Restructuring Advisory/Chief Restructuring Officer Services

Consensus CEO Michael O’Hara was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the 18 bankruptcy estates of Casual Male Corp and J. Baker, Inc. by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York in 2002. Under his leadership, the Debtors sold their Work ‘n Gear, Casual Male, Repp Ltd. and LP Innovations businesses for approximately $180.0 million. At the time of his appointment, the Debtors listed approximately $354.0 million in liabilities subject to compromise.

Complicating the resolution of these cases was the fact that several of the Debtors’ businesses acted quasi-independently of one another, while sharing certain key elements of overhead such as bank lines and corporate services. Mr. O’Hara and his team conducted extensive forensic diligence on the historical cash flows of the businesses, which provided insight into the different debtor groups as if each was stand-alone. This analysis formed the basis for a global settlement among the Debtors’ various classes of trade creditors, bondholders and landlord creditors and ultimately paved the way for a consensual plan of liquidation.

Mr. O’Hara and his team of nine also attacked several grossly overstated and unverified claims, and began the process of reconciling over 1,500 disparate creditor claims. In December 2003, the Debtors made their first distribution of approximately 80 percent of the estates’ proceeds. The remaining proceeds were distributed in June 2004. In the end, creditors of the Casual Male estate received 100 cents on the dollar, while creditors of various other estates received between 8 and 50 cents on the dollar.