Donald A. Workman

Partner

Washington, D.C.
T +1.202.861.1602
F +1.202.861.1783

Overview

Donald Workman is the head of the Washington, D.C., office’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring practice team. His practice includes business bankruptcy, creditors’ rights, debtor reorganizations, general insolvency, stockbroker liquidations and commercial litigation. He has experience representing every constituency involved in major reorganizations and workouts, including creditor committees, secured creditors, debtors, trustees, debtor-in-possession lenders, receivers, assignees for benefit of creditors, creditors in regulated industries, and asset purchasers. He has represented entities around the country in bankruptcy matters, including retail cases such as Toys R Us and Circuit City, as well as airline bankruptcies such as TWA, US Airways I and II, United, ATA, Aloha, Hawaiian Air, Delta, Northwest, Mesaba and Independence Air. His bankruptcy litigation experience includes motions for conversion and dismissal of Chapter 7 and 11 cases, motions for the appointment of Chapter 11 trustees, plan confirmation hearings, contested cash collateral hearings, bankruptcy trustee elections, claim objections, fraudulent transfer and preference actions, denial of discharge and dischargeability actions  and involuntary bankruptcy filings.

Don also served as special counsel in the Adelphia bankruptcies as part of a coordinated defense of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) matters. Don also counsels entities and individuals in the focused area of distressed debt arbitrage matters. His work on arbitrage matters has involved him in the largest bankruptcies ever filed. He has provided counsel to various constituencies in international insolvencies including Asian and German creditors in bankruptcy cases.

More »

Don renders advice on structuring non-distressed corporate and real estate transactions with respect to intercreditor agreements, guarantees and other bankruptcy issues. He further provides reasoned legal opinions on substantive non-consolidation for structured finance real estate transactions. He advises employers on the impact of bankruptcy filings on retirement and benefit plans, non-compete agreements, protection of trade secrets, and other matters.

Don was selected as a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation and he has been rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell for preeminence in his field and his ethical standards. Additionally, he co-authored a book for CEOs and chief financial officers titled The Role of Creditors’ Committees in Chapter 11 Bankruptcies, a publication of the Thompson Cos., and Journal of Bankruptcy Law, a publication of A.S. Pratt & Sons. He has been quoted in major media outlets on various restructuring topics, including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Radio and BNA publications. He is also listed in the Cambridge Who’s Who of Professionals. Don has frequently lectured and written articles on various Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), lender-related, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights topics. He was chair of the UCC Review Committee of the Florida Bar Business Law Section; the official reporter for the Report on Revisions to Article 8 on Investment Securities in Florida, 1995; chair and the official reporter of the Report on Revisions to Article 5 on Letters of Credit in Florida, 1997; and Report on Revisions to Article 9 on Secured Transactions in Florida, 2000.

Select Experience

  • Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in In re S-Tran Holdings, a point-to-point short haul trucking company.
  • Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in In re Iten Chevrolet, a General Motors dealership.
  • Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in In re Lanser Partners, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund bankruptcy involving a complex relationship with numerous related entities in an SEC receivership.
More »

Experience

  • Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in In re S-Tran Holdings, a point-to-point short haul trucking company.
  • Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in In re Iten Chevrolet, a General Motors dealership.
  • Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in In re Lanser Partners, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund bankruptcy involving a complex relationship with numerous related entities in an SEC receivership.
  • Represented the chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and the Postconfirmation Committee in In re Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, the largest mortgage fraud case in the U.S.
  • Represented the chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and the Postconfirmation Committee in In re New Century, the largest sub-prime mortgage bankruptcy.
  • Represented the chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and the Postconfirmation Committee in In re People's Choice, another sub-prime mortgage lender.
  • Represented a group of distributors as petitioning creditors in the successful petition for involuntary bankruptcy of a supplier in In re Blevins.
  • Represented a consortium of some of the nation's major airports in In re US Airways and In re UAL Corp.
  • Represented a purchaser of assets in In re Safety-Kleen.
  • Served as Chapter 11 Trustee in large Florida agricultural case involving foreign nationals.
  • In In re Trans World Airlines, Inc., represented approximately 15 airport authorities throughout the United States in asserting their unsecured and other claims in Chapter 11 cases pending in Delaware, recovering nearly 100 percent of their claims.
  • In In re Old Naples Securities, Inc., counsel to the trustee in a Securities Investor Protection Act case to liquidate assets and administer claims of about $10 million.
  • In In re Vision Metals, Inc., representing debtors in a large Chapter 11 Delaware filing of a steel producer.
  • In In re Delta Airlines and In re Northwest Airlines, representing approximately 35 airports in these mega-cases pending in the Southern District of New York.
  • Advises and counsels clients on bankruptcy alternatives and strategies for reorganizing and resolving matters out of court.

Recognitions and Memberships

Recognitions

  • The Legal 500 United States
    • Recommended in Finance - Restructurng (Including Bankruptcy): Corporate (2022)
  • Chambers USA: Bankruptcy/Restructuring in the District of Columbia (2017 to 2022)
    • Band 2 (2021 to 2022), Band 3 (2020), Band 4 (2018 to 2019), Recognized Practitioner (2017)
  • Martindale-Hubbell: AV Preeminent
  • Washington, D.C. "Super Lawyer" (2014 to 2023)
  • Published author of "The Anatomy of a Creditors' Committee" in the 2008 edition of The Role of Creditors' Committees in Chapter 11 Bankruptcies

Memberships

  • American Bar Foundation: Fellow
  • The Florida Bar Out of State Division
    • President
    • Executive Council
  • District of Columbia Bar
    • Bankruptcy Committee Chair (2 years)
  • The Florida Bar
    • Board of Governors (2021 to present)
    • Business Law Section
      • Executive Council
      • Bankruptcy/UCC Committee: Past Chair
      • Judicial Liaison Committee: Past Co-Chair
      • Liaison Chair to the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants
    • Pro Bono Legal Services Committee
  • Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association
    • Board of Directors: Former Member
  • American Bankruptcy Institute 
    • Board of Directors
    • Commercial & Regulation Law Committee: Co-Chair

Publications

Articles

Prior Positions

  • Judicial Intern to Chief Bankruptcy Judge Alexander L. Paskay
  • Judicial Intern to the judges of Florida’s Twelfth Judicial Circuit

Military Service

  • U.S. Navy Officer and Procurement Contracting Officer: Submarine and Aviation Service (1977 to 1989)
    • Navy Commendation Medal (2)
    • Navy Achievement Medal (2)
    • Expeditionary Medal

Admissions

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
  • U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida
  • U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Florida
  • U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida
  • U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
  • District of Columbia
  • Florida

Education

  • J.D., Stetson University College of Law, 1991, cum laude
  • B.A., University of Florida, 1977