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George J. Bachrach
Partner

Phone: 410-659-1308
Fax: 410-659-1350
Email: gbachrach@wcslaw.com

Articles by Mr. Bachrach
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AREAS OF PRACTICE

 

 

Surety Law 

  • Investigation of surety claims and defenses
  • Handling performance bond claims and workouts
  • Handling payment bond claims
  • Handling commercial surety claims
  • Handling indemnity agreement claims and salvage issues
  • Asserting and enforcing the surety’s subrogation rights
  • Advising surety underwriters on underwriting issues
Bankruptcy Law
  • General commercial bankruptcy issues
  • Specific handling of bankruptcy issues related to sureties [cash collateral and contract funds, automatic stay issues, financing and executory contract issues, the surety’s claims (secured, unsecured, priority and administrative) and discharge and dischargeability issues in both contract and commercial surety matters]
Construction Law

 

ARTICLES/PUBLICATIONS/SEMINARS
 

A. The Subrogation Rights of the Contract Bond Surety

Co-author, “The Surety’s Subrogation Rights,” Chapter 23 of THE LAW OF SURETYSHIP, 2D ED (Edward G. Gallager, ed.) (2000)

Editor, THE SUBROGATION DATABASE: CASES CONCERNING THE SUBROGATION RIGHTS OF THE CONTRACT BOND SURETY (1995), updated on January 31, 1998.

Editor, SUBROGATION RIGHTS OF THE CONTRACT BOND SURETY (1990).

B. The Surety’s Indemnity Agreement

Co-Editor, THE SURETY’S INDEMNITY AGREEMENT – LAW & PRACTICE, 2D ED (2008).

Editor, THE AGREEMENT OF INDEMNITY: PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS BY THE SURETY (1989).

Co-author, “The Agreement of Indemnity – The Surety’s Handling of Contract Bond Problems: The Enforcement of the Surety’s Rights against the Principal and the Indemnitors under the Agreement of Indemnity” (1989).

C. Salvage by the Surety

Editor, SALVAGE BY THE SURETY (1998).

Author, “The Surety’s Rights to Obtain Salvage – Exoneration, Reimbursement, Subrogation, and Contribution,” Chapter 1 of SALVAGE BY THE SURETY (George J. Bachrach, ed.) (1998).

D. Surety/Bankruptcy Issues

Author, “The Surety’s Claim in Bankruptcy – Obtaining Reimbursement for the Surety’s Loss” (2009).

Author, “The Principal’s Bankruptcy: What You Really Need to Know” and “The Surety’s Strategy and Rights When the Principal Files for Bankruptcy” (2009).

Author, “The Surety’s Proof of Claim – Obtaining Reimbursement for the Loss” (2008).

Author, “The Principal’s Sale of Substantially All of Its Assets in Bankruptcy – Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How, and the Rights of the Surety” (2002).

Co-author, “The Principal’s Bankruptcy – Practical Problems and Potential Solutions in Handling Payment Bond Claims” (2001).

Co-author, “The Surety’s Rights to the Contract Funds in the Principal’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Case,” 35 TORT & INS. L.J. 1 (1999).

E. Financing the Surety’s Principal

Co-author, “Financing the Principal,” Chapter 4 of the BOND DEFAULT MANUAL, 3D ED (Duncan L. Clore, Richard E. Towle and Michael J. Sugar, Jr., eds.) (2005).

Co-author, “The Financing Surety as a Performing Surety – Law and Practice” (2003).

Co-author, “The ABC’s of the Surety Claims Process” (primarily the surety’s financing of the principal) presented to the Construction Industry CPAs/Consultants Association (CICPAC) (2003).

F. The Surety’s Performance Bond Rights and Options

Co-author, “The Performance Bond Surety’s Rights to the Contract Funds,” Chapter 4 of THE LAW OF PERFORMANCE BONDS, 2D ED (Lawrence R. Moelmann, Matthew M. Horowitz and Kevin L. Lybeck, eds) (2009).

Author, “The Surety Performance Bond Lifeboat – Bailing Out and/or Salvaging Someone Else’s Wreck” (2007), republished as “A Primer for the Surety’s Handling of Performance Bond Claims” (2008).

Editor for the Surety Program Written Materials for TAKEOVER BY THE SURETY, 2002 ABA/TIPS Fidelity and Surety Law Committee Spring Program in New Orleans, Louisiana in May, 2002. 

Chair and Moderator, “Takeover by the Surety: The Obligations That You Forget About (and Wish You Hadn’t)” (1999). 

G. Commercial Surety/Bankruptcy

Author, “Surety Underwriting and Claims Handling With a Principal in Bankruptcy” (2009).

Author, “The Surety’s Proof of Claim and Obtaining Reimbursement for the Surety’s Loss” (2005). 

Author, “Avoiding Loss and Obtaining Reimbursement in the Event of Loss Under the Indemnity Agreement” (2005).

Author, “Customs Bonds and the Chapter 11 Principal” (1994).

H. Construction Bankruptcy

Author, “Money and Time – The Critical Issues in Construction Industry Bankruptcies” (2009).

I.  Other Publications on Surety Matters

Co-author, “The Surety and the Court of Federal Claims” (1995) and “The Surety and the Court of Federal Claims – Revisited” (1999).

Co-author, CONTRACT SURETY (AFSB 152), Chapters 12 and 13 entitled “Contract Surety Claims” for the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters and the Insurance Institute of America (1992).

 

AWARDS & HONORS
 

AV Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell, 2010
Listed in "The Best Lawyers in America®" for Construction Law and Insurance Law, 2007-2010.

Martin J. Andrew Award Recipient for Lifetime Achievement in Fidelity & Surety Law from the ABA/TIPS, Fidelity & Surety Law Committee, May 2009.
Chosen for inclusion in "Maryland´s Super Lawyers®" for Construction Law, 2007. Click here to see George´s profile page on Super Lawyers® webstie.

   
BAR ADMISSIONS
 

Maryland

   
EDUCATION
 

Georgetown University Law Center (J.D. 1974)
Harvard University (B.A. 1971, cum laude)

 

 

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
 
Member: Surety Claims Institute
Member: National Bond Claims Association
Member: Maryland State Bar Association
Member: American Bar Association
Chair, Fidelity and Surety Law Committee (FSLC) of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice
Section of the American Bar Association from August, 2001 to August, 2002
Co-Chair of various FSLC Divisions (FSLC Law Division from 1996 to 2000 and FSLC Membership Division from 2002 to 2006)

Articles by Mr. Bachrach