ZalkinRevell

Bankruptcy and financial reorganization attorneys

​​​Notable Cases
In re Seaside Engineering & Surveying, Inc. The attorneys at ZalkinRevell represented the Debtor through confirmation of a plan of reorganization in a case which the U.S. Bankruptcy Court referred to as the most highly litigated bankruptcy case in the Court's nearly 20 years on the bench. The Court referred to the case as a "death struggle" for the survival of the business. 

Ken conducted a Bankruptcy Rule 2004 Examination of the president and CEO of Vision Bank (the parent of the objecting entity). This examination revealed the highly suspect motivations of the objecting party as well as possible U.S. Securities violations with even more serious federal law implications. Ken also conducted a Rule 2004 Examination of an Ohio lawyer who was ostensibly acting on behalf of a consultant to Vision Bank. That deposition currently remains under seal by Federal Court Order.

Ken never lost his love for the land and the provision it yields. Even today Ken and his wife Tasha maintain a small livestock operation with the help of their children.  Ken insists that the most quiet and peaceful place on earth is in the midst of the roar of the diesel engine of his John Deere.

Personal

Ken Revell is an eighth generation Southwest Georgian, his family having moved here from the Carolinas during the administration of America's fourth president, Andrew Jackson.  Ken's grandfather, who in his earlier years had plowed and planted the Southwest Georgia earth behind a mule could barely wait until his first grandson could wear his first pair of overalls.

Bankruptcy Litigation:

With the financial industry's "invention" of securitized trusts, mortgage backed  securities, collateralized debt obligations, derivatives and 80/20 FDIC loss/share agreements, the financial logic of many banking institutions has become "illogical".  Today, some banks, rather than squeezing half of the blood from a turnip, are compelled by the FDIC's 80/20 loss share agreements to squeeze it to financial death.

Then the bank gets 80% of its losses from the government under the loss share agreement. This is insanity, but this is the reality of the current economic system -- a dramatic departure from free-market capitalism that made America the economic powerhouse of the world.  

Crony capitalism has replaced the free market economy. The creation of mortgage-backed securities has seriously damaged the competitive mortgage market and has turned the foreclosure process over to servicers and "foreclosure mills" who often act as mindless automatons, failing to deal with people as human beings – but only as numbers in a technocratic process.

Banks on the edge of financial insolvency, or who are subject to cease and desist orders, sometimes pursue irrational claims.  Ken, like the other lawyers at ZalkinRevell, always seeks creditor consensus, but when a creditor is driven by technocratic or illogical or even by sincere disagreement of the law or the facts, we are prepared to defend the firms' clients through the bankruptcy process.

​Typical bankruptcy engagements:

• Representing debtors in Chapter 11 cases

• Taking or defending 2004 examinations of debtor in possession's officers or directors. 

• Managing Court authorized asset conveyances pursuant to sec. 363

• Negotiating or litigating debtor in possession issues including use of cash collateral, adequate protection issues, terms of debt restructuring and relief from stay

• Plan process, including drafting of plans of reorganization and pursuit of plan confirmation

• Prosecuting or defending fraudulent transfer and preference actions

• Defending Motions to Dismiss or convert

• Conducting evidentiary hearings in Bankruptcy proceedings, including direct and cross examination of expert witnesses

• Defense of actions brought to deny discharge or non-discharge of specific debt claims

• Mediation of claims as directed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court

Kenneth W. Revell

Court Admissions
U.S. District Court, Northern Dist., FL
U.S. District Court, Middle Dist., GA
U.S. District Court, Northern Dist., GA
U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

U.S. Supreme Court

Bankruptcy Court Admissions
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.D., Florida
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, M.D., Georgia
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.D., Georgia

State/Territorial Admissions
Georgia - 1985
Not Adm. Florida state law practice
Memberships
Northern District of Florida Bankruptcy Bar Association
American Bankruptcy Institute
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
Bankruptcy Section -- State Bar of GA

Education/Awards
Juris Doctorate - Cum Laude, 1985, Woodrow Wilson College of Law
Member, Woodrow Wilson Journal of Law
B. Sci. - Georgia Southwestern University, 1981

Clerkships/Affiliations
Founding Member, Revell, Cole & Hoyt, Atlanta

US District Court Appeal (Vision's First Appeal)
Vision Park Properties and Vision Bank n/k/a SE Property Holdings, Appellant v. Seaside Engineering & Surveying Inc., Appellee (note: by the time of this appeal Vision Bank had surrendered it's Banking charter). Vision raised a myriad of issues on appeal, inter alia, the constitutionality of certain aspects of the US bankruptcy code as well as the propriety of the bankruptcy court ordering 2004 examinations conducted by Mr. Revell. The US District Court affirmed the bankruptcy court on all issues.

US Court of Appeals 11th Circuit (Vision's Next Appeal)
Vision Park Properties, LLC and SE Property Holdings, LLC as successor by merger to Vision Bank v. Seaside Engineering & Surveying, Inc. Again Vision raised a myriad of claimed "errors" on appeal. Following briefing and oral argument, the 11th Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court holdings and issued a seminal published opinion, which the court specifically stated was drafted to give guidance to U.S. Courts throughout the Eleventh Circuit.  The court focused its decision on the propriety of non-debtor releases or bar orders in which a Bankruptcy Court may enjoin future litigation against certain persons or entities who are not direct parties to the bankruptcy proceeding. In so ruling, the 11th Circuit found that the Rule 2004 Examinations conducted by Ken, were "necessary . . . to establish, for example, that Vision's policies may result in continued litigation, thus bolstering the case for the non-debtor releases" confirmed by the Court.

US Supreme Court (Vision's 3rd Appeal)
Vision filed a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court.  The lawyers at Zalkin Revell filed a brief in opposition to Vision's petition for writ which resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court denying Vision's petition thus allowing the Eleventh Circuit's ruling on non-debtor releases to become the law of the land in Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

In re Presidio Developers, LLC
The debtor Presidio constructed a $33 million luxury high-rise condominium yacht club and marina. The project had been originated by the former First National Bank of Florida with the largest participation (funding) coming from the Silverton Bank of Georgia. The project ultimately defaulted. Silverton Bank collapsed (the largest Bank failure in the history of the state of Georgia) and was seized by the FDIC who created a liquidating entity, Silverton Bridge Bank. The originating bank, First National Bank of Florida also failed and was sold by asset acquisition by the FDIC to CharterBank (a Georgia bank).

Presidio Developers, LLC filed for Chapter 11 and Zalkin Revell was retained to represent a Florida surgeon who was the 50% owner of Presidio.

Ken immediately engaged in discovery, obtaining more than 9000 pages of bank records and subpoenaed Presidio account records from another bank. Ken's client moved for authorization for the debtor to retain a CPA to analyze the banking records and filed a motion to remove the ostensible manager, another member, from acting on behalf of Presidio. The motions were granted following an evidentiary hearing.  It was also determined that an amended operating agreement produced in informal discovery by a former lawyer for Presidio was forged.

Ken conducted discovery, 2004 Examinations and depositions pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as made applicable to contested bankruptcy matters.

The former member, his sister's business entity and his attorney had transferred Presidio's yacht slips into the sisters company.  ZalkinRevell stated its clients' intend to seek recovery and the slips were reconveyed.  Depositions conducted by Ken revealed a scheme of misappropriations in the millions of dollars including hundreds of thousands taken by an attorney ostensibly acting on behalf of Presidio.

This attorney was a former partner with one of the largest law firms in Northwest Florida.  When State Court practitioners at ZalkinRevell filed a state court action against the attorney, the errors and omissions carrier for the law firm filed a declaratory action in the U.S. District Court seeking exoneration from liability associated with the various claims against the attorney. (This lawyer was admitted in Georgia, Florida and Alabama). Ken entered an appearance in the US District Court and following Rule 26(f) disclosures and a scheduling order, served discovery on the Chicago-based insurance carrier. The case settled.

Adversary proceedings

​
Presidio Developers LLC v. Presidio Yacht Club Condominium Owners Association, Inc. (COA).  Despite the reassignment of interest in the Presidio yacht slips back to the bankruptcy estate, the COA continued to maintain that title to the yacht slips should be vested in the COA rather than the bankruptcy estate. Following Ken's depositions of the President and Vice President of the COA, and the setting of a trial date by the court, the parties settled the case.

Presidio Developers, LLC v. Beach Community Bank, Beach Community Bankshares, at al. This matter remains pending and information on its progress can be obtained on the PACER system.

Upon information and belief, a Federal Grand Jury is investigating some of these matters, and in the words of a famous Alabama philosopher, "thats all I have to say about that".

Ken and the entire legal staff at ZalkinRevell are here to assist you.

Practice
Kenneth W. Revell ("Ken") manages the Albany, Georgia office of the firm and is engaged in federal practice before the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts in Georgia and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida as well as the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.  Ken represents clients of the firm in all manner of adversary proceedings arising in the context of bankruptcy.  He conducts and defends Rule 2004 Examinations and depositions.  Ken pursues all manner of litigation discovery authorized pursuant to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as made applicable to Bankruptcy Court proceedings.

CONTACT US

Albany, GA  229.435.1611

Santa Rosa Beach, FL  850.267.2111