Mr. Bentley's practice focuses on bankruptcy litigation and other complex commercial litigation. For more than two decades, he has handled a wide variety of disputes and investigations on behalf of official creditors' committees, creditor and investor groups, debtors, trustees and examiners in bankruptcy courts, district courts and courts of appeal.

Representative Matters

• Mr. Bentley heads the firm's Madoff Task Force and represents numerous defrauded investors in the Madoff Investment Securities bankruptcy.
  
  
• In the W.R. Grace bankruptcy, a mass tort bankruptcy involving litigation over the validity of billions of dollars of asserted asbestos claims, he represents the Official Committee of Equity Holders.
  
  
• In the Chrysler bankruptcy, he recently represented the Official Creditors' Committee in its investigation of fraudulent transfer and breach of fiduciary duty claims totalling billions of dollars against Daimler AG arising out of its 2007 restructuring and sale of Chrysler.
  
  
• In the bankruptcy of M. Fabrikant & Sons, he recently represented the post-confirmation litigation trust in a suit to recover more than $100 million diverted from the company. Prior to settling the suit, he obtained a pre-judgment attachment and injunction freezing all assets of Fabrikant's principals and affiliated companies.
  
  
• In the Bayou Group bankruptcy, he represented 70 former hedge fund investors in litigation brought by Bayou to recover their redemption payments. Achieved a global settlement resolving Bayou's claims at a net cost of less than one third of the amounts sought.
  
  
• In the Adelphia Communications Corp. bankruptcy, he represented FrontierVision noteholders at a six-week trial of intercompany claims, including $850 million of claims asserted against FrontierVision. The subsequent global settlement paid FrontierVision's noteholders $430 million, or 130 percent of par value.
  
  
• In the Adelphia Business Solutions (ABIZ) bankruptcy, he represented the Creditors Committee in litigation against ABIZ's corporate parent, Adelphia Communications Corp. After trial, obtained a bankruptcy court ruling estimating ACC's $70 million in claims at less than $3 million; that ruling was followed by a $200 million settlement of ABIZ's claims against ACC.
  
  
• In the WorldCom bankruptcy, he represented subordinated MCI bondholders in litigation opposing confirmation of WorldCom's initial plan of reorganization. After 3 1/2 months of intensive litigation, obtained a $334 million settlement for the bondholder class, increasing their recovery from zero to 44 percent.
  
  
• In the Enron bankruptcy, he represented Southern California Edison in litigation over its claims against the Debtors, resulting in an $875 million settlement.
  
  
• In the NorthWestern Corp. bankruptcy, he represented subordinated bondholders in litigation opposing confirmation of the Debtors' initial plan of reorganization. Obtained a settlement valued at $120 million, more than four times the value provided by the initial plan.
  
  
• In the SGL Carbon bankruptcy, he represented the Creditors Committee in litigation resulting in a precedent-setting decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing SGL's chapter 11 petition on the ground that SGL had filed in bad faith, the first such ruling in a substantial chapter 11 case.
  
  
• In the Dow Corning bankruptcy, he prosecuted a wide variety of litigation on behalf of the Tort Claimants Committee, including litigation that blocked Dow Corning's plan of reorganization and eventually resulted in the confirmation of a far more generous consensual plan.
  
  
• In the Sharp International bankruptcy, he led an investigation and prosecuted litigation on behalf of Sharp resulting in recoveries for the estate and its creditors in excess of $20 million.
  
  
• In the Vlasic Foods bankruptcy, he led an investigation on behalf of the Creditors Committee of fraudulent conveyance and other claims against Campbell Soup Co. arising out of its $550 million spin-off of Vlasic.
  
  
• In the Coram Healthcare bankruptcy, he represented Independent Restructuring Advisor Harrison J. Goldin in his investigation of and report on alleged misconduct by Coram's CEO and principal lenders.
  
  
• In the Bruno's Inc. bankruptcy, he was co-lead author of Examiner Harrison J. Goldin's report into potential fraudulent conveyance and other claims arising out of Bruno's $1.2 billion leveraged recapitalization.

Mr. Bentley is an active speaker and writer on bankruptcy and litigation issues. Earlier this year, he chaired a Madoff litigation conference in New York City that was featured in a Fortune article entitled "Madoff 101: Total Immersion for Lawyers," and he has spoken at a number of other Madoff conferences. He has also been interviewed on ABC (Eyewitness News), CNBC (Street Signs) and National Public Radio about the Madoff litigation, and he has been quoted on this subject in numerous financial publications, including Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Times of London, Dow Jones Newswire, Reuters and Bloomberg. His recent publications include “Madoff 'Redeemers' Are Not Yet in the Clear: Lawsuits to Claw Back Profits, and Even Principal, Are Likely” (FinancierWorldwide, January 2009) and “Legal Battle Looms for Madoff Early Exiters” (The Deal, January 2009).

Mr. Bentley has been selected for inclusion in New York Super Lawyers in the areas of bankruptcy/creditors' rights and business litigation, a designation that represents the top five percent of Manhattan lawyers by practice area.

J.D., cum laude, Columbia Law School, 1984

•    Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar

B.A., cum laude, Yale University, 1981

New York, 1985

U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York

Member, American Bar Association
Member, Association of the Bar of the City of New York