BINDER & BINDER

Case Highlights

• Obtained debtor-in-possession financing to prevent collapse of operations
• Negotiated consensual 3-year orderly wind down plan
• Resolved all 56,000 client representations to their conclusion

Case Narrative

The National Social Security Disability Advocates, LLC (“Binder”), was the largest non-attorney advocacy firm in the U.S., assisting 56,000 clients in their efforts to receive federal disability benefits, and operating with approximately 1,000 employees in 25 offices located throughout the United States. Leverage resulting from a 2010 sale to a private equity firm, and a dramatic decline in approval rates thereafter, led Binder to file bankruptcy in December 2014. Due to Binder’s extremely large operation in a very fragmented industry, and an inability by potential buyers to acquire new financing to purchase a business which was essentially funded by contingent fee awards, a sale process run by DSI was fruitless. DSI subsequently confirmed a consensual, three-year orderly wind down plan in October 2016. As of January 2019, ten employees remained, operating out of one office to collect remaining fee awards; all active cases had been resolved without any legal complications; secured creditors were paid in full; and remaining unsecured creditors will receive a substantially higher distribution than had been projected.