Erin West

ERIN is a shareholder with Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. and has more than 10 years of experience helping lenders, trade vendors, committees, debtors, buyers and other creditors navigate all facets of insolvency, bankruptcy and financial distress. Her work has included pre-bankruptcy advising and workouts, bankruptcy and state court receivership proceedings, including the negotiation of loan renewals, refinancing and forbearance agreements; the litigation and the resolution of cash-collateral use, adequate protection, debtor-in-possession financing, critical-vendor status, reclamation claims, executory contract and lease disputes, claims objections, automatic stay litigation, and dischargeability and avoidance actions; the representation of secured and unsecured creditors in commercial collections, foreclosures, and other complex commercial litigation matters including state and federal appeals; asset sales and auctions through receivership or bankruptcy proceedings; and the representation of fee examiners and fee committees in large chapter 11 bankruptcies through the qualitative and quantitative analysis of fee applications and the negotiation and litigation of disputes. She previously practiced bankruptcy and commercial litigation at a Madison law firm for five years, during which time she frequently appeared as counsel for a chapter 7 panel trustee.

Having spent her formative years growing up in Egypt, Erin saw early on how various cultures approach business and lending. Her earliest exposure to bankruptcy law, however, was as a college student, when she interned in the law practice of a family friend. She was intrigued by the story behind each bankruptcy, especially when seeing that so many were caused by medical bills or divorce. She took every bankruptcy course her law school offered and volunteered at the bankruptcy clinic. After graduation, she spent five years working on behalf of a chapter 7 trustee objecting to the exemption of an inherited IRA account in Clark v. Rameker, 134 S. Ct. 2242, and she was able to attend the oral arguments when the case came before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Erin is Education Director of ABI’s Real Estate Committee, and she is a member of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation and the Western District of Wisconsin Bankruptcy Bar, for which she serves as treasurer. She has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Wisconsin Rising Star every year since 2011, and she has been named to The Best Lawyers in America’s “Ones to Watch” list for Bankruptcy and Creditor/Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law since 2021. Outside of the office, she enjoys competitive rowing.