Maurice "Mac" VerStandig

MAC is a managing member and sole equity-holder of The VerStandig Law Firm, LLC in Potomac, Md., and focuses his practice on counseling private lenders, business debtors undertaking to reorganize through the chapter 11 process, and bankruptcy trustees. Roughly half of his practice is focused on representing asset-based lenders and other secured creditors in chapter 11 cases. He has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for his clients through the formation of consensual plans of reorganization, through his success in contested stayrelief and conversion proceedings, and through adversary claims brought against third parties. He serves as outside bankruptcy counsel to many of the largest private lenders in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. When not advising secured creditors, he regularly represents debtors in chapter 11 cases in the District of Columbia and North Dakota. He has counseled multiple law firms in connection with their own insolvency proceedings, successfully reorganized a publicly traded pharmaceutical holding company, helped a midsize manufacturing company efficiently liquidate through the chapter 11 process, guided a corporation focused on COVID-19 support services through bankruptcy, helped regional restaurant operators shed hefty debt loads, and represented other debtors ranging from real estate entities to a haunted house operator.

Mac serves as a coordinating editor of the ABI Journal, for which he has contributed several legislative articles, and since 2020 he has been on the local rules advisory committee — followed by the standing bench/bar advisory committee — for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia. He regularly authors columns on bankruptcy-centric matters and is one of two hosts of a new ABA podcast series focused on subchapter V bankruptcies. Having held an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell since the age of 29, he is listed as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers. He commutes regularly from his home in rural Maine to Washington, D.C., and Fargo, N.D., is proud to have deep ties to both legal markets, often appears in other courts throughout the country, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mac wanted nothing more than to become a bankruptcy lawyer upon graduation from law school, but a state court clerkship landed him a job in the litigation department of a midsized regional law firm, which he now considers crucial and formidable years. When not working on insolvency cases, he maintains a niche practice advising many of the world’s preeminent poker players and other professional gamblers in connection with bespoke investments, casino litigation and private staking agreements. He successfully managed a federal lawsuit against the SEC on behalf of an online gaming marketplace, made industry-transforming precedent in litigation brought to establish the nonexempt status of casino floor massage therapists, and served as class counsel on behalf of a nationwide group of sports bettors. He is a native Washingtonian and sits on the board of visitors of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Communication Arts. He takes pride in also furnishing pro bono representation to those in need, and regularly advises individual clients and charities at no cost.