Stephen D. Lerner is chair of the firm’s Bankruptcy & Restructuring Practice Group. He has an extensive national restructuring practice in which he represents debtors, committees of unsecured creditors, secured and unsecured creditors, equity interest holders and acquirers of troubled businesses in Chapter 11 reorganization cases and out-of-court restructurings throughout the United States. Mr. Lerner has led the representation of the firm’s clients in the bankruptcies of Chrysler, Enron and EaglePicher, among many others.

Mr. Lerner was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy in 2002 and currently serves as the Regent for the 6th Circuit. He has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America each year since 1997 and, for 2010, was named Best Lawyers’ 2010 Cincinnati Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Lawyer of the Year. Since 2004 Mr. Lerner has been placed in the highest echelon of Ohio’s bankruptcy and restructuring lawyers by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers and, in 2009, Mr. Lerner was honored by Chambers as one of only seven bankruptcy and restructuring lawyers in the United States to receive a Star Individual ranking. Mr. Lerner is a perennial Ohio Super Lawyer and, in 2007, was honored as one of the top 10 overall Super Lawyers in the state of Ohio. He also was selected for inclusion in each edition of The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers since 2007 and appears in PLC Which lawyer? Yearbook 2009, The Legal 500 US 2009 and Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World’s Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers.

In addition to numerous bar associations, Mr. Lerner is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, a founder of the board of the Tri-State Association for Corporate Renewal and a member of the Executive Committee of the Midwest Regional Bankruptcy Seminar. He frequently lectures throughout the United States on bankruptcy and restructuring issues.

Representative Experience

• Recent committee engagements include: Chrysler (Ad Hoc Committee of Chrysler Affected Dealers), Enron Corp., Mesaba Aviation, SHC, Inc. (Top-Flite), J. Peterman, Advanced Marketing Services (committee member), Phar-Mor (committee member) and F&M Distributors (committee member).
  

• Recent debtor/company engagements include:
  EaglePicher Holdings, WorldCom, Station Casinos (Special Counsel), Dominion Homes, Kenwood Towne Place, All American Semiconductor, WCI Steel, Lodestar Energy, Schulte Metal Finishing, Astro Container, Beechknoll Nursing Homes and Brendamour’s, Inc.
  

• Recent institutional lender/investor/creditor engagements include:
  General Motors, Lehman Brothers, Madoff Investment Securities, Fountainebleau Las Vegas, Calpine, Refco, DBSI, Inc., Aleris International, Z Gallerie, American Home Mortgage, Ownit Mortgage Solutions, Crew Creative Advertising, Walker Wood Products, Tropicana Entertainment, Wornick, National Century Financial Enterprises, Harvey Electronics, Levitz Furniture, Chiquita Brands International, Casey Tool, Commercial Alloys Corporation, Ames Department Stores, Baldwin Piano and Organ, Elder-Beerman Stores, Adelphia Communications, Loewen Group, Carlton Cove, Furnas Farms, Gencor and PRS Insurance Group.