Alan M. Grochal

For 45 years, Alan has been representing debtors, creditors, and creditors’ committees in Chapter 11 proceedings, workouts, liquidations, and financial restructurings.  He chairs the firm’s bankruptcy/creditors’ rights department.  He and his team have represented clients in a variety of industries, including commercial and residential real estate.

Alan is equally experienced in the context of bankruptcy litigation and out-of-court workouts.  His practice includes the representation of:

• Trustees;
• Creditors’ committees;
• Secured creditors;
• Unsecured creditors;
• Debtors in Chapter 11 proceedings; and
• Creditors in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 proceedings.

Creditors’ Rights

He has served as lead counsel to creditors in a number of cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars of debt.  He represented the creditors’ committee in one of the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcies ever filed in Maryland, Combined Properties, Inc., a property management firm for 43 shopping centers; as a result of his efforts, his clients recovered 100 percent of the money the debtor owed them.  Similarly, he successfully represented a major lender in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Sunterra, a real estate investment trust that developed and owned timeshare properties internationally.

Alan has represented creditors’ committees in numerous other large Chapter 11 cases involving companies in a variety of industries, including an industrial painting contractor, a box company, a book publisher, a warehousing and distribution company, a shipyard, a retail chain of furniture stores, and a medical equipment manufacturer.

He currently serves as co-counsel to the creditors’ committee in the Chapter 11 case of TMST, Inc., formerly known as Thornburg Mortgage, Inc., a publicly traded, New Mexico-based subprime lender.

Alan is also currently serving as Receiver for Trans Healthcare, Inc. (“THI”) and more than 40 affiliated companies.  THI owned and/or operated a chain of nursing homes in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.  In connection with this receivership, he has been involved in extensive litigation matters in Florida that have spawned more than 20 reported decisions from the United States Bankruptcy Court in Tampa, Florida.  Despite the fact that THI has nearly $15 Million in creditors, a significant distribution has been made to all creditors.

Debtor Representation

Alan's debtor representations have included a psychiatric hospital, a chain of 75 primary care physician practices, a stevedoring company, a company that invents and manufactures medical equipment, and a sports management company.  He currently represents and negotiated a sale of Montgomery County, Maryland’s largest taxi company after having fashioned an innovative corporate reorganization plan by which the company sold a number of its taxi licenses directly to drivers, thus shifting the insurance burden away from the company and generating revenue to repay creditors.

Most recently, he represented a plastic container manufacturer in the sale of its business through a Chapter 11 proceeding.  The company was initially valued at $7-$10 million, but eventually sold for more than $26 million.  He handled this complex case, including termination of both the debtor’s pension and ESOP plans, in a six-month period and was able to secure full payment to all creditors.  Based on Alan’s work, the Ohio Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association recognized him with its "2015 Transaction of the Year" award and the Global M&A Network selected Tydings as a finalist in “Small Mid Markets Cross Border Distressed M&A Deal of the Year” at its 2015 Turnaround Atlas Awards, which honors the global restructuring and turnaround communities.

An experienced appellate attorney, he also represented a high-profile client in In re Solomon, 67 F.3d 1128 (4th Cir. 1995), an historically significant appellate case that established that individual retirement accounts are exempt under Maryland law and do not constitute disposable income under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Leadership

Alan was an instructor for the Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers for 15 years, and he has been a frequent speaker for accountants, credit managers, and judges.  He also served on the board of directors of the Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Association (1995-1996).

Since 2013, Chambers USA has recognized he as a leader and notable practitioner in the area of bankruptcy litigation.  He was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2014 in the field of Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law.  He has been selected for inclusion continuously since 2009.  Since 2010, Alan has received recognition for his work in the area of bankruptcy/creditors rights in Benchmark Litigation, a publication of Euromoney/Legal Media Group.

In 2017 and 2023, Best Lawyers in America named Alan "Lawyer of the Year" in Baltimore for his bankruptcy practice.  He has been continuously named to the Best Lawyers list since 2009.

In 2011, he was named by Maryland Super Lawyers as one of the top 50 attorneys in the state, and, in 2013, was also named by the Maryland Super Lawyers as one of the top attorneys in Maryland for for his bankruptcy and creditor/debtor rights practice.  He has been listed in Maryland Super Lawyers magazine since 2007. Only five percent of the lawyers in the state are named by Super Lawyers.  The selections are made by the research team at Super Lawyers, which is a service of the Thomson Reuters, Legal Division.  Alan is AV® Peer Review Rated – the highest possible peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell.