Attorney Profile

Practice Areas: Appellate Strategies; Bankruptcy & Reorganization; Corporate Trust; Distressed Assets Group; Financial Services; Litigation; Loan Workout
Areas of Emphasis: Corporate Reorganization; Commercial Litigation
Bar Admissions: New Jersey; U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey; Third Circuit Court of Appeals; Second Circuit Court of Appeals; U.S. Supreme Court
Education: Rutgers University School of Law-Newark, J.D., 1973; University of Southern California; The New School for Social Research; Seton Hall University, A.B., 1965
Professional Activities: Member, American College of Bankruptcy; Member, American Bankruptcy Institute; Member, American Bar Association Indentured Trustee and Secured Creditor Section; Member, New Jersey State Bar Association Creditor and Debtor Section; Board member, New Jersey Turnaround Management Association

Dennis J. O’Grady

Chairman of Bankruptcy Dept

Dennis J. O'Grady, Chairman of Riker Danzig's Bankruptcy Department, is known by clients as a lawyer who always keeps their best business interests in mind. "One of the first questions I ask when I meet with clients is, 'What are you seeking to achieve? What are your objectives?'" he says. "Then I devise a strategy to meet those objectives in the most effective and economical way."

To Dennis, it is the blend of business and law that makes his bankruptcy practice so compelling. "You're not only using traditional litigation skills in a bankruptcy court," he says. "You're also trying to fashion a business solution."

He has fashioned successful business solutions for a wide variety of clients, many of them major national corporations in sizeable bankruptcy proceedings. He has represented Indenture Trustees in the Eastern Airlines and Continental Airlines bankruptcy cases around which their recovery plans were crafted. He also currently represents G-I Holdings Inc., the former GAF Corporation, the former Channel Homes Centers and the Chairman of the Creditors' Committee in FPA Medical Management. Other clients include Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., The Bank of New York, and Wachovia Bank.

Dennis is a lawyer who is enthusiastic about his work and who finds bankruptcy practice fascinating. "You get to immerse yourself in many different businesses and make a difference in their futures."

Dennis is ranked in the first tier of New Jersey bankruptcy attorneys in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers Client's Guides, which describes him as "a long-standing and preeminent lawyer with vast experience in his field." Chambers also calls Dennis "meticulously attentive to the needs to clients," and clients say he "possesses a down-to-earth personality that puts them immediately at ease." Dennis has also been counted among the top bankruptcy and creditor-debtors rights lawyers in New Jersey by Best Lawyers in America ®, a peer review of US Lawyers. Law & Politics magazine named him one of New Jersey's "Super Lawyers."