Bill D. Bensinger

Bill Bensinger focuses his practice on commercial disputes and bankruptcy and restructuring litigation. He represents creditors, franchisees, landlords, unsecured creditors’ committees and financial institutions in a wide variety of matters, including preference and avoidance actions, workout transactions and insolvency matters.

Bill represents franchisees in bankruptcy, including matters concerning the assumption of franchise agreements, and represents landlords in bank matters concerning the assumption of commercial leases. His work on behalf of financial institutions includes general creditor’s rights litigation, including cash collateral, relief from stay and plan confirmation issues.

Education:

• St. John's University School of Law, 2005, Masters of Laws in Bankruptcy
• Cumberland School of Law, 2003, J.D.

Admissions:

• Alabama, 2003

Awards & Recognition:

• Selected for inclusion by Alabama Super Lawyers® in 2012 – 2014 as a Rising Star in the field of Business Litigation (Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights)

Professional & Community Involvement:

• American Bankruptcy Institute: Member
• American Bar Association (ABA): Member
• Alabama State Bar: Member
• Coach of the Cumberland School of Law team for the annual Conrad B. Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition (2012 – 2014; 2008 – 2010)

Publications & Presentations:

• Context is King-Twombly, Iqbal and the Art of Pleading in Bankruptcy, Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser (November 2010).
• Jasco Tools, Inc. v. Dana Corp. – A Primer for Summary Judgment in Bankruptcy, Norton Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice (April 2010).
• Presenter – “Landlord-Tenant Rights in Bankruptcy,” University of Alabama School of Law CLE (August 2009).
• Modification of Collective Bargaining Agreements: Does a Breach Bar Rejection?, 13 Am. Bankr. Inst. L. Rev. 809 (2005).
• Are Proceeds Paid Under a Post-Bankruptcy Statute on Account of a Debtor’s Prepetition Loss Property of the Estate?, Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser (August 2005, at 2)
• Contributing author, Norton Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law

Representative Experience:

• Bullock v. BankChampaign, N.A., 133 S. Ct. 1754 (2013) – Counsel for respondent BankChampaign, N.A., in the Supreme Court’s only bankruptcy case in the October 2013 term, concerning a dispute over an exception to the bankruptcy discharge for debts incurred through “defalcation while acting in a fiduciary capacity.”
• Burgess v. Sikes, 438 F.3d 493 (5th Cir. 2003) – counsel for amici professors of law before the en banc Fifth Circuit, concerning the question of whether a crop disaster relief payment was property of the debtor’s estate.
• HB Logistics, LLC v. Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 5223 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. December 13, 2013) – counsel for defendant in a preference action successfully arguing that the Eleventh Circuit’s case In re Jet Florida System, Inc., does not require that the new value “remain unpaid.”