Charles Greenough

Shareholder, Practice Group Leader, Industry Group Leader

Bio Menu
  • Overview
  • Experience
  • Honors & Involvement
Bio overview

Chuck Greenough is a business lawyer who has negotiated multimillion-dollar deals and tried multimillion-dollar cases. This breadth of experience helps him point out the real courtroom risks presented when negotiating a business deal, and also means he understands what really happened in the conference room when a case goes to trial. His clients include leading companies in the aerospace, energy, and communications industries.

Chuck currently serves as leader of the firm’s Business Restructuring, Workouts and Bankruptcy Group and has extensive experience in financial, debtor/creditor, and bankruptcy matters, representing both lenders and borrowers, as well as serving as a trustee and as a liquidating agent in complex bankruptcy estates. He has represented banks and other financial institutions in all aspects of loan documentation, workouts and related litigation, including defending counterclaims brought by borrowers in problem loans. He also serves as a Chapter 7 trustee for the Northern and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma, which includes handling a wide variety of consumer bankruptcy issues.

His accomplishments have earned him inclusion in Oklahoma Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America (bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law; banking and finance litigation; bankruptcy litigation; commercial litigation). He was selected by Best Lawyers as the “Tulsa Bankruptcy Litigation Lawyer of the Year” for 2013 and “Tulsa Banking and Finance Litigation Lawyer of the Year” for 2018, honors only given to a single lawyer in each legal specialty in each community.

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Experience, Honors, & Awards

Representative Experience

  • Obtained directed defense verdict in jury trial on all claims brought against a commercial bank by plaintiff who alleged the bank had maliciously prosecuted the owner/operator of an auto dealership. Plaintiff had sought more than $5 million in actual damages.
  • Represented Enbridge Energy in all of its condemnation cases in Oklahoma associated with its Flanagan South project to obtain necessary easements for major oil pipeline crossing multiple states, as well as other landowner suits related to project.
  • Successfully defended against non-recourse out-of-state lender who sought receivership of clients’ other businesses that were not obligated on loans.  After expedited discovery, opposing party unilaterally withdrew receivership motion two days before scheduled hearing in federal court.
  • Represented 50% owners of limited liability company in claims alleging mismanagement by co-owners, resulting in settlement under which our client acquired all of the oil and gas working interests of the company.
  • Defended bank against conspiracy to defraud, securities, and fraudulent transfer claims brought by bankruptcy trustee who alleged that bank had materially aided “pump and dump” schemes carried out by a customer of the bank. Claims were settled for less than 10% of the original demand, and trustee acknowledged in settlement that payment was made only on fraudulent transfer claims.
  • Defeated attempt by out-of-state investment advisor/lender to obtain receivership over multiple companies in oilfield service industry that had not guaranteed loan to related entity.
  • Representation of privately held aerospace manufacturing company in business acquisitions and sales, including acting as lead counsel responsible for multiple transactions over $40 million.
  • Defended majority owners of rapidly growing oilfield construction company against claims by former minority owners who had cashed out before company’s growth took off. Case was successfully settled with clients retaining control.
  • Served as liquidating agent in bankruptcy of TNG, Inc., a group of healthcare companies with annual revenues exceeding $25 million that included four operating hospitals.
  • Handled all acquisitions of very active private business-to-business information company, including purchases of magazines, websites and trade shows.
  • Defended bankruptcy preference and fraudulent transfer claims on behalf of clients sued in major Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases throughout the United States, including many in aerospace and aviation fields.
  • Defended fraudulent transfer case in Virginia Bankruptcy Court alleging that arms-length purchase of trade show from non-profit organization was avoidable because made for less than reasonably equivalent value. Payments under settlement were less than what would have been owed had debtor not filed suit.
  • Representation of lenders foreclosing on franchise restaurant company with more than 15 locations in multiple states in federal receivership actions.
  • Serving as trustee or liquidating agent in complex bankruptcy estates, including serving as bankruptcy trustee for Oklahoma’s first pari-mutuel horse racetrack.
  • Represented major international law firm in defense of securities claims brought in connection with bankruptcy of CFS, a multibillion-dollar collection company which pioneered securitization of credit card receivables.
  • Worked on the team representing Otasco, Inc., the largest retailer to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, responsible for dealing with landlords of more than 100 store locations throughout Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
  • Negotiation and drafting of long-term supply contracts, including intellectual property issues, for privately held company engaged in the aerospace manufacturing business, including negotiating with companies such as Boeing, Gulfstream, Cessna, Learjet, Airbus, and Pratt & Whitney.
  • Represented local electric utility in all aspects of condemnation cases in Tulsa area to obtain transmission and distribution lines for its system.
  • Represented railroad company in acquisition of necessary right of way for construction of new line, including filing and prosecution of condemnation cases.
  • Sued executives’ former employer under “golden parachute” contracts which called for significant payment to executives upon change in control of company, and defended against claims by employer that executives had taken trade secrets and were engaged in unfair competition. Clients obtained settlement for 75% of face amount owed under contracts, and all counterclaims were dropped.

Honors and Awards

  • Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law; banking and finance litigation; bankruptcy litigation; commercial litigation)
  • Named “Tulsa Bankruptcy Litigation Lawyer of the Year” for 2013 and “Tulsa Banking and Finance Litigation Lawyer of the Year” for 2018 by The Best Lawyers in America
  • Listed in Oklahoma Super Lawyers
  • Rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings

Professional Organizations and Memberships

  • Tulsa County Bar Association
  • Oklahoma Bar Association (Chair-Elect, Bankruptcy Section)

Civic Involvement and Leadership

  • The Foundation for Tulsa Schools (Board of Directors and Vice President of Programs)
  • Leadership Tulsa

ATPs display in this column

At The Podium

The Basics of Chapter 7: Automatic Stay

27th Annual Basic Bankruptcy Seminar
May 7, 2010
Attorney Articles

Articles

coal miner holding a container with a canary inside

Canary in the coal mine doing fine, thank you

The Journal Record |

Bankruptcy— deja vu all over again?

The Journal Record |

Good news, bad news

The Journal Record |
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Admissions

  • Oklahoma, 1987
  • U.S. District Courts for the Western, Northern and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
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Education

  • J.D., with highest honors, University of Oklahoma, 1987
    • Order of the Coif; Nathan Scarritt Prize
  • B.A. (History and Political Science), summa cum laude, Trinity University, 1984
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