Avery Samet is a founding member of the firm and an experienced trial lawyer in federal and state courts across the country. Avery has particular expertise in complex commercial or financial disputes involving bankruptcy, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, hidden assets, distressed investments, or other matters stemming from corporate dissolutions. Avery has also has extensive experience conducting investigations for corporations, trustees, creditors’ committees and other fiduciaries.
Examples of Avery's experience include:
- Represents the Chapter 7 trustee of TransCare, Inc., a regional ambulance service and paratransit provider, in connection with its $60 million suit for breach of fiduciary duty and fraudulent transfer against Lynn Tilton, TransCare’s sole director, and Patriarch Partners, TransCare’s secured lender.
- Represents the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors for Absolut Facilities Management, LLC and its affiliated debtors-in-possession.
- Recovered $15 million for the liquidating trustee of FCC Holdings, Inc, a for-profit educational institution, in connection with litigation alleging that the former corporate officers breached their fiduciary duties when managing student loan funds drawn from the United States Department of Education.
- Represents the brand-owner of some of the most iconic brands in America in connection with its licensing and contract disputes. In November 2019, Avery obtained a reversal from the 10th Circuit of a preliminary injunction entered against the company.
- Represented the former CEO of LightSquared Inc. in his confirmation challenge to LightSquared’s multi-billion plan of reorganization, through the proceedings in the bankruptcy court, the district court and the Second Circuit.
- Represented the holder of a $20 million judgment in simultaneous litigation before the Southern District and Supreme Court of New York, seeking to recover real estate interests held by the judgment debtor in affiliated entities. This matter involved innovative trial work before the Supreme Court in which Avery obtained dismissal of an allegedly collusive suit brought to frustrate the judgment as well as motion practice and trial preparation before the district court.
- Represented the chapter 11 trustee of Peninsula Hospital Center and Peninsula General Nursing Home in connection with investigations and litigations against the institutions’ officers, directors, DIP lenders, pre-bankruptcy and post-bankruptcy attorneys, accounting firms and other parties-in-interest. In addition, as special insurance counsel to the trustee, Avery, successfully resolved a dispute with the hospital’s third-party health insurance administrator through which all employees’ claims were processed and paid and the administrator agreed to contribute its own funds.
- Represented the estates of Ames Department Stores, Inc. and Value City Department Stores, Inc. in numerous preference actions seeking the return of over $250 million, tried over a dozen major cases, and innovated numerous procedural mechanisms to creatively resolve these cases at maximum benefit to the debtors’ estates.
- Successfully represented Ames Department Stores in its dispute with the Illinois Commissioner of Insurance acting as liquidator of the Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. in a ground-breaking dispute concerning the supremacy of the Bankruptcy Code and the McCarran-Ferguson Act. In December 2015, Avery obtained a decision from the Bankruptcy Court holding that the Bankruptcy Court, in these circumstances, provided for exclusive jurisdiction over and above that of the Illinois insurance court.
- Represented a creditor in the Northwestern Corp. bankruptcy seeking to avoid a pre-bankruptcy transfer of $1.8 billion of assets as fraudulent and seeking damages from the law firm representing both the transferor and transferee.
- Successfully represented a lender in connection with a multi-million accounts-receivable lending fraud against a borrower’s officers, directors and investors. Conducted an investigation and then successfully brought litigation in the Southern District of New York and in the Middle District of Florida which resulted in an expedited and favorable settlement for our client.
- Represented the Chapter 7 trustee of e.spire communications, a national telecommunications company, and helped obtain a favorable settlement for claims arising out of an alleged accounting fraud perpetrated by the former director and officers of a mid-size, regional telecommunications company.
- Represented the Chapter 7 trustee of Kleinert’s Inc., a children’s clothing manufacturer in connection with the favorable settlement of claims against the debtor’s former directors, officers and professionals arising out of an alleged scheme to defraud the debtor, its creditors and its lenders.
Recognition
In 2020-2023, Avery was named a top-rated business litigation attorney in New York by Super Lawyers. The Super Lawyers list is issued by Thomson Reuters. A description of the selection methodology can be found here.
Professional Memberships
Avery is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association.
