtors and trustees across the United States in bankruptcy and pre-bankruptcy workouts in the real estate, energy, oil and gas, power, food service, retail, consumer finance, and commercial vehicles and heavy equipment sectors.
Mitchell is recognized by Chambers for his proficiency in bankruptcy and restructuring. He also was honored with the Turnaround Management Association's International Turnaround of the Year Award and the Robert B. Wilson Distinguished Service Award from the Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from Texas Tech School of Law and his B.B.A. from Texas A&M University where he was a distinguished military graduate.
Parham has extensive experience in a wide range of bankruptcy and insolvency matters. He represents financial institutions, corporate and partnership debtors, creditor committees, equity holders, secured and unsecured creditors, lessors, and trustees in bankruptcy proceedings, litigation and workouts. He handles a variety of commercial litigation matters in bankruptcy courts and in federal and state courts. These representations include prosecution and defense of claims against directors and officers for breach of fiduciary duty and cases involving allegations of fraud, fraudulent conveyance and preference. He has represented clients across a range of sectors including, insurance, real estate, retail, aviation, telecommunications, distribution, manufacturing, energy and mining.
Parham is recognized by Chambers for his proficiency in bankruptcy and restructuring. He has been honored with the Turnaround Management Association's Turnaround of the Year Award for a Mega Company, Chapter 11 Reorganization Deal of the Year in the Middle Markets category, and the Turnaround Atlas Awards.
Akerman's growing Dallas office includes 22 lawyers with experience in commercial litigation, corporate and M&A transactions, bankruptcy and regulatory compliance issues, with a strong focus in the financial services and real estate sectors.
Akerman LLP is a leading transactions and trial law firm known for core strengths in middle-market M&A, within the financial services and real estate industries, and for a diverse Latin America practice. With more than 600 lawyers and government affairs professionals and a network of 20 offices, it is ranked among the top 100 law firms in the United States by The American Lawyer (2015). Akerman also is ranked among the top 50 law firms for diversity in The American Lawyer's Diversity Scorecard (2015).