Andrea Tofanelli Porter
Andrea Tofanelli
Porter has practiced bankruptcy law for more than 25 years,
specializing in all aspects of business reorganizations and
liquidations in Chapter 11 cases as well as out-of-court “work-outs.”
She has represented debtors, secured and unsecured creditors,
creditors’ committees, and trustees in numerous and
varied Chapter 11 cases and has developed a particular expertise
in healthcare insolvencies and has represented both management
and labor unions in collective bargaining agreement disputes
in bankruptcy cases.
She is currently representing the West Contra Costa Healthcare
District as the debtor in a municipal bankruptcy care under
Chapter 9 and recently represented the debtors in the successful
reorganization of the San Jose Medical Group, the first California
medical practice of significant size to complete a restructuring
and emerge from Chapter 11. She represented the Los
Medanos Hospital District in its Chapter 9 case and Standard
Media International, publisher of The Industry Standard in
a complicated Chapter 11 liquidation. She was insolvency
counsel for the Native Alaskan Haida tribe.
Ms. Porter is a member of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy
section of the Bar Association of San Francisco and was its
chair in 1990-91. She has served on the Committee of
Lawyer Representatives of the United States Bankruptcy Court
for the Northern District of California, and remains an emeritus
member of the board of the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum which
she served as president in 1994-95. She has been a member
of the Panel of Resolution Advocates for the Bankruptcy Dispute
Resolution Program of the Northern District of California
since the program’s inception in 1994. She has
been included in The Best Lawyers in America
since 1995.
Ms. Porter is a native of San Francisco, received a B.A. from
Stanford University in 1969 and a J.D., cum laude, from Santa
Clara University in 1980 where she was managing editor of
the Law Review. She served as Law Clerk to the Honorable
Seymour J. Abrahams, United States Bankruptcy Court for the
Northern District of California in 1980-1981.
