Gavin/Solmonese

06/08/2026

Valuation in litigation isn’t just a calculation or a position. It’s one that has to hold up under cross-examination by someone who has spent months looking for the places it does not.

Choosing the wrong standard (or applying it inconsistently) is one of the most common and damaging errors in litigation valuation work. And that's before opposing counsel gets to your discount rate.

Read Ted Gavin take on what actually makes a valuation defensible and where most of them fall apart: https://gavinsolmonese.com/insights/when-the-valuation-becomes-the-case/

The standard of value decides what a business is worth in a dispute. How experts choose one, defend it, and survive cross-examination.

06/01/2026

756 rural hospitals are at risk of closure. More than 40% face immediate financial distress. In 2024 alone, 25 hospitals closed.

Ted Gavin breaks down the financial structure driving this crisis and what Chapter 11 can, and cannot, fix when a hospital's balance sheet breaks:

- Why private insurance reimbursement rates matter more than Medicaid rates
- What Steward Health Care's collapse revealed about sale-leaseback risk
- Why healthcare restructuring is categorically different from any other industry
- What the One Big Beautiful Bill's Medicaid cuts mean for the hospitals already barely surviving

Chapter 11 is a tool. In the right circumstances, it can shed unsustainable debt, renegotiate leases, and create a real path forward. What it cannot do is make an unviable business viable.

Knowing the difference is the work that actually matters.

https://gavinsolmonese.com/insights/rural-hospital-bankruptcy/

Rural hospital bankruptcy is rising as 756 facilities face closure risk. What Chapter 11 can fix in a failing hospital, and what it cannot.

05/21/2026

Chapter 11 is a powerful tool. It can shed debt, renegotiate leases, reject unprofitable contracts, and buy time for a business to reset. What it can't do is fix a business model that doesn't work.

What made the Spirit situation so unusual wasn't the bankruptcy itself. It was the combination of factors that made the bankruptcy inevitable, and the degree to which at least some of those factors were self-inflicted.

Read our full take here:

Spirit Airlines filed Chapter 11 twice and stopped flying in May 2026. An examination of what the model got right, what it got wrong, and why Chapter 11 couldn't fix it.

05/14/2026

What does 47 years of American bankruptcy practice actually look like from the inside?

Our founder wrote a retrospective covering the moments that shaped the modern restructuring profession: the 1978 Code that changed everything, the creditor-driven overhaul of 2005, the cases that set templates still in use today, and the structural shifts defining practice right now.

If you work in restructuring, distressed investing, or commercial lending, this is worth a read: https://gavinsolmonese.com/insights/history-of-bankruptcy/.

05/14/2026

What does 47 years of American bankruptcy practice actually look like from the inside?

Our founder Ted Gavin wrote a retrospective covering the moments that shaped the modern restructuring profession: the 1978 Code that changed everything, the creditor-driven overhaul of 2005, the cases that set templates still in use today, and the structural shifts defining practice right now.

If you work in restructuring, distressed investing, or commercial lending, this is worth a read: https://gavinsolmonese.com/insights/history-of-bankruptcy/

05/04/2026

Most people think mediation in bankruptcy is about finding a number in the middle.
It's not. At least, that's not where it does its best work.

The real value of mediation is in separating what a party is saying they need versus what they actually need.

A creditor objecting to plan confirmation may really be concerned about a specific release provision affecting a related guarantee. A landlord holding out on a lease assumption may care less about the cure amount than about whether the reorganized debtor can perform going forward.

When you surface what a party actually needs, you can often find solutions that would never emerge from a contested hearing.

Ted Gavin breaks it down in our latest blog: https://gavinsolmonese.com/insights/what-mediation-actually-does-in-bankruptcy/

Ted Gavin explains how separating interests from positions creates outcomes in bankruptcy that litigation cannot.

04/15/2026

Lycra’s Chapter 11 cuts $1.2B in debt and stabilizes the balance sheet.

On paper, that sounds like a win, but it makes us wonder: are they actually fixing the business, or just fixing the math?

We see this a lot. The debt gets cleaned up, ownership shifts, things look better financially… but the core business does not really change. The can gets kicked down the road.
They still find themselves with the same strategy, pressures and challenges. The same dented, road-worn can.

Bankruptcy can fix a balance sheet but it doesn’t fix a business.

The harder part is stepping back and asking what actually needs to change.

Read our take here:

Lycra’s Chapter 11 filing highlights a common restructuring problem: fixing the balance sheet without changing the business. An analysis of what’s missing.

04/07/2026

Chapter 11 gives distressed companies breathing room. But breathing room only works when there's trust.

When conflicts of interest, governance breakdowns, or stakeholder disputes take hold, even well-intentioned restructurings can stall or fail entirely.

Independent fiduciary oversight changes that dynamic. It restores credibility, grounds decisions in fact rather than bias, and creates the forward momentum a restructuring needs to actually succeed.

Without it, Chapter 11 risks becoming a delay mechanism, not a solution.

Read our full post here:

Learn the role of a fiduciary in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, when independent oversight is needed, and how fiduciary services help stabilize complex restructuring situations.

04/02/2026

As pandemic-era loans reach maturity, borrowers, lenders, and advisors are navigating a more complex landscape.

Higher rates and uneven property fundamentals are colliding in ways that will define the next cycle of restructuring and litigation.

Understanding how those pressures develop will be critical as the next wave of pandemic-era loans reaches maturity.

Read our full perspective on the overall landscape in our latest blog:

03/24/2026

Leadership restructuring is not simply about replacing an executive. It is about whether the current structure supports the company’s needs today.

The useful question is not who should be replaced. It’s actually whether the leadership model still matches the business.

Roles that worked during a growth phase often don't hold up under tighter liquidity, increased stakeholder scrutiny, or more complex operations. That's not a people problem. It's a structural one.

Some patterns worth paying attention to:
- Targets are missed without a clear explanation
- Decision-making slows or becomes political
- Too much authority sits with one person
- Lenders, boards, or investors are losing confidence

These signals usually point to misalignment at the top as opposed to a gap in one seat.

Leadership restructuring isn't a sign of failure. It's a willingness to adapt the organization to current realities. Read our full perspective here:

Leadership restructuring explained. Learn when leadership structure no longer fits the business and how to approach change effectively.