J. Leland Murphree is Special Counsel in the Firm’s Nashville office and a member of the Insolvency and Financial Law practice group. Mr. Murphree represents debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, committees, fiduciaries, investors, indenture trustees, and bondholders, in a wide range of complex disputes and distressed matters. He represents the interests of U.S. and foreign clients in Chapter 11 and Chapter 9 bankruptcies, receiverships, and other insolvency proceedings, as well as out-of-court restructurings, workouts and liquidations across the United States and internationally. He has experience in all areas of bankruptcy and insolvency and has significant experience with state and federal receiverships, the purchase and sale of distressed assets in bankruptcy and receiverships, distressed investing and transactions, post-petition financing, extra-judicial remedies, and complex bankruptcy and commercial litigation, including lender liability, preferential transfer, fraudulent transfer and other avoidance actions.

Mr. Murphree has a wide range of experience involving complex financing and investment structures and handles matters with unique restructuring issues, including higher education, healthcare and senior living, agribusiness, government contracts, energy, construction, public finance, tax credit investments, and factoring and asset-based lending.

Awards and Honors

  • Chambers USA: Leading Practitioner in the area of Bankruptcy/Restructuring (2018 – present)
  • American Bankruptcy Institute: 2018 Class of “Top 40 Under 40” Emerging Leaders in Insolvency Practice
  • Best Lawyers in America© for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law (2019 – present), Litigation: Bankruptcy (2018 – present), and Commercial Litigation (2023 – present)
  • Mid-South Super Lawyers (formerly Alabama Super Lawyers): “Rising Star” in Bankruptcy: Business (2014 – present)
  • Birmingham Business Journal’s “Rising Stars in Law” (2019)

Professional Involvement

  • Turnaround Management Association, Alabama Chapter, Past-President, 2018
  • Alabama State Bar Bankruptcy & Commercial Law Section, Past-Chairman, 2016-2017
  • American Bankruptcy Institute Southeastern Bankruptcy Workshop Advisory Board
  • Member, Alabama Law Institute Committee on Uniform Fraudulent/Voidable Transfer Laws
  • Member, Alabama Bankruptcy Pro Bono Task Force
  • Member, Birmingham Bar Association, Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section
  • Member, American Bankruptcy Institute
  • Member, Tennessee Bar Association
  • Member, American Bar Association

 

  • Represented sewer bond liquidity provider in Jefferson County’s $3.2 Billion Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the largest Chapter 9 filing in history at the time.
  • Lead debtor’s counsel to an agribusiness concern in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring.
  • Represented large trade creditor in negotiations and continued provision of services in In re Westinghouse Electric Co. in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, obtaining full recovery.
  • Represented purchaser in the $15 Million acquisition of a manufacturing business in a 363 sale, outbidding the stalking horse purchaser in a highly competitive auction, navigating complicated hurdles, including WARN Act claims and protests by union employees.
  • Represented for-profit educational institution with over 75 campuses and 20,000 students nationwide in obtaining one of the first, self-imposed “restructuring receiverships” in the country, and further acted as special receivership counsel to the court-appointed receiver, obtaining emergency financing, auctioning and selling a going-concern college, selling $36 Million in accounts receivable, and addressing over $520 Million in claims.
  • Lead bankruptcy counsel to national investment bank in the defense of successor liability and fraudulent transfer claims in excess of $24 Million in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
  • Counsel to unsecured creditors committee of a bankrupt home healthcare provider in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee, negotiating a joint plan with the Debtor that paid all unsecured creditors in full, with interest.
  • Represented stalking horse purchaser in a $10 Million acquisition of oil and gas assets in a 363 sale in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
  • Lead debtor’s counsel to a historically black, nonprofit college in Alabama in its orderly wind down, teach-out and liquidation, obtaining over $2 Million in emergency financing, preserving and liquidating a 50+ ac. campus and recovering disputed funds from the U.S. Department of Education.
  • Represented purchaser of multiple grocery stores in In re Southeastern Grocers (Winn Dixie) in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
  • Counsel to receiver and Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee in multi-district receivership and bankruptcy proceedings of affiliated skilled nursing facilities in Alabama and Texas with over 330 beds, preserving and liquidating assets and successfully pursuing claims against former owners/operators.
  • Lead receivership counsel for national for-profit educational institution in its acquisition of a large, for-profit college system in Missouri state court receivership proceedings.
  • Represented Singapore-based Tech Company in the acquisition of intellectual property assets of a U.S. technology company through UCC foreclosure.
  • Represented stalking horse purchaser in the acquisition of multiple grocery stores in a 363 sale in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
  • Represented national financial institution in multiple workouts and lender liability lawsuits involving $50+ Million in variable rate demand notes and derivatives.
  • Represented U.S. client in resolving disputes with Indonesian company and Malaysian secured lender over airplanes and aircraft engines located in the U.S. and Southeast Asia.
  • Lead insolvency counsel to indenture trustee and bondholders in the workout and litigation of over $25 Million in bonds secured by special assessments issued by improvement districts.
  • Represented institutional investors and municipality in workouts of multiple distressed tax credit investment projects in Tennessee and Alabama, dealing with EB-5 investments and politically-sensitive issues.
  • Represented institutional bondholder in restructuring $7.8 Million in defaulted bonds issued by 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Louisiana.

Mr. Murphree earned his J.D. from The University of Memphis- Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. He earned his B.A. in History from Samford University.

Additional Specialties

Workouts and Restructuring
Higher Education
Senior Living and Long-Term Care
Finance Law