Mary K. Whitmer

Mary’s bankruptcy experience includes representation of secured lenders, creditors’ committees, trustees, debtors and those who wish to purchase assets out of bankruptcy estates.  A certified public accountant, Mary has extensive experience in commercial litigation, including actions to recover assets that were fraudulently transferred.  She also regularly represents receivers in the state and federal courts. She is a panel trustee in the Northern District of Ohio.

Some of Mary’s experience includes representation of:

• a Trustee-Assignee in an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors for a steel fabricating company in Cleveland;
• a Receiver for a Delaware publicly held international executive search firm;
• a court-appointed Executor in the sale of a sand and gravel pit and attendant business and surrounding properties;
• a Chapter 7 Trustee in the private auction sale of significant oil and gas real estate in Guernsey and Noble counties;
• an equity owner of a Chapter 11 Debtor with substantial oil and gas interests in the sale through bankruptcy of the company’s assets;
• a Chapter 11 Trustee for a ski and golf resort which included a hotel, several restaurants, a convenience store and a spa, resolving several environmental issues and selling the property free and clear of liens in 78 days;
• a “stalking horse” purchaser of assets in the Delaware bankruptcy of a major patio furniture retailer;
• a Canadian foreign representative in the filing of a Chapter 15 cross-border bankruptcy case in Toledo, Ohio involving the manufacturer and distributor of flexible polyurethane foam products;
• a Receiver in an action brought by the Federal Trade Commission against a bogus debt consolidator/mortgage modification enterprise, involving simultaneous seizures of assets in Florida and Ohio and the sale of assets of the company and its owners, including art work;
• an equity holder in an oil and gas bankruptcy case in Youngstown, Ohio, seeking to sell substantially all of the assets free and clear of liens;
• the equity holder of two insolvent hotel properties and a water park in Sandusky, Ohio in bankruptcy and receivership proceedings;
• an Ohio bank in an action to recover payment on a loan; resulting in successful trial to verdict in which the United States District Court found actual fraud in the formation of a new, transferee entity and imposed successor liability; the matter was then upheld by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals;
• a Chapter 7 Trustee in the sale of commercial real property and the machinery and equipment of an injection molding manufacturing company;
• the sale of substantially all of the assets of a not for profit university through state court receivership, satisfying approximately 80% of the outstanding debt;
• the expedited trial and favorable result as to whether the filing of a “single asset” bankruptcy case was a bad faith filing or otherwise should be dismissed for cause;
• a lender in the defense of retaliatory lender liability counterclaims;
• a bank to recover damage caused by the fraudulent transfer of millions of dollars of assets from accountants who assisted in the transfer of the assets;
• a debtor with multiple millions of dollars of asbestos personal injury liability in the filing of a Chapter 11 reorganization in the Northern District of Ohio;
• a state court receiver for a 55 acre industrial parcel of land with 5 acres under roof, and continuation of representation of the receiver after the case filed for bankruptcy;
• a state court receiver for an operating commercial printing company;
• a state court receiver for an eight story commercial building;
• a trustee in bankruptcy to recover assets transferred by a husband to a wife pursuant to a consensual dissolution of marriage that was alleged by the trustee to be a fraudulent transfer;
• a manufacturer in the automobile industry in the liquidation of the company through sales free and clear of liens in bankruptcy court;
• a purchaser of assets pursuant to a sale under Article 9 of the UCC against claims of fraudulent transfer and successor liability;
• a Fortune 500 Company in insurance coverage litigation;
• a Fortune 500 Company in litigation over the lease of a mainframe computer.

Education
Case Western Reserve University, J.D., 1975
Certified Public Accountant, Ohio, 1978
Case Western Reserve University, B.A., 1972