Robert J. Keach

An experienced, widely respected bankruptcy practitioner.

Robert J. “Bob” Keach is co-chair of Bernstein Shur’s Business Restructuring and Insolvency Practice Group, practicing in the area of bankruptcy, reorganization, and workouts. Bob’s practice focuses on the representation of various parties in workouts and bankruptcy cases, including debtors, creditors, creditors committees, lessors and third parties acquiring troubled companies and/or their assets. Bob has appeared before the bankruptcy courts in the Districts of New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Delaware, the Northern District of California and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, among others. He regularly appears as a panelist on national bankruptcy, lender liability and creditors’ rights programs, and is the author of several articles on bankruptcy and creditors’ rights appearing in the ABI Law Review, Commercial Law Journal and ABI Journal, among other publications. Bob is admitted to practice in both state and federal courts in Maine and Massachusetts, as well as the First, Second, Seventh and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Bob is an Adjunct Professor (Cross-Border Insolvency; Business Bankruptcy) at Boston College Law School.

Selected National Engagements
Bob represented the creditors committee in EYP Group Holdings, Inc. in the District of Delaware, and the secured lender and purchaser in Gold Standard Baking, also in Delaware. He was co-counsel for the victorious petitioner in a case before the Supreme Court of the United States, Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology LLC, 139 S.Ct. 1652 (2019). Bob is the estate representative (and formerly, the chapter 11 trustee) in the cross-border railroad reorganization of Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway, Ltd. He has, inter alia, represented ad hoc committees in the Homebanc Mortgage, New Century TRS Holdings, and Nortel Networks cases in Delaware, as well as a public utilities commission in the FairPoint Communications case in the Southern District of New York, and parties in In re Sports Authority Holdings, Inc. (Delaware), In re Verso Corporation (Delaware), In re Heritage Home Group (Delaware), In re The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. (Delaware), and In re Toys R Us, Inc. (E.D. Va.). Bob represents international private equity funds in distressed company acquisitions throughout the U.S. both in and outside of chapter 11 cases.

Selected Fiduciary and Fee Examiner Engagements
Bob is currently the fee examiner for a post-confirmation trust in a mass tort Chapter 11 Case. He served as the court-appointed fee examiner in the chapter 11 case for LTL Management, LLC in the District of New Jersey. Bob is also currently the fee examiner as to all professionals retained by the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico in connection with non-Title III services. He served as the court- appointed fee examiner in the following chapter 11 cases: AMR Corporation (the chapter 11 cases of American Airlines and its parent and certain affiliates, filed in the SDNY), Exide Technologies (D. Del.), Mineral Park (D. Del.), Relativity Media (SDNY), Intelsat SA. et al. (E.D. Va.), and Murray Energy Holdings, et al (S.D. Ohio). Among other private engagements, Bob was retained by a litigation trust formed pursuant to a plan of arrangement sanctioned under Canada’s Companies Creditors Arrangement Act to review, and advise the trust’s board with respect to, the conduct of the trustee and its counsel in prosecuting multi-billion dollar cross border fraud and fraudulent transfer litigation.

Publications:

Robert J. Keach and Albert Togut, Amicus Brief on Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum Company, Inc., Counsel for Amici Curiae, No. 22-1079, Supreme Court of the United States (March 2024)

Robert J. Keach and Adam R. Prescott, Confirming Nonconsensual Plans in Subchapter V: Exploring the “Projected Disposable Income” Requirement and What It Means (And Does Not Mean) For Small Business Debtors, 32 No. 2 J. Bankr. L. & Prac. NL Art. 1 (June 2023)

Robert J. Keach and Adam R. Prescott, Balancing Act: How the Small Business Reorganization Act Facilitates Successful Reorganizations (And How Judicial “Rebalancing” Could Affect That Success), 31 No. 6 J. Bankr. L. & Prac. NL Art. 1 (December 2022)

“President Biden Signs Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment and Technical Corrections Act into Law”, ABI Journal (August 2022)

Robert J. Keach and Lindsay Zahradka Milne, The Unconstitutional Confluence of Statutory Mootness Under Bankruptcy Code §363(m) and Bankruptcy Courts’ Discretion Under Rule 6004(h), 71 Syracuse Law Review 493 (2021)

Robert J. Keach and Lindsay Zahradka Milne, Persuasive Authority: Compelled Third-Party Releases, 37 ABI Journal 12 (December 2018)

Robert J. Keach and Andrew C. Helman, Life After Jevic: An End to Priority-Skipping Distributions?, 36 ABI Journal 9 (September 2017)

Robert J. Keach and Brady C. Williamson, The Boomerang Effect: Is There a Contract Exception to ASARCO?, 35 ABI Journal 14 (April 2016)

Chapter 11 as a Liquidation Tool: Legal, Tactical and Practical Considerations for Debtors, Lenders and Buyers, Collier Guide to Chapter 11: Key Topics and Selected Industries, ^ [4.01] (Alan N. Resnick and Henry J. Sommer eds.) (2015)

Robert Keach and Al Togut, The ABI Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 Enters Its Second Year, ABL Advisor (2013)

Commission to Explore Overhauling Chapter 11, 30 ABI Journal 5, 36-37, 83 (June 2011)

Rule 2004 as a Pre-Litigation Tool in a Post-Twombly/Iqbal World: Part II, 29 ABI Journal 28 (November 2010)

Rule 2004 as a Pre-Litigation Tool in a Post-Twombly/Iqbal World: Part I, 29 ABI Journal 28 (October 2010)

Declarations and Affidavits: Using And Defending Against Written “Nontestimonial” Evidence, 28 ABI Journal 1, 20, 68-69 (February 2009)

Selecting, Qualifying an Expert in Bankruptcy Proceedings: One Type Does Not Fit All, 27 ABI Journal 2, 26, 71-74 (March 2008)

Selecting, Qualifying an Expert in Bankruptcy Proceedings: One Type Does Not Fit All: Part I, 27 ABI Journal 1, 26, 76-77 (Feb. 2008)

BAPCPA and WARN Act ‘Back Pay’: Now, Timing Isn’t Everything, 24 ABI Journal 26 (Dec./Jan. 2006)

Dead Man Filing Redux: Is the New Individual Chapter Eleven Unconstitutional?, 13 AM BANKR. INST. L. REV.  483 (Winter 2005)

Afterlife, Reincarnation or Purgatory? Post-confirmation Jurisdiction in the First Circuit, 24 ABI Journal 24 (Oct. 2005)

Solvent Debtors and Myths of Good Faith and Fiduciary Duty, 23 ABI Journal 36 (Jan. 2005)

Stalking –Horse Lenders and Good Faith: The Availability of Appellate Protection Under §§363(m) and 364(e) For Asset Purchasers Extending DIP Financing, 23 ABI Journal 28 (June 2004)

When the Committee is Not and When the Committee is No More, 22 ABI Journal 34 (Jan. 2004)

A Hole in the Glove: Why ‘Negotiation’ Should Trump ‘Solicitation’, 22 ABI Journal 22 (June 2003)

The Case Against KERPS, American Bankruptcy Institute (2003)

LaSalle, the “Market Test” and Competing Plans: Still in the Fog, 21 ABI Journal 18 (Dec. /Jan. 2003)

The Continued Unsettled State of Constructive Trusts In Bankruptcy: Of Butner, Federal Interests and the Need for Uniformity, 103 COM. L. J. 411 (Winter 1998)

“Free To Wander the Commercial Meadows”: Controlling Debtor (and Creditor) Conduct in the Gap Period, American Bankruptcy Institute (1997)

Partner and Partnerships Bankruptcy: A Survey and Analysis of Case Law and Proposed Amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, American Bankruptcy Institute (1996)

Creditors Get “Gas”: The Unsettled State of Constructive Trusts in Bankruptcy After Columbia Gas and Omegas Group, American Bankruptcy Institute (1995)

Creditor Plans in Single-Asset Chapter 11 Cases: Some Issues and Considerations. Restructuring Real Estate Partnerships: Is There Life After Greystone?, American Bar Association (1992)

Negative Amortization Plans, Feasibility, and the Fair and Equitable Test. Current Developments, Restructuring Real Estate Partnerships: Is There Life After Greystone?, American Bar Association (1992)

Allocating Tax Payments Made During a Bankruptcy Case Fist to Trust Fund Taxes After United States v. Energy Resources Co., Inc,  39th Annual Colby College Estate Planning and Tax Institute (1992)

Termination of Commercial Credit Relationships and the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, Business Torts Seminar, MSBA (1990)

Partner and Partnership Bankruptcy: The Impact of the Filing of a Petition for Relief Under the Bankruptcy Code by a General Partner or a Partnership Upon the Partnership Assets, the Non-Filing Partners, and Partner and Partnership Creditors, Partnership Investment Seminar, MSBA (1990)