A Trusted Advocate in Bankruptcy and Creditor’s Rights

A proven track record in recovering assets, negotiating contract assumptions, and achieving full payment in big cases.

Strategic Counsel for Complex Legal Challenges

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Beth Stern Fleming advises clients on a wide range of business and financial matters, including the negotiation and drafting of complex commercial agreements, the acquisition of assets and businesses, commercial real estate transactions, financing arrangements, and the resolution of complex disputes. Her work includes managing transactions from start to finish and assisting clients with financial and developmental issues related to their operations. Beth represents creditors, trustees, debtors, buyers of assets, and other interested parties in matters involving creditors’ rights, bankruptcy, insolvency, workouts, debt recovery, asset collection, and foreclosures.

Beth has extensive experience resolving complex business disputes. She handles partnership conflicts, disputes between commercial lenders and borrowers, issues involving tradespeople and their customers, supplier disputes, landlord and tenant matters, and conflicts between buyers and sellers.

What sets Beth apart is her ability to negotiate favorable outcomes for her clients. She focuses on building bargaining strength while understanding the personalities, motivations, and goals of the other parties involved. This allows her to identify leverage points, create options, and guide matters toward practical and mutually workable resolutions. Her approach is strategic, thoughtful, and grounded in experience gained through decades of complex negotiations.

With more than thirty-five years of legal experience, Ms. Stern Fleming has represented regional, national, and multinational clients in complex transactional, litigation, bankruptcy, restructuring, and creditors’ rights matters. Her clients include individuals and businesses in industries such as technology, equipment leasing, real estate, financial services, construction, manufacturing, health care, software, retail, insurance, consulting, outdoor advertising, distribution, restaurants, entertainment, architecture, government, and investment. She has handled matters in jurisdictions across the United States, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Illinois, California, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Indiana, and Canada. Ms. Stern Fleming has also chaired and managed a law firm department of up to twenty lawyers and three paralegals.

Selected Representations

In the Enron bankruptcy Ms. Stern Fleming represented one of the largest manufacturers of technology equipment with regard to a several hundred million dollar electricity contract. In this case she raised an issue of first impression regarding forward contracts relating to whether the automatic stay applies to long term energy supply contracts, and as a result, successfully negotiated with Enron to reject the energy contract with her client. She also negotiated a settlement, saving her client more than $12 million.

In the Kmart bankruptcy, that of the second largest discount retailer in the U.S. at the time, Ms. Stern Fleming represented both a major equipment lessor with a $78 million lease for equipment found in most of Kmart’s 2,100 stores and the 18th largest U.S. company who provided $30 million per year in hardware, software and consulting services to Kmart. She negotiated agreements whereby Kmart assumed all of the equipment leases and paid most of the multi-million dollar arrearages, and assumed all of the hardware, software and consulting agreements, released of all avoidance claims and entered new contracts increasing the amount of business to these clients.

Ms. Stern Fleming represented a multibillion dollar technology financing company in the 2000 AmeriServe mega-bankruptcy with regard to a $50 million equipment lease involving thousands of pieces of equipment across the country. She obtained full payment of post-petition amounts due under the leases and successfully negotiated an assumption and assignment of the leases to the purchaser of the AmeriServe business, which included payment of the cure amount, confirmation of the character of the leases, release of all avoidance claims and an ongoing business relationship with the buyer.

She was one of the lead attorneys in a team that represented a group of international investors who collectively invested $95 million through U.S. and Cayman feeder funds in the New Stream hedge fund. She sifted through 100s of documents to uncover evidence of multinational fraud, theft and conversion, developed the theories of recovery and drafted the involuntary bankruptcy petitions and motion to appoint a trustee (containing 111 pages and 96 Exhibits) that initiated the hotly disputed bankruptcy and led to a confirmed consensual plan which provided significant recoveries for the clients.

In the Oklahoma Commercial Financial Services bankruptcy where the debtor brought a $14 million preference and fraudulent transfer complaint against her clients, she represented a multinational equipment lessor and manufacturer and obtained dismissal of the case and full releases. No payment was made by her clients.

She represented a multibillion dollar technology financing company in a bankruptcy involving three other secured creditors and complex priority issues and successfully recovered the full amount of a $4 million debt. In addition she saw the opportunity to argue for interest and attorneys’ fees and after extensive arguments and negotiations the court awarded both.

Ms. Stern Fleming represented major creditors in the Fleming, Newpower, AHERF, ANC Rental, Discovery Zone, Hechinger, HomePlace Stores, Montgomery Ward, Planet Hollywood, Jumbo Sports, Crowley Milner, Nationwise Automotive, Harnischfeger, Marchfirst, REAL, Laura Ashley and other bankruptcy cases.

Ms. Stern Fleming represented a regional builder who agreed to build 8 mezzanine structures for a manufacturing and supply company. Disputes arose regarding performance and payment and warranty claims were made by customer. Customer filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Ms. Stern Fleming filed a motion to compel payment of administrative expenses, reclamation claims and liens on certain facilities owned by third parties. Subcontractors also filed claims against various facilities, the customer and the builder. Ms. Stern Fleming successfully negotiated a complex multi-party settlement whereby the builder, subcontractors and customer all released each other, liens were withdrawn and builder and subcontractors were paid.

She represented a regional outdoor advertising company to negotiate the first licenses given by the City of Philadelphia and separately the Delaware River Port Authority allowing billboards to be erected on property owned by such entities. Negotiations were contentious because certain political office holders were opposed to these agreements. Ms. Stern Fleming’s considerable experience dealing with politicians and elected office holders enabled her to successfully negotiate favorable agreements. In fact, the agreements she negotiated are the standard forms used by these entities to this day.

She represented the owner of a local construction company and co-trustee of the company’s employee profit sharing/pension trust in a dispute between the three trustees and the plan administrator of the trust which involved allegations of theft, fraud and misrepresentation. With the support of an ERISA/Pension attorney a settlement was negotiated between the trustees, plan administrator, beneficiaries and appropriate governmental agencies to liquidate the trust and have the parties release each other.

Ms. Stern Fleming represented a regional space design and architectural firm in the sale of its business to a national firm. In the middle of negotiations it was determined that one of the partners had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of trust fund taxes and there were large defaults on state and local taxes and with the landlord. She negotiated a settlement with the landlord whereby no further payments were made, the landlord released the company and the business was able to move out of the space in exchange for releasing its security deposit and leaving its fixtures. Ms. Stern Fleming and the company’s CPAs negotiated favorable settlements with the state and local taxing authorities and filed 2 offers in compromise with the IRS, one of which is being considered by the IRS. After attempting to mediate a settlement between the two partners, ultimately, one of the partners was forced to leave the company and the acquisition by the national firm was salvaged and closed.

Ms. Stern Fleming was sought out by the Delaware River Port Authority to advise it on a first impression land-use issue that only applies to bi-state compact entities.

Ms. Stern Fleming represented one of the partners of a real estate developer, landlord and management company in a partnership dispute and negotiations with several banks with whom the company was in default on financing for its numerous properties. Negotiations were protracted because the defaults were material, the partners could not agree, there was little equity in the company’s assets and little additional assets to offer the banks as leverage. Despite this, favorable settlements were reached.

She represented a local manufacturing company with regard to negotiating the purchase of a warehouse facility which had been foreclosed upon by the property owner’s lender. This transaction required negotiations regarding a protracted dispute between the property owner, the supplier of a substantial amount of product and the lender regarding ownership and liens on such product and removal of the same from the premises.

She successfully represented a cardiology practice regarding the purchase of another cardiology practice out of a bankruptcy. This acquisition was hotly contested by several other cardiology practices in the region as well as the principals of the selling practice. She then represented the successful bidder in the contentious and protracted negotiation of an agreement between the buying and selling practices on the transition of services, the notification of patients, the retention of patient records among other issues all of which had to be approved by the bankruptcy court that took an aggressive position regarding patients’ rights and responsibilities of the buyer.

Ms. Stern Fleming represented a retail business in the acquisition of a parking lot out of the Circuit City bankruptcy in a hotly disputed auction with another party who required the parking lot to complete a development in the area. Her client was the winning bidder and she negotiated a sale agreement which involved complex land use, title and other issues which was successfully closed.

Associations & Memberships

Professional and Civic Affiliations

America Israel Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors; Membership committee, Co-chair; Life Science committee, member; Cleantech committee, member; Healthcare IT Committee member; Technology Committee Member ( all 2009 – present).

Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, member 2000- 2011, Legal Committee 2005- 2007 and International Leasing Law, Legislative & Regulatory and Equipment Leasing Today magazine subcommittees all 2005-2011.

Law Journal Newsletter’s Equipment Leasing Newsletter, Editorial Board member 2004 to present.

Director for National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association of the Delaware Valley (2001 – 2007).

Advisory Committee Member, Novathermal Energy and Chi Sage; multinational alternative energy companies.

Lessors Network, member 2003 to present.

National Association of Women’s Business Owners, member 1995 – 2000.

Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference, member 1992 to present (Education Committee; Problem Co-Chair, 10th Annual Bankruptcy Forum, Eastern District of Pennsylvania).

Female Bankruptcy Attorneys for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, member.

Philadelphia Bar Association (Bankruptcy Committee, Business Law and Real Property Sections; Committee on Women in the Profession) Pennsylvania Bar Association (General Practice and Real Property Sections); American Bar Association.

Montgomery County Democratic Committee, Treasurer and Executive Committee member (1997-2004).

Finance Chair or Treasurer for numerous state-wide, county or local political candidates.