Michael Parise

Shareholder | Anchorage | 907.264.3322 | parisem@lanepowell.com

Areas of Practice

Michael Parise focuses his practice in commercial law; secured lending; bankruptcy; loan restructuring and work out agreements; real estate transactions, litigation and foreclosures; disputes and litigation under Articles 3, 4 and 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code; advising lenders and business owners with respect to ground water contamination or regarding real property or facilities that have been contaminated by discharge of oil or hazardous waste; financing secured by interests in oil and gas leases or in mineral leases; timber sale agreements; logging contracts; mining lease and exploration agreements; mining joint venture agreements; and litigation involving logging agreements or mining claims. He has advised and represented closely held corporations, individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, financial institutions, Alaska Native corporations and their subsidiaries, and public corporations created by statutory authorization. He was selected for inclusion in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Business Lawyers in the categories of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, and bankruptcy in the 2007-2009 editions.  He was selected for inclusion in the 2009 Alaska Super Lawyers list for the September issue of Washington Law & Politics magazine in the areas of bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, business litigation, and banking.

He has represented Alaska Native corporations as borrowers in multi-million dollar financing transactions from lenders, including Transamerica, the Bank of Tokyo and the National Consumer Cooperative Bank.  Over nearly three decades of law practice, he has advised financial institutions, businesses, creditors and public corporations, such as the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, in a number of real estate or industrial development transactions or loan restructurings, in complex construction loan transactions, and in bankruptcy reorganization cases, on projects throughout Alaska, including the Over the Horizon Backscatter Radar construction project for the Department of the Air Force, the wood chip loading and shipping facility in Homer, the Mount Roberts Tramway and tourist facilities in Juneau, the waterfront development project in Unalaska, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of the holders of oil and gas leases in Cook Inlet and on the North Slope, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of the airline MarkAir, the acquisition out of bankruptcy of patented gold mining claims and state mineral leases in the historic Willow Creek mining district, and enforcement of a mining joint venture exploration agreement in the Nome mining district.

Professional Experience

• Shareholder, Birch, Horton, Bittner and Cherot (1991-2009); Associate in the firm’s Fairbanks and Juneau offices (1981-1991)
• Attorney, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region I, Boston, Massachusetts (1979-1981). Recipient of EPA Special Achievement Award in hazardous waste litigation cases.

Admitted to Practice

• Alaska
• Massachusetts

Academics

• Boston University School of Law (J.D., 1978)
• Williams College (B.A., cum laude, 1975)
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Awarded Honors in English
  • James Phinney Baxter, III Honor Scholarship

Practice Group and Specialty Team Memberships

• Litigation
• Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights

Representative Matters and Clients

• In re E. Brown Incorporated (secured lender’s counsel in Chapter 11 of construction company)
• In re Forcenergy (counsel for creditor oil service company in Chapter 11 of oil and gas company)
• In re Stewart Petroleum Company (counsel for creditor secured by oil and gas leases)
• In re Kake Tribal Corporation (secured lender’s counsel in Chapter 11 of an Alaska Native corporation)
• In re Wave Wholesale (secured lender’s counsel in Chapter 11 of food wholesale distributor in rural Alaska)
• In re Pacific Forest Products (debtor’s counsel for Chapter 11 of sawmill)
• In re Southeast Timber (creditor counsel in logging company reorganization)
• In re Glacier Bay Airways (counsel for creditor aircraft lender in air taxi Chapter 11 case)
• In re Rocky Mountain Helicopters (counsel for timber owner in Chapter 11 of logging company)
• In re MarkAir (counsel for flight attendants union)
• In re Inlet Fisheries, Inc. (bankruptcy counsel for seafood processor in reorganization under Chapter 11)

Professional and Community Activities

• Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bar
• Alaska Bar Association
• U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska
• U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
• United States Court of Appeals, First and Ninth Circuits
• United States Claims Court