Jason W. Bank

Jason is chair of the firm’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring Practice Group, with a focus on commercial bankruptcy, out-of-court workouts, and creditors’ rights. Jason also acts as counsel to numerous small- and middle-market businesses and business owners.  He also serves as the firm’s General Counsel.

Jason has successfully guided numerous businesses through out-of-court restructurings and Chapter 11 reorganizations. He has negotiated resolutions of complex financial issues and debtor-creditor disputes and achieved consensual restructurings while avoiding bankruptcy or litigation.  When necessary, Jason has filed Chapter 11 for businesses to help preserve their assets and operations. He has helped to successfully reorganize numerous businesses in a wide variety of industries, including automotive, retail, construction, education, real estate, sports and entertainment. He also assists parties with buying and selling assets out of bankruptcy. Finally, he has represented numerous closely held business owners in distressed situations.

Jason has considerable experience representing clients in connection with the health care industry. Many organizations within the health care industry—from physician groups to hospitals to health systems— are experiencing distress due to economic challenges, regulatory changes, technological advances, and competitive pressures. He helps clients navigate these challenges.

Jason also devotes a significant amount of his practice to the representation of creditors in distressed situations and workouts, providing counsel, negotiating resolutions, and initiating litigation, when necessary, to enforce his clients’ rights. He represents creditors across a wide variety of industries, with a particular emphasis on the automotive industry, including serving as creditors’ rights counsel to a Tier One auto supplier. He has prosecuted and defended numerous preferential transfer and fraudulent conveyance actions.

Jason is a certified mediator and  has helped to resolve numerous disputes arising from bankruptcy litigation. He serves as Vice Chair of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan’s Facilitative Mediation Panel. 

For ten years, Jason served as an adjunct professor of law at the Michigan State University College of Law. Jason is a former President of the Detroit Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association and served on the TMA’s Board of Directors for several years. He frequently lectures to professional and trade associations, and publishes on the subjects of bankruptcy, restructuring and related topics. 

Jason has consistently been recognized as a “Michigan Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters and was named one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Michigan by this publication for three years. He has also been recognized by Best Lawyers in America and has been selected as a Top Lawyer by DBusiness Magazine in the areas of Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor Rights and Insolvency and Reorganization Law. 

Jason is an active member in his community. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Saint Christine’s Christian Services, a soup kitchen and food pantry serving northwest Detroit. He has also volunteered in Scouting, youth sports leagues and served on the Southeast Michigan American Heart Association Metro Detroit Heart Walk Executive Cabinet.

Articles

• “Representing a Business in a Workout or Bankruptcy,” Michigan Bar Journal (October 2019)
• “Nuts and Bolts of Evaluating Third-Party Releases in Chapter 11 Plans,” American Bankruptcy Institute Journal (September 2018)