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Ostrow, Alec P.

Alec Ostrow_7692.jpg

Alec P. Ostrow concentrates his practice in bankruptcy, corporate reorganization, creditors’ rights and commercial litigation. Recognized as a New York Super Lawyer (selected by his peers as among the top 5 percent of lawyers in the state), Mr. Ostrow has served as lead counsel for many businesses that successfully reorganized in Chapter 11 or in out-of-court restructurings, as well as lead counsel for buyers and sellers, trustees, and officers and directors of distressed business in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, health care, insurance, real estate, reprographics, oil and gas, retail, steel manufacturing, home furnishings, construction, demolition, consumer products, and the record industry

He has also represented banks and insurance companies as creditors in major bankruptcy cases such as Lehman Brothers, Adelphia Communications and Enron, as well as foreign representatives in cross-border cases involving reinsurance and financial services.

As a trial lawyer in bankruptcy litigation, Mr. Ostrow has won multiple judgments recovering tens of millions of dollars, and has successfully defended individuals and institutions against clawback and other claims asserted by debtors, trustees and creditors’ committees.

A prolific author and frequent speaker on bankruptcy-related topics, Mr. Ostrow presents to numerous associations, including the American Bar Association and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He has also served as panelist for the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Judicial Conference of the Second Circuit and the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees.

Mr. Ostrow is also a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and an adjunct professor at St. John’s University School of Law in the LL.M. in Bankruptcy program.

RELATED PRACTICES

CLIENT ENGAGEMENTS

  • Serves as the trustee’s special litigation counsel in the liquidation case of an individual investment advisor, investigating and prosecuting  fraudulent transfer and alter ego claims

  • Represents a UK firm as a litigant in the cross-border case of a financial services company being liquidated in Luxembourg

  • Represents a construction industry firm in negotiating the restructuring of its financial and trade debts

  • Represents a commercial landlord in several pending and concluded retail reorganizations

  • Represented a major financial institution as a secured lender  in a recently concluded restructuring of a construction industry firm

  • Represents individual and corporate, domestic and foreign, clawback defendants and potential defendants in cases pending in the Southern District of New York and the District of Connecticut

PUBLICATIONS:

  • Constitutionality of Core Jurisdiction," 68 Am. Bankr. L.J. 91 (1994)

  • "The Involuntary Chapter 11 Case: Why Don't We Do It in the Gap? (No One Will Be Watching Us), 5 J. Bankr. L. & Prac. 63 (1995)

  • "The Animal Farm of Administrative Insolvency," 11 Am. Bankr. Inst. L. Rev. 339 (2003)

  • "We Don't Need the Case Law to Turn the DIP's Attorney into a Court Informant," 27 Am. Bankr. Inst. J. 14 (May 2008)

  • "Nondisclosure as the Basis of Judicial Estoppel in Bankruptcy, or Estop Me if You Haven't Heard this Before," 2011 Norton Ann. Surv. Bankr. L. 123

  • "Inversion of Supremacy: L3Cs and Benefit Corporations," 34 Am. Bankr. Inst. J. 36 (March 2015)

  • "Situation Comity: Something Familiar, Something Peculiar; Nothing That's Formal, Nothing That's Normal, 2018 Norton Ann. Surv. Bankr. L. 345

  • "Has Chapter 15 Bestowed on the Bankruptcy Court a Roving Commission to Do Equity After a Foreign Proceeding Has Been Recognized?, 2019 Norton Ann. Surv. Bankr. L. 215

CONTACT

aostrow@beckerglynn.com

EDUCATION

  • New York University School of Law, J.D., 1980

  • Dartmouth College, A.B. magna cum laude, 1977

ADMISSIONS

  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York

  • Southern District of New York

  • Eastern District of New York

  • Western District of New York

  • District of Connecticut

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

  • Partner, Salomon Green & Ostrow, P.C. (1986-2004)

  • Shareholder, Stevens & Lee, P.C. 2005-2010

LANGUAGES

  • Spanish and French

MEMBERSHIPS/PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • New York State Bar Association

  • American Bar Association

  • New York County Lawyers Association

  • Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy

  • Member, panel of mediators for the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York

  • American Bankruptcy Institute

    • Co-chair of the Real Estate Committee (2001-08)

    • Member, Advisory Committee for the New York City Bankruptcy Conference

  • Adjunct professor of law, St. John’s University School of Law (LL.M. in Bankruptcy Program)