Skip to Main Content.

Solutions

Biography

Brett serves as the Vice Chair of the firm’s Financial Restructuring & Creditors’ Rights Group. He has extensive experience in all aspects of debtor/creditor relations, with a particular focus on complex corporate reorganizations and liquidations, and bankruptcy and insolvency-related litigation and appeals. He brings a pragmatic, business-oriented and results-driven approach to his clients, which include debtors-in-possession, trustees and other fiduciaries, official committees of unsecured creditors, secured creditors and lenders, indenture trustees, insurers, asset purchasers, landlords and trade creditors.

Brett’s litigation experience covers a broad range of matters in federal and state courts, including: Ponzi scheme litigation, complex fraudulent transfer and preference actions, alter ego/veil-piercing litigation, shareholder disputes, including fraud, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and related claims, and general commercial and contract disputes. Prior to practicing law, Brett was an analyst in the equities trading division at a leading international investment bank. He also worked for a Manhattan-based, national sports agency, where he assisted in recruiting new clients, conducting due diligence in connection with contract negotiations, and securing endorsement and marketing opportunities for existing clients.

Other Info About Brett

Experience

Legal Work Highlights

Recent Representative Matters:

Debtors:

  • New England Motor Freight
  • The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (special litigation counsel)
  • United Gilsonite Laboratories
  • Birdsall Services Group
  • Chieftain Sand and Proppant, LLC
  • Multinational solar manufacturer (out of court counseling)
  • International NGO (out of court counseling)
  • Multinational renewable energy manufacturer (out of court counseling)
  • Family office principal (out of court workout, liabilities >$20 billion)

Official Committees:

  • CTN Holdings, Inc. (Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors)
  • Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (special counsel to Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors)
  • Quanergy Systems, Inc. (Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors)
  • CTE 1 LLC (Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors)
  • Trump Entertainment Resorts (Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors)

Trustees and Liquidating Trusts:

  • DBSI Inc.
    • Representation of the Chapter 11 trustee and the post-confirmation liquidating trustee in more than 150 jointly-administered Chapter 11 cases filed in the District of Delaware arising out of a complex real estate and securities-based Ponzi scheme.
    • Representation of the post-confirmation litigation trustee in dozens of lawsuits ranging from avoidance actions to civil RICO actions in the bankruptcy and district courts in Delaware, Idaho, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • Pennysaver
  • NSC Wholesale
  • RadioShack

Secured Creditors/ DIP Lenders:

  • Careismatic Brands
  • WeWork, Inc.
  • miR Scientific LLC

Indenture Trustees and Loan Agents:

  • Powin LLC (administrative and collateral agent)
  • BlockFi Inc. (indenture trustee)
  • Aceto (indenture trustee)

Other Significant Parties-In-Interest:

  • CCA Construction Inc. ($1.6+ billion judgment creditor)
  • BowFlex (asset purchaser)
  • Sam Ash Music (asset purchaser)
  • Pharmapacks LLC (former officers and equity holders)
  • The Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y. (insurer)
  • FTX Trading Ltd. (foreign directors and officers)
  • The Rockport Company, LLC (chair of the creditors’ committee)
  • Takeoff Technologies (largest creditor)
  • Old Carco LLC fka Chrysler (asset purchaser)
  • miR Scientific LLC (asset purchaser)
  • LRM Packaging, Inc. (asset purchaser)
  • Family office (asset purchaser)

Insolvency-Related Litigation:

  • NewAge Beverage (directors and officers)
  • Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities
  • Irish Bank Resolution Corp.
  • The Budd Company
  • G-I Holdings
  • Durr Mechanical Construction
  • Revel AC, Inc.
  • Representation of private equity firms and individual partners, directors and officers in actions for fraud, negligence, and breaches of fiduciary duty related to insolvency of portfolio companies.
  • Representation of fraudulent transfer and preference defendants in assignment for the benefit of creditors proceedings.
  • Representation of creditors in non-dischargeability actions.

Commercial Foreclosures and Article 9 Proceedings

  • Representation of lenders and borrowers in foreclosure and replevin actions

Liquor Licensing

  • Representation of public and private clients, including hotel groups, manufacturers, and municipalities, with regard to liquor licensing matters and related regulatory issues.

Reported Decisions:

Goldsmith v. Zazzali, 2019 U.S. Dist. 118490 (D. Idaho July 2, 2019)

Zazzali v. Goldsmith (In re DBSI Inc.), 593 B.R. 795 (Bankr. D. Idaho 2018)

In re DBSI Inc., James R. Zazzali as Trustee for the DBSI Estate Litigation Trust v. United States of America, (9th Cir. 2017)

McKillen v. Wallace (In re Irish Bank Resolution Corp. Ltd.), 2019 WL 4740249 (D. Del. Sept. 27, 2019)

In re: G-I Holdings, Inc. f/k/a GAF Corporation, et al., 580 B.R. 388 (Bankr. D.N.J. 2018)

In re: G-I Holdings, Inc. f/k/a GAF Corporation, et al., 568 B.R. 731 (Bankr. D.N.J. 2017)

Education

Seton Hall University School of Law|Dartmouth College

J.D., magna cum laude|A.B.

|

  • Associate Articles Editor & Symposium Co-Chair, Seton Hall Sports & Entertainment Law Journal
  • Order of the Coif

|

Clerkships

Brett served as a clerk for the court(s) and judge(s) below:

Law clerk to the Honorable Donald H. Steckroth, United States Bankruptcy Judge, District of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, 2010-2011

Courts

Brett is admitted to practice before the following court(s):

State of New York|State of New Jersey|United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York|United States District Court for the Western District of New York|United States District Court for the District of New Jersey|United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas|United States District Court for the District of Colorado|United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

||||||||

Recognition

Local & National Recognition

Included on the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business list, Bankruptcy/Restructuring

Included on the New York Super Lawyers Rising Stars list, Creditor Debtor Rights

Included on the New Jersey Super Lawyers Rising Stars list, Creditor Debtor Rights

Included on the American Bankruptcy Institute 40 Under Forty List

Recipient, Turnaround Awards “Restructuring of the Year,” The M&A Advisor, 2020

Professional Affiliations

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

American Bankruptcy Institute

 

Turnaround Management Association

 

Dartmouth Lawyers Association

 

The Federalist Society