Offering Professional Guidance and a Personal Approach for Over 30 Years

Founded in 1978, Jager Smith has been committed to building long-term relationships with our clients, operating under the highest standards of service and ethics to address their unique and ever-changing legal needs. We work hard to achieve solid, measurable results for our clients.

Jager Smith serves the diverse legal needs of our sophisticated individual and corporate clients in the areas of:

Notable Experience

Will American Airlines CEO Pocket $20 Million Severance Payment? BAPCA § 503(c) Restrictions on Insider Severance Have No Teeth in Plan Confirmation
Timothy J. Durken examines the April 2013 American Airlines decision denying $20 million CEO severance payment under § 503(c) but seemingly adopting the exception set forth in In re Journal Register Co. allowing for the insider severance payment to be approved as part of a plan of reorganization if “reasonable” under § 1129(a)(4). Four days after the decision, American Airlines filed its plan of reorganization, conditioned on approval of the CEO severance payment, setting up a showdown on the “reasonableness” of the $20 million payment at confirmation.

CalPERS May Prevail Despite City of Stockton Bankruptcy Judge's "Unfair Discrimination" Warning
Timothy J. Durken discusses how CalPERS is likely to prevail in the City of Stockton, California bankruptcy if the Court accepts its position that the City’s pension obligations to CalPERS are executory contracts that can be assumed by the City in its “business judgment” notwithstanding the Bankruptcy Court’s power to impair public pension obligations in Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceedings. Read More

False Alarm? Convertible Bonds Unlikely to be Reduced by the Value of their Conversion Rights in Bankruptcy
Timothy J. Durken debunks the purported risk that convertible bond claims will be reduced by the value of their conversion rights in bankruptcy. Read More

You've Been WARNed: Delaware Bankruptcy Court Affirms Affiliated Company Liability for WARN Act Violations
Jonathan M. Horne discusses the recent Delaware Bankruptcy Court decision in favor of WARN Act class action claimants in In re Tweeter Opco, LLC. Read More

Recent Engagements

Jager Smith Serves as Lead Counsel to the Liquidating Trustee Appointed Pursuant to the Confirmed Liquidating Plan of Majestic Capital, Ltd. and Its Subsidaries: Jager Smith is serving as lead counsel to the Liquidating Trustee of six liquidating trusts created pursuant to the joint plan of liquidation confirmed in the Chapter 11 cases of Majestic Capital and five of its subsidiaries, which provided administrative and related services and products to group self-insured workers’ compensation insurance trusts in New York, California and other states. As lead counsel, Jager Smith has successfully resolved over $472 million of claims asserted by state regulatory agencies and participants in the group self-insured trusts, has favorably settled litigation seeking to recover millions of dollars for the benefit of one of the liquidating trusts, and is leading the investigation regarding the causes of action that exist against the companies’ former directors and officers. In addition, Jager Smith is addressing issues concerning Majestic Insurance Company, a California-based insurance company and an indirect subsidiary of Majestic Capital, and Twin Bridges (Bermuda), a reinsurance company located in Bermuda and a direct subsidiary of Majestic Capital. On behalf of the Liquidating Trustee, Jager Smith is working closely with the insurance regulators in California and Bermuda, including in connection with the California Department of Insurance’s efforts to liquidate Majestic Insurance.


Kingsbury Corporation et al.: Jager Smith represents the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Kingsbury Corporation and two related debtors. The lead debtor is the manufacturer of special-purpose high production assembly systems; special machining systems, including rotary index machines and transfer line machines; flexible manufacturing systems, machining centers, and vertical turning systems. The case is pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Hampshire.
Baytown Navigation Enterprises, Inc., et al.: Jager Smith represents the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Baytown Navigation Enterprises, Inc. (Omega Navigation) and its nine subsidiary debtors. The lead debtor, which is based in Athens, Greece, is a shipper of refined fuels such as gasoline and heating oil. The debtors, which own eight vessels and have a 50% interest in two other vessels, have debt of approximately $396 million. The case is pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Boston Generating, LLC: Jager Smith represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Boston Generating, LLC and its affiliated debtors in connection with the negotiation and confirmation of their joint plan of liquidation, which the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed. Prior to seeking bankruptcy protection, the debtors owned and operated the third-largest power generating portfolio in New England and labored under a debt load that exceeded $1.9 billion. Jager Smith also represented the Liquidating Trustee of the BosGen Liquidating Trust.
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W Hotel Bankruptcy Continues
Jager Smith has successfully represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of SW Hotel Venture LLC and its affiliated debtors. On November 14, 2011, the Plan was confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court, providing for a 100% dividend, with interest, for unsecured creditors. Most unsecured creditors received the first payment of one-third of their allowed claim. Thereafter, Prudential Insurance Company appealed to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) and the BAP reversed the confirmation order. The debtor then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals, where the case still resides.

Jager Smith and Kavinoky Cook Orchestrate Successful Purchase of Assets
Jager Smith, together with its co-counsel Kavinoky Cook, LLP of Buffalo, New York, succeeded in their representation of an asset buyer in the consolidated Chapter 11 proceedings of K. Van Bourgondien of Virginia, Inc. and Simple Pleasures Flowerbulbs & Perennials, Inc., both pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Attorney Michael J. Fencer of Jager Smith and Attorney David A. LoTempio of Kavinoky Cook negotiated the client's private purchase of all, or substantially all of the bankruptcy debtors' assets, and secured their client's acquisition through an Article 9 secured party sale of related intellectual property and trade names from a non-debtor affiliate of the debtors-in-possession. The parties closed the Court approved sale on May 31, 2012.

Jager Smith Attorneys' Recent Awards and Recognition
Jager Smith P.C. is pleased to announce that Attorneys Bruce F. Smith, Michael J. Fencer, Edward Gerard Jager, Andrew J. Ley, and Howard P. Blatchford, Jr., and Joanne D'Alcomo have been honored in Boston’s Top Rated Lawyers for 2012, a list of Top Rated Lawyers created by LexisNexis® utilizing its Martindale-Hubbell database. In that search, LexisNexis® tapped the comprehensive database of Peer Review Ratings™ to identify lawyers who have been rated by their peers to be AV® Preeminent™— the highest Peer Review Rating available. Ratings are established via confidential opinions of lawyers and members of the judiciary who have been invited to provide reviews of lawyers of whom they have professional knowledge.

Partners Bruce Smith and Michael Fencer were named to the list of top Bankruptcy lawyers in Boston, and partner Howard P. Blatchford, Jr. was named among the top rated in Boston for Commercial Litigation. Partners Edward Gerard Jager and Andrew J. Ley were named to the list of top Boston attorneys in Business/Commercial law and Real Estate law respectively.