Albert Togut

For the past 44 years, Albert Togut has specialized in bankruptcy law to the exclusion of all other areas of practice. In 1980, he formed the firm of Togut, Segal & Segal LLP, a bankruptcy boutique.

The firm has served as court-authorized counsel to the debtor or official committee, or principal owner in some of the largest and highest profile Chapter 11 cases, including Lehman Brothers' Aurora (mortgage origination and servicer unit) (lead Debtor’s counsel), Pacific Drilling (lead Debtor’s counsel), Toisa Shipping (lead Debtor’s counsel, Westinghouse (lead Debtor’s counsel for non-U.S. Debtors), Sun Edison (co-counsel with Skadden to the Debtors), Aeropostale (co-counsel with Weil to the Debtors), American Airlines (co-counsel with Skadden to the UCC), Kodak (co-counsel with Milbank to the UCC), General Motors (conflicts counsel with Weil to the Debtors), Chrysler Automotive (co-counsel with Jones Day to the Debtors), Dewey & LeBeouf (lead counsel to the Debtors), Relativity Media (counsel  to the UCC), Avaya (conflicts counsel with Weil to the Debtors), Nautilus (counsel to the principal owner), Ambac Financial, AbitibiBowater Inc. (for the BCFC Debtor in the cross-border multibillion dollar restructuring); A&P (conflicts counsel with KIirkland to the Debtors), Enron (co-counsel with Weil to the Debtors), Delphi Automotive (conflicts counsel with Skadden to the Debtors), Collins & Aikman, St. Vincent’s Hospitals, Charter Communications, Loehman’s, Frontier Airlines, Tower Automotive, Winn-Dixie, Ames Department Stores, Loew's Cineplex, SK Global, Daewoo International (America) Corp. (which together with its Korean parent underwent the largest non-sovereign debt restructuring in history with aggregate liabilities exceeding $70 billion); Allegiance Telecom, OnSite Access, joan and david helpern inc. (the famous luxury footwear and accessory retail chain); and ContiFinancial Corporation, et al. (consumer finance companies responsible for originating, purchasing, selling and/or servicing billions of dollars in home equity loans).

The firm was also lead Debtor’s counsel to Rockefeller Center Properties, et al., Case No. 95 B 42089 (PCB), and Olympia & York Tower B Company, Case No. 96 B 42186 (JLG), better known as the World Financial Center, which involved a $1 billion restructuring of a 43-story commercial office building located at Two World Financial Center at Battery Park in Manhattan. Mr. Togut served as lead counsel to Grubb & Ellis, Co., an international real estate brokerage and property management company, with more than 100 offices and revenue exceeding $500 million that was sold as a going concern in a transaction approved by the Bankruptcy Court in less than 45 days following the commencement of the Chapter 11 case.

Since 1981, he has been an active member of the trustee panel maintained by the Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York and has served as Trustee in bankruptcy in several thousand bankruptcy cases, under Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code, including Refco, LLC (registered commodities broker) which at $4 billion, is the largest Chapter 7 case in the history of bankruptcy; Anthracite Capital, Inc., a specialty real estate finance company that invested in commercial real estate assets;  Kingston Square (which owned apartment complexes subject to secured claims of approximately $400 million), and Axona International Credit & Commerce Limited (the liquidation of a Hong Kong banking institution).

Mr. Togut is registered as a mediator in the Southern District of New York.  He was appointed Mediator for the dispute with the Noteholders of Solutia Inc, et al that was settled for $220.5 million. In Calpine, he represented the Court-appointed valuation expert who was appointed to assist the Court in evaluating the $10 billion spread between competing estate values which Mr. Togut resolved by consensual agreement of the parties allowing the Court to have an uncontested confirmation hearing.  Mr. Togut was asked to mediate close to 100 adversary proceedings which were commenced in the Conseco cases in Chicago, nearly all of which he settled.

Mr. Togut is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, a Fellow of the International Insolvency Institute, co-Chair of the Commission of the American Bankruptcy Institute (“ABI”) that studied the reform of Chapter 11 and past Officer and ABI Director and Chair of its New York City program;  he also served on the ABI’s fee-study commission that studied professional fees in chapter 11 business bankruptcy cases. The ABI’s fee commission’s report provides the most comprehensive, independent look at professional fees in chapter 11 cases to date.  Mr. Togut was twice a member of the Committee on Bankruptcy and Reorganization of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, a member of the International Bar Association, and is an Advisory Board member of the LLM in Bankruptcy program at St. John’s University School of Law, a past President of the Bankruptcy Lawyers Bar Association of New York.

For six years, he chaired a Task Force of the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the American Bar Association, Section of Business Law, that analyzed disclosure statement requirements and confirmation practices in Chapter 11 cases.  He has written and lectured on many topics under the former Bankruptcy Act and current Bankruptcy Code and has particular expertise in conflicts of interest and ethics. He has received the New York Institute of Credit Leadership Award and was also the recipient of the Prof. Lawrence P. King award.  He was named as a New York Super Lawyer for since 2007 and has been named in the Top 100 lawyers in New York, and has been repeatedly chosen as a "Leading Lawyer by Chambers USA.

Mr. Togut is admitted to the New York bar, U.S. District Court, Southern, Eastern Districts of New York, and Eastern District of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and U.S. Supreme Court.  He has degrees from New York University (B.S., 1971) (Beta Gamma Sigma. Founders Day Scholar) and St. John's University (J.D., 1974).