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Karen Gilman practices extensively in the area of creditors’ rights. In this regard she litigates in the federal bankruptcy courts throughout the country, as well as in the state courts of New Jersey representing financial institutions in complex commercial foreclosures. In the bankruptcy courts, she represents both secured and unsecured creditors, creditors committees and/or their members, and asset purchasers.

Karen counsels institutional and mezzanine lenders, landlords, national and regional wholesale distributors and retail suppliers regarding their rights in connection with financial restructurings and as creditors under the Bankruptcy Code. She has been involved in negotiating various asset purchases by her clients from the bankruptcy courts, including having obtained public bond financing for the purchase of an acute care hospital.

Her diverse experience also includes:

• Representing surety clients after the surety’s principal has filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code
• Representing sureties that have issued payment and performance bonds to federal agencies and state entities for public works projects, as well as those who have issued customs, tax, utility and licensing bonds
• Enforcing a surety’s rights to subrogation, indemnification and exoneration
• Representing sureties and insurance companies in bankruptcy courts throughout the country with regard to their issuance of bonds and/or insurance policies for state- mandated workers’ compensation coverage
• Representing various sureties and secured institutional lenders in negotiations for providing adequate protection for the use of cash collateral, extension of debtor-in-possession financing, litigation against non-debtor indemnitors/guarantors
• Representing creditors in ancillary cases to foreign insolvency proceedings

Karen was the co-editor of the New Jersey State Bar Association Bankruptcy Newsletter from 1993-2000. A contributing author to the Bankruptcy Strategist and the New Jersey Law Journal’s “In Practice” series on bankruptcy, she also is the author of articles in her practice area for the American Bar Association and West Publishing Company. In addition, Karen appeared on the syndicated television program, “Law Journal,” and lectures on bankruptcy for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Among her many recognitions, Karen was named by NJBIZ as one of "The Best 50 Women in Business" for 2010. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor Rights and Bankruptcy Litigation, and in New Jersey Super Lawyers. Karen has an AV® rating from Martindale-Hubbell.

Karen received her J.D., cum laude, from Suffolk University School of Law. She was a special graduate student at MIT-Sloan School of Management and earned her B.A. from Simmons College. Prior to entering private practice, she served as law clerk to the Honorable James N. Gabriel, United States Bankruptcy Judge, District of Massachusetts.