As bankruptcy and workouts have become more and more a part of commercial life, clients throughout the country and around the world have come to count on Baker Botts for guidance through the treacherous terrain of out-of-court workouts and reorganization cases. Our practice spans virtually every major industry group and geographic region of the country and includes representation of financially troubled companies, creditors, committees, asset acquirers and financial institutions in every aspect of complex reorganization proceedings.

At Baker Botts, we are innovators. For more than two decades now, lawyers at Baker Botts have lead the way as pioneers in cutting-edge areas of bankruptcy law. Baker Botts has been a leader in developing restructuring-focused solutions for companies struggling with mass tort liabilities, including assisting DynCorp in developing a bankruptcy solution for the asbestos problems confronting its subsidiary, Fuller-Austin Insulation Company. The result was the first-ever prepackaged plan dealing with mass tort claims. Since then, we have advised McDermott International, Inc., in connection with the tort-driven bankruptcy cases filed by its Babcock & Wilcox subsidiaries, and we acted as counsel to Halliburton Company in connection with the $4.1 billion prepackaged bankruptcy plan developed to deal with the asbestos- and silica-related liabilities of its Dresser Industries and Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiaries.

Baker Botts currently represents ASARCO, one of the leading producers of copper and one of the leading nonferrous metal producers in the United States, in its chapter 11 case pending in Corpus Christi, Texas. Our representation of ASARCO began with its efforts to devise a bankruptcy solution for asbestos problems relating to two of ASARCO's subsidiaries which filed for chapter 11 relief in April 2005. That representation has now expanded to include representation of ASARCO in its chapter 11 reorganization. ASARCO's complex reorganization proceedings involve a litany of unique and challenging issues, including alleged environmental remediation obligations at approximately 75 sites in 21 states, over 91,000 asbestos-related personal injury claims, hundreds of millions of dollars of funded bond and lease debt, and labor issues involving the company's collective bargaining agreements and pension obligations.

The scope of our practice is broad. Baker Botts lawyers have been active in technology-related restructurings, representing PrimeStar, Inc., in its successful out-of-court restructuring of over $4 billion in bond and trade debt, and representing a broad spectrum of technology creditors and venture capitalists in high-tech restructurings throughout the country, including, most recently, representing Comtel in the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Var-Tec Telecom, and successfully representing a creditor in "bet the company" litigation in the bankruptcy case of Pinnacle Towers, a renter of wireless communications towers. In 2004, we acted as counsel to the debtor in the Corban Communications bankruptcy case.

In addition to helping clients in reorganization cases and out-of-court workouts, Baker Botts also represents clients in a broad range of bankruptcy-related litigation, ranging from straightforward preference actions to more complex matters, such as our recent successful defense of the former officers and directors of National Gypsum Company in post-confirmation litigation brought by NGC bondholders and asbestos tort claimants alleging over $1 billion in damages for purported breaches of fiduciary duties during NGC's bankruptcy case.