TEL: 410-528-2970
FAX: 410-528-9400
iwalker@coleschotz.com
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Legal Secretary: Joelene A. Novak
TEL: 410-230-0660 ext. 2871
jnovak@coleschotz.com

Mr. Walker concentrates his practice in bankruptcy, restructurings of businesses outside of bankruptcy, and litigation arising out of insolvent businesses.

For over 32 years, Mr. Walker has represented debtors, creditors’ committees, trustees, and other interested parties in bankruptcy cases, out-of-court restructurings, and litigation arising out of distressed or failed businesses.  His experience includes representing trade and other unsecured creditors, landlords, equity holders, and purchasers of assets in, and outside of, bankruptcy cases and negotiating complex loan restructurings.  Mr. Walker also formulates creative workout strategies, and has represented plaintiffs and defendants in significant litigation involving issues of avoidance actions, commercial law, fraud, and bankruptcy.  Mr. Walker’s litigation experience includes precedent-setting cases at the trial and appellate court levels, including the U.S. Supreme Court, where he won a unanimous decision in the case of Citizens Bank of Maryland v. Strumpf in 1995.

Mr. Walker’s engagements include serving as lead counsel for the official committee of subordinated debt holders in the Chapter 11 case of Conseco, Inc. in Chicago, which at the time was the third largest bankruptcy case in history, for the debtor in In re Ritz Camera Centers, Inc. (as of the petition date, 930 retail stores and sales of almost $1 billion), and for the debtor in Gemcraft Homes, Inc. and its affiliates, a large mid-Atlantic homebuilder; assisting in representing the debtor in the Owens Corning bankruptcy case in Delaware; serving as the Chapter 11 trustee in a Maryland case involving an attack on an offshore asset protection trust; and enforcing judgments against debtors and related parties engaged in sophisticated creditor evasion tactics.

Mr. Walker is also one of the few living lawyers featured in the book A Century Striving for Justice: The Maryland State Bar Association 1896-1996 by the Honorable James F. Schneider.

Selected for inclusion in Maryland Super Lawyers® by Law & Politics magazine and Baltimore magazine, 2007-2012.

Selected 'Baltimore Litigation-Bankruptcy Lawyer of the Year' by The Best Lawyers in America®  for 2012. Only one lawyer in each market is honored with this designation, and those recognized have earned particularly high ratings in surveys conducted by Best Lawyers.

Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® list, Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law, 1999 to present

Featured in Who’s Who in American Law (Marquis), 2011-2012 editions

Featured in Who’s Who in the World, 2006 and 2012 editions

Board President, Homeless Persons Representation Project (Dedicated to ending homelessness and providing legal services to the homeless and those at risk of homelessness) 2008 - Present

• Two Cole Schotz Attorneys Named as Lawyers of the Year by Best Lawyers, October 11, 2011
• 35 Cole Schotz Attorneys Selected for Inclusion in Best Lawyers in America®

• "Claims Designation: Where Courts Draw the Line for 'Bad' Behavior," from ABI's Mid-Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop was selected for inclusion in ABI's newest book, Best of ABI 2011: The Year in Business Bankruptcy, December, 2011
• Structuring a Sale of Privately-Held Stock to Reduce Fraudulent-Transfer Claims Risk, ABI Journal, September 10, 2009

• Panelist, American Bankruptcy Institute 4th Annual Mid-Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop for the program, "Understanding Today's Capital Markets"
• Panelist, American Bankruptcy Institute, 7th Annual Mid-Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop for program on "When Creditors Overreach," August 2011
• Selected Issues in Plan Confirmation Proceedings: Termination of Exclusive Periods, Competing Plans and the Struggle to Control the Process, American Bankruptcy Institute 2010 Annual Spring Meeting, May 1, 2010
• 4th Annual Distressed Investing Conference and Turnaround Awards Gala, Turnaround Case Study: Ritz Camera, March 22, 2010
• Bankruptcy - What Every CPA and CFO Needs to Know, MD Biz Expo, June 17, 2009

• Co-Chair of Bankruptcy Litigation Committee, American Bankruptcy Institute,(2008-March 2011)
• American Bankruptcy Institute and Georgetown University Law Center "Views from the Bench" Program, Faculty Advisor
• American Bar Association
• Maryland State Bar Association
• Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Association (past president)
• Maryland Bar Foundation, Fellow