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Christopher J. Panos, Managing Shareholder Craig and Macauley Professional Corporation |
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Areas of Practice
Christopher J. Panos is the Managing Shareholder of Craig and Macauley Professional Corporation where he concentrates in general business law, mergers and acquisitions, commercial litigation, and insolvency matters including bankruptcy and business reorganization. Mr. Panos also represents lenders and borrowers in the negotiation and documentation of commercial finance transactions, loan workouts and restructurings. Clients have found that Mr. Panos’s broad experience and skills in these practice areas results in effective and efficient representation and facilitates unique strategic consideration in complex matters.
Mr. Panos is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of bankruptcy law. He has consistently been named a Massachusetts and New England “SuperLawyer” and in 2006 was recognized as a “Top 100” attorney in Massachusetts by the publishers of Law & Politics and Boston Magazine. In 2008, he was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy.
Representative Matters
Mr. Panos has a diverse practice that includes representation of clients in corporate and transactional matters, litigation, and insolvency matters. He has represented individuals, privately-owned businesses, and public companies in a wide range of matters from routine business issues involving contracts, employment, compliance and governance to high-stakes litigation, acquisitions, and reorganizations or restructurings of debt and equity. Mr. Panos has also represented a number of lawyers and accountants in connection with a variety of business issues, dissolution plans, and firm liability issues.
Recent engagements reflect the scope of Mr. Panos’s practice.
Mr. Panos recently represented a long-standing privately-held client in connection with the sale of its embedded systems solutions and consulting business to a larger solutions company located in Silicon Valley. Mr. Panos also represented Brine, Inc., a leading manufacturer of lacrosse, soccer and other sporting goods equipment, in connection with its acquisition by New Balance, Inc. He represented a private equity fund client in a staged transaction resulting in a $225 million acquisition of energy-related assets and businesses located in California and Texas. Mr. Panos represented Bruegger’s Bagel Corporation and its affiliates in connection with a number of restructurings and transactions in various regions of the country culminating in the acquisition of all assets of that business. He also represented a private equity fund client in the buy out of a significant institutional partner. Mr. Panos has represented clients in connection with the sale or acquisition of businesses involving manufacturing, technology, trucking and logistics, healthcare, and other industries.
Mr. Panos represented the City of Boston in litigation involving a challenge by US Airways of certain tax assessments for aircraft and related equipment. He successfully tried the defense of a multi-million dollar claim against a prominent Boston law firm arising from the alleged malfeasance of one of its former partners relating to investment activity with an entity that claimed to be a client of that firm. The judgment removed an obstacle to the establishment of a settlement fund for other clients of the firm that was structured and negotiated by Mr. Panos with insurers and claimants in a Chapter 11 reorganization plan. Mr. Panos also serves as Boston counsel to a large national bank in connection with litigation of fraud and conspiracy claims arising from an alleged scheme that resulted in a loss exceeding $25 million. He has represented other clients in a wide-range of recent commercial litigation and appeals involving claims against officers and directors, contract disputes, asbestos liability and related insurance coverage, and arising from finance agreements.
Mr. Panos currently represents Iron Age Corporation and Iron Age Canada Ltd. in their chapter 11 proceedings pending in the United States and in connection with ancillary proceedings pending in Canada. Iron Age manufactures and sells protective footwear under its brand names and other brand names from more than 200 fixed and mobile or “in plant” stores in the United States and Canada. He also recently represented Cornell Trading, Inc., which operated more that seventy-five April Cornell™ retail stores throughout the United States, in connection with its chapter 11 proceedings. He represented a regional home healthcare company in its successful reorganization and a large group of real estate entities and automobile dealerships located in New England and Florida in a successful debt restructuring. Mr. Panos represented the Official Committees of Unsecured Creditors in the chapter 11 proceedings of Toysmart.com and also of Learningsmith, Inc. He represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of RoweCom, Inc. in connection with RoweCom’s Chapter 11 proceedings and those of its corporate parent, Divine, Inc. and currently serves as plan trustee under RoweCom’s confirmed plan of reorganization. He recently represented a national manufacturer of branded food products in connection with debtor in possession financing provided to one of its co-packers to facilitate the filing of a chapter 11 proceeding pending in Arkansas. Mr. Panos has also represented other clients in numerous other recent insolvency and bankruptcy matters, including debtors, secured creditors, lessors, acquirors, and unsecured creditors.
Awards and Professional Activities
Mr. Panos is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of bankruptcy law. He has been named a Massachusetts and New England “SuperLawyer” and in 2006 was recognized as a “Top 100” attorney in Massachusetts by the publishers of Law & Politics and Boston Magazine. In 2008, he was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy.
Mr. Panos was appointed to the Attorney Advisory Board of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts when that board was formed in 2003 and continues to serve on that Board. In 2004, Mr. Panos was appointed to and served on the Bankruptcy Judge Merit Selection Panel for the District of Massachusetts. Mr. Panos is included in the list of approved Masters/Receivers/Arbitrators for the Superior Court Department of the Trial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Mr. Panos is a member of the American, Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations and their Business Law, Litigation and Bankruptcy Law Sections. He is a past Chair of the Bankruptcy Law Section of the Boston Bar Association (1998-2000) and member of the Nominating Committee of the Boston Bar Association (1999). He remains a member of the Steering Committee for the Bankruptcy Law Section of the Boston Bar Association. Mr. Panos is also a member of the Turnaround Management Association and American Bankruptcy Institute.
Mr. Panos has published numerous articles and frequently speaks on business law topics and insolvency issues. Mr. Panos has spoken and served as Chair and Moderator for the Annual Bench Meets Bar program sponsored by the Boston Bar Association Bankruptcy Law Section, has spoken at the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Northeast Bankruptcy Conference, and has taught a portion of the Bankruptcy Law and Practice advanced legal studies course offered by Suffolk University Law School. Mr. Panos has spoken at the national conference of the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, the national CLE International Venture Capital Finance Conference, and the annual bankruptcy conference sponsored by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. He is also active in pro bono activities, including the Boston Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project and financial literacy program.
Mr. Panos has taught several courses in Writing and Advocacy at Boston University School of Law.
Bar and Court Admissions
Education
Mr. Panos received his A.B. from Georgetown University and his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Boston University School of Law.
