Filiberto Agusti is a partner with Steptoe, where he has practiced for more than 35 years. He has represented creditors in many nationally significant bankruptcies, with extensive experience in bankruptcy litigation.
A veteran of many airline reorganizations, he represented the Allied Pilots Association, pilots’ union and a member of the Unsecured Creditors’ Committee, in the American Airlines bankruptcy. He represented the fiduciaries for the defined benefit plans in the United, Delta, and Northwest airlines reorganizations. He has been counsel in other bankruptcies involving significant pension liabilities, including representations of PBGC in LTV and Wheeling-Pittsburgh.
Prominent in large real estate insolvencies, he represented Sunwest Management, the US’s fourth largest senior housing enterprise, in the contested 363 sales of senior housing facilities co-owned by tenants in common. Before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, he obtained a ruling applying the mootness doctrine for the first time to a sale of realty interests of a bankrupt tenants-in-common. He represented Farallon Capital, a large hedge funds, in the contested acquisitions of real estate developments. He also represented American International Group in the Horizon Natural Resources bankruptcy in litigating and negotiating a transfer of hundreds of coal mines and ultimate avoidance of any losses to AIG.
He is noted for his work for sureties in large insolvencies. In Ogle v. Fidelity & Deposit Co. he obtained a precedent-setting ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that allowed creditors’ claims for attorneys’ fees based on contracts providing fees upon default. This decision reversed the prior precedent in the Southern District of New York and is applicable to all creditor contracts, including loan agreements. He represented the surety syndicates in the largest general contractor re-organizations, including JA Jones, Guy F Atkinson, Washington Group, and Morrison Knudsen. He represented Mitsubishi in insolvencies involving owners of major construction projects such as Babcock & Brown, PG&E, National Energy Group, and Global Power Equipment. In Babcock, he succeeded in obtaining an injunction attaching over $350 million in Babcock assets based on fraudulent conveyance theories.
Mr. Agusti is a skilled courtroom advocate and has defended major bankruptcy firms in various malpractice cases, including the debtor’s counsel in the Heller Ehrman bankruptcy.
He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1977, where he was Senior Editor of the Harvard Law Review and in 1974 from the University of Illinois, where he was a Bronze Tablet Scholar. He was law clerk to Judge William H Timbers, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a member of the Bars of the District of Columbia and New York.
