Christopher J. Battaglia is the firm’s managing member and has been a bankruptcy practitioner since 1996. He became a member of this firm in 2003. Before his relocation to New York, Mr. Battaglia worked for ten years (the latter three as an associate attorney) at Gordon & Wise, LLP, one of Boston’s most respected bankruptcy boutiques.

Prior to his admission to the bar, Mr. Battaglia gained an understanding of the bankruptcy process from his work as a senior law clerk, and insight into the management and financing of a business from his subsequent role as the law firm’s business manager. After his admission to the bars of New York and Massachusetts in 1996, Mr. Battaglia specialized in debtor representations for Gordon & Wise, LLP, and became well versed in sophisticated bankruptcy reorganization and appellate issues, as well as complex commercial litigation and transactional matters.

Since joining Alan Halperin in 1999, Mr. Battaglia has focused his energies on creditors’ rights and the representation of official and unofficial committees of unsecured creditors, representing Committees in the PetroRig, Dana Corporation (Conflicts Counsel), MFS Fabrikant (Conflicts Counsel), RMA Management Services, Inc., Alpha Star Insurance, Standard Automotive, Turner Steel, Wards Products,  Tender Loving Care Healthcare Services, Inc., Newington Health Care, Hitachi Seiki USA, de V&P, Insite Services, Homemaker Industries, Vanns Stores and RMM Records & Video chapter 11 cases. Mr. Battaglia has also represented trustees of liquidation/litigation trusts in all aspects of administration, litigation and liquidation (including litigation of mass Chapter 5 fraudulent conveyance and preference actions relative to liquidation trusts of Oakwood Homes Corporation, Green Field Energy Services Inc., Eastman Kodak Company, and Fedders North America, Inc.). His immersion in creditor representations, when combined with Mr. Battaglia’s prior experience as the manager of a business and then as an advocate for debtors, provides HBB and its clients with an invaluable insight, versatility and depth of experience.

Additionally, Mr. Battaglia is a Certified Mediator by the New York City Bar Association and sits on the Official Panel of Certified Bankruptcy Mediators for both the Southern District of New York and the District of Delaware and provides high level mediation services in commercial litigation matters. Mr. Battaglia has participated in no less than 300 formal Court ordered mediations as both counsel to plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of matters and cases involving commercial/bankruptcy disputes.  Further, Mr. Battaglia has represented parties in both the defense and prosecution of over 5000 mass avoidance actions in a myriad of jurisdictions.

Currently, Mr. Battaglia is a Court ordered mediator in the SunEdison, Inc., et al., bankruptcy case pending in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Gordmans Stores, Inc., et al. bankruptcy case pending in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nebraska, Sears Holdings Corp. bankruptcy case pending in the Southern District of New York and the Brookstone Holdings. Corp. bankruptcy case pending in the District of Delaware.

Mr. Battaglia is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School (cum laude, 1996) and holds an undergraduate degree from Tufts University (1989). He is admitted to practice before the Courts of States of New York and Massachusetts, as well as the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the District of Massachusetts and the Eastern District of Michigan, including the Bankruptcy Courts within those jurisdictions, and the United States Court of Appeals for the First and Second Circuits. Mr. Battaglia is a member of the Turnaround Management Association and the American Bankruptcy Institute (“ABI”), co-authored seminar materials for the ABI’s Fifth Annual Northeast Bankruptcy Conference on the subject of litigating dischargeability (July, 1998) and is currently a member of the ABI’s Mediation Committee. Mr. Battaglia is also a member of the Boston Bar Association (Business Law/Bankruptcy Section), the Massachusetts Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.