Biography
Davis Lee Wright is a member of the firm’s Bankruptcy + Reorganizations and Business Litigation Groups, and its Marine Ports + Terminals Industry team.
Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights
Davis focuses his practice on complex transactional, litigation, and advisory work related to the debtor/creditor relationship. He has represented public and private companies in all aspects of their restructuring efforts, including out-of-court work-outs, “prepackaged” bankruptcies, and traditional reorganizations. He routinely counsels clients on the potential impact another entity’s insolvency or bankruptcy may have on business relationships, prospective and existing contracts and agreements, and bankruptcy-specific litigation. Davis’s experience includes advising secured and unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees, committee members, and asset purchasers regarding their rights, options, and obligations as a party in interest in a case brought under Chapters 7, 11, 13 and 15 of the Bankruptcy Code, as well as representing debtors and trustees under Chapters 11 and 15 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Davis’s experience in maritime and admiralty law has allowed him to develop a maritime-related bankruptcy practice, providing opportunities to represent debtors and other interested parties in several recent, well-publicized, maritime-related bankruptcies pending throughout the country (In re O.W. Bunker Holdings North America, Inc., In re Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc., In re Toisa Limited, In re Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd., and In re Offshore Specialty Fabricators LLC).
Business Litigation
Davis has a broad range of experience handling commercial litigation matters in state and federal courts, including contract disputes, preferential and fraudulent transfers in state-law assignments for the benefit of creditors, declaratory judgments and injunctive relief, and breach of fiduciary duty actions.
Admiralty
Davis has advised clients with respect to Rule B attachments and Rule C vessel arrests brought pursuant to the Supplemental Rules for Admiralty or Maritime Claims and Asset Forfeiture Actions and the effect of maritime liens on property of a bankrupt’s estate. Davis’s experience in this area includes litigation before various courts in the Second and Fifth Circuits relating to the maritime lien requirements of the Commercial Instruments and Maritime Liens Act.
Pro Bono
Davis has an active and diverse pro bono practice. Davis presently serves as an office or director of several not-for-profit section 501(c)(3) organization. He advises other several Delaware nonprofit entities with regard to fiduciary obligations and corporate governance requirements For three years, Davis served as the Chancellor General of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, a 501(c)(3) organization, providing advice on contract and employment issues, donor compliance, policy development, and corporate governance. He is active with The American Legion, Department of Delaware and is authorized to represent veterans before the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Davis also represents children in dependency and neglect, termination of parental rights, guardianship, and adoption cases in the Delaware Family Court through the Delaware Office of the Child Advocate (OCA). In 2014, the Delaware OCA recognized him for his many years of service as a guardian ad litem/child attorney.
Early in his career, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Peter J. Walsh, former Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, and as a legal extern to the Honorable Joseph J. Farnan, Jr., former Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.