Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs partner Eric Anderson is representing Textron Financial Corp., a secured creditor in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Eva-Tone Inc.

Parker Hudson has previously represented Textron in numerous matters, Anderson said. Parker Hudson associate Joshua Lewis is working with Anderson on the Eva-Tone bankruptcy.

Eva-Tone, of Clearwater, Fla., filed for Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida on Nov. 3. Holland & Knight partner Rod Anderson in Tampa is Eva-Tone’s debtor counsel.

Eva-Tone was forced to file for Chapter 11 after defaulting on a lease payment, according to a court filing. Eva-Tone said it had 2007 sales of $34.5 million in 2007, down 11 percent from $38.9 million in 2006, according to a court filing.

Eva-Tone owes Textron about $2.3 million from a revolving credit facility, according to a court filing.

Eva-Tone provides commercial printing services, order fulfillment and CD and DVD manufacturing. Textron is involved in aircraft financing, resort and golf course financing, insurance brokerage and other financial services. Textron is headquartered in Providence, R.I., and its distribution finance division is based in Alpharetta, Ga.

A Buckhead boutique that peddles high-priced, trendy denim pants—a.k.a. blue jeans—has filed for bankruptcy.

The store, called Blue Genes, filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal court in Atlanta on Wednesday. Jones & Walden partner Leon Jones is the company’s bankruptcy counsel.

Blue Genes operates one store near Lenox Square Mall, as well as an online commerce site. Blue Genes was founded in August 2001 by sisters Jennifer, Julie and Jane Arrendale [photo, left].

Some of the hottest names in casual women’s fashion are owed money by Blue Genes, according to a court document. Blue Genes owes about $159,000 to 7 For All Mankind, which makes Seven Jeans. The store owes Karen Zambos Vintage Couture about $25,000. Designer Elise Overland is owed about $16,000. Blue Genes owes Alice & Olivia of New York about $12,000.

The largest creditor is the State of Georgia, which Blue Genes owes about $810,000 in taxes.

Blue Genes has been a featured spot on the Bravo show “The Real Housewives of Atlanta." [photo, right] One of the housewives, Kim Zolciak, held a birthday party for her daughter at Blue Genes, according to the NoControl television blog. The wives also frequently are shown shopping at the store.

A Georgia state senator who controls two auto dealerships has tapped his longtime outside law firm—Segal, Fryer, Shuster & Lester—for advice on an offer to acquire a dealership from the bankrupt Bill Heard Enterprises Inc.

Michael Shuster, a partner at the Atlanta firm, is advising a company controlled by State Sen. Emanuel Jones on his offer to buy a former Bill Heard dealership in Columbus. The company, called Legacy Automotive of Columbus LLC, made its offer in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama, where Bill Heard’s Chapter 11 case was filed.

Legacy’s offer is valued at least $12.5 million, and will ultimately be significantly higher than that, Shuster said. That figure includes an offer of $11.5 million for the dealership’s real estate, and another $1 million for furniture, fixtures and equipment at the dealership. However, Legacy is also offering to acquire two other sets of assets—the dealership’s inventory of new vehicles and its inventory of automobile parts. The value of those inventories has yet to be determined, Shuster said.

Shuster said he has been representing Jones since he entered the automobile dealership industry in 1991. Segal, Fryer, Shuster & Lester partner Charles I. Pollack is also advising Legacy on the real estate aspects of its acquisition offer.

Legacy had previously made an offer to acquire Bill Heard’s shuttered dealership in Gwinnett County. But that offer was withdrawn earlier this month.

Jones, a Democrat from Ellenwood, owns two dealerships in Henry County, Legacy Ford and Legacy Hyundai, both in McDonough. Jones was elected to the Georgia Senate in 2004.

Legacy’s offer for the Columbus dealership is classified as a “stalking horse” bid in bankruptcy court filings. That means Bill Heard is required to solicit other offers, and Legacy could be out-bid, Shuster said. Additionally, Legacy’s offer must receive final approval from both the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and from General Motors Corp., which holds an existing franchise agreement with Bill Heard.

Bids are also outstanding on two other Bill Heard dealerships, in Collierville, Tenn., and Huntsville, Ala.

Before filing for bankruptcy and closing all its dealerships in September, Bill Heard Enterprises was one of the largest Chevrolet dealers in the U.S.

Burr & Forman partners Robert Rubin and Derek Meek in Birmingham, Ala., are lead bankruptcy counsel to Bill Heard Enterprises. Kilpatrick Stockton partners Dennis Meir and John Mills in Atlanta and Mark Taylor in Washington are advising the official committee of unsecured creditors.

Want to live in an 8-bedroom mansion at Sugarloaf Country Club, once owned by a superstar NFL quarterback, complete with a movie theater and a 4-car garage? It can be yours for $4.1 million.

As part of a plan to sell his assets to pay off debts, former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is selling his Sugarloaf mansion. The sale of the Gwinnett County mansion, along with more houses, cars, yachts, sport-fishing boats, horses and more, was part of a reorganization plan filed on Wednesday in federal bankruptcy court by Vick’s lawyers, Crowell & Moring partners Peter R. Ginsberg and Michael Blumenthal.

Vick is serving a 23-month sentence in federal prison in Kansas for bankrolling a dogfighting ring in rural Virginia. He is scheduled to be released July 20. Although Vick remains on the Atlanta Falcons roster, Falcons owner Arthur Blank has said that he expects Vick will return to the NFL, but not with the Falcons.

Among the many disclosures found in the filing made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia:

* In early 2007, before he was indicted, Vick gave his younger brother, former Miami Dolphins wide receiver Marcus Vick, about $450,000 worth of jewelry as a gift. However, the bling, which includes a Breitling watch and diamond stud earrings, may not have been Vick’s to give. It’s unclear whether Vick made payments on the merchandise to Atlanta jeweler Aydin & Co., or whether Aydin gave Vick the jewelry to wear as a promotion for the company.

“There is an issue as to who owns the jewelry,” the Crowell & Moring lawyers wrote in the court filing.

* With his multimillion-dollar contract with the Atlanta Falcons and endorsement contracts with Nike, Rawlings and others, Vick financially supported his mother and siblings, his son, his son’s mother, his fiancée, Kijafa Frink, and the two children he has had with Frink, a 10-month-old and a 3-month-old. Vick allowed his family to live in homes he purchased and drive his cars while he also paid their living expenses.

* Vick’s family and fiancée drove nicer vehicles than he did. Vick gave his brother, Marcus, a 2007 Land Rover. He gave his mother two Cadillacs, and his fiancée a 2007 Infiniti. But Vick himself drove a 2007 Ford F-150 truck.

* Vick paid Sutherland partner Billy Martin $500,000 for defending him against the federal dogfighting charges. Vick paid Atlanta criminal defense lawyer Daniel R. Meachum $200,000, according to Meachum spokeswoman Monica Wood.

* Vick gave his former personal manager, David Talbot, a 2008 Mercedes and $35,000 in cash as part of his compensation. Vick’s bankruptcy attorneys later learned, however, that Talbot had filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection on three separate occasions, and also had had multiple legal judgments filed against him. Additionally, shortly after Vick filed for bankruptcy protection, New Jersey state officials filed a complaint against Talbot alleging civil securities fraud.

* After he was convicted and sent to federal prison, some of Vick’s memorabilia from his football career was left behind at the Sugarloaf mansion. These items are being held for safekeeping by Vick’s former Falcons teammate Demorrio Williams, now with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Wine connoisseurs must be downsizing too.

An Atlanta retailer of high-end wines, The Grape, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Lamberth, Cifelli, Stokes, Ellis & Nason partner Frank Nason is legal counsel to The Grape Enterprise Group Inc. in the Chapter 11 filing.

The Grape has four locations in Atlanta—Atlantic Station, Inman Park, Phipps Plaza and Vinings. It also owns or franchises stores and wine bars in Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Lawyers from Hartman, Simons, Spielman & Wood and Sutherland are the legal advisers on the bankruptcy court-approved sale of a Georgia natural gas marketer.

Sutherland partners Tom Byrne and Knox Dobbins advised MXenergy Inc. on its agreement to acquire Catalyst Natural Gas LLC for about $2 million. Hartman Simons partners Sam Arden and Joe DeLisle were counsel to Catalyst on the deal. The sale has received approval from U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Joyce Bihary and from the Georgia Public Service Commission.

Catalyst, of Atlanta, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Oct. 1 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Catalyst was a natural-gas marketing company that had served 34,000 customers in Georgia. MXenergy, of Stamford, Conn., provides natural gas and electricity in the U.S. and Canada.

In addition to the sales agreement, a host of Atlanta-area attorneys are advising clients in the Catalyst bankruptcy proceedings.

Jones & Walden partners Leon Jones and Denise Dotson are bankruptcy counsel to Catalyst, while Powell Goldstein partner Robert Mercer is legal counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors to Catalyst.

Cohen Pollock Merlin & Small partner Gus Small is representing interested party Gas South LLC, which said in a court filing that it estimates that it’s owed about $1.5 million by either Atlanta Gas Light or by Catalyst. That debt is a result of Catalyst under-supplying the natural gas system shared by the state’s gas-marketing companies, Small wrote in a court filing on behalf of natural-gas marketer Gas South.

McKenna Long & Aldridge partners Gary Marsh and Craig Dowdy and associate David Gordon are counsel to creditor Atlanta Gas Light Co.

Rogers & Hardin partners Kimberly Myers, Tony Powers and Robert Remar are representing creditor Georgia Natural Gas, a unit of SouthStar Energy Services.

King & Spalding partner Paul Ferdinands is counsel to creditor SCANA Corp.

Morris, Manning & Martin partners Becky Patrick and David Rabin are counsel to Infinite Energy Inc. on litigation it filed against Catalyst. Hartman Simons partner David L. Pardue is defending Catalyst in the Infinite Energy litigation.

Scroggins & Williamson partners Robert Williamson and Hayden Kepner are counsel to interested party Constellation Energy Commodities Group Inc. McDermott Will & Emery partners Nathan Coco in Chicago and Robert Stephens in Houston are also advising Constellation Energy.

Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker partner Jesse Austin is representing a group of lenders—including UBS and General Electric Capital—on providing financing to a Texas-based trucking company that filed for bankruptcy this week.

Austin, a financial services and restructuring partner in Paul Hastings’ Atlanta office, specializes in debtor-in-possession lending, according to the law firm’s web site.

The trucking industry has been hit hard [see Deal Watch Blog story from Oct. 10] by a variety of factors, including a rise in fuel costs and declines in shipments by retailers and automakers. A number of trucking companies have filed for bankruptcy this year, including Jevic Holding Corp. and Jim Palmer Trucking.

GWLS Holdings Inc.’s Greatwide Logistics Services filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Greatwide is financing its daily operations with debtor-in-possession lending of as much as $73.6 million from UBS, GE Capital and Abelco Finance LLC, according to a court filing. Paul Hastings is advising UBS, GE Capital and Abelco.

Greatwide, of Dallas, operates dozens of subsidiaries engaged in freight trucking, logistics and brokerage industries. The company’s customers include Wal-Mart, Ford Motor, General Motors and UPS, according to Greatwide’s web site.

As part of its Chapter 11 filing, Greatwide said that it has agreed to sell itself to two private equity firms, Centerbridge Capital Partners LP and D.E. Shaw & Co., according to a press release. Other companies will be allowed to make higher offers during the bankruptcy procedure, Greatwide said.

Among Greatwide’s largest creditors are Comdata Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta, owed an estimated $2.5 million in trade debt; Ryder Transportation Services of Atlanta, owed an estimated $200,000; and Great Dane Trailers of Atlanta, owed $52,000.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor are bankruptcy co-counsel to Greatwide. Paul Hastings partner Leslie Plaskon in New York is working with Austin on advising the DIP lenders.

Kilpatrick Stockton partner John Mills in Atlanta is representing Mitsubishi Motors Credit of America Inc. in the bankruptcy case of a South Carolina car dealer.

Joe Gibson Automotive Inc. of Spartanburg, S.C., on July 16 filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina. Joe Gibson Automotive filed for bankruptcy after dozens of consumers sued the dealer, claiming fraudulent advertising and business practices.

Mitsubishi Motors Credit is a secured lender in the case, having provided financing to Joe Gibson to purchase vehicles. Mitsubishi Motors Credit is owed about $1.86 million by Joe Gibson Automotive, according to court documents.

McCarthy Law Firm partner Bill McCarthy and Walker & Reibold partner Harry Walker, both of Columbia, S.C., are representing Joe Gibson Automotive.

Joe Gibson Automotive operated Mitsubishi and Suzuki dealerships in Spartanburg and Gaffney, S.C. The largest dealership in Spartanburg closed on Aug. 2, according to the Herald-Journal of Spartanburg.

All Terrain Monsters, a South Georgia company that makes extra-large all-terrain vehicles, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after its primary lender threatened to foreclose on some of its property.

Georgia A.T.M. Inc. of Glenwood, Ga., the corporate parent of All Terrain Monsters, filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 6 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Georgia in Dublin.

All Terrain Monsters is owned by the Gilder family, including Thomas R. “Tommy” Gilder III; his wife, Vicki Gilder; and his brother, Fred Gilder. The Gilders also own Gilder Timber Co. of Glenwood. All Terrain Monsters, which employed four people as of the date of the bankruptcy filing, makes all-terrain vehicles used in hunting, farming and racing and for search-and-rescue teams. Prices for each vehicle start at $13,000, according to the All Terrain Monsters web site.

All Terrain Monsters said in a court filing that its largest debt is $1.5 million owed to Montgomery Bank & Trust of Ailey, Ga. Montgomery Bank & Trust had said it planned to foreclose on 108 acres of the Gilder family’s property, according to an Oct. 3 letter to the Gilders from the company’s legal counsel, Stone & Baxter partner Ward Stone Jr. in Macon.

Stone is bankruptcy counsel to All Terrain Monsters. Brown Rountree partner Charles H. Brown in Statesboro is advising Montgomery Bank & Trust.

An Atlanta-area company that makes synthetic lubricants for automotive and industrial uses has filed for bankruptcy.

American Synthol Inc. on Wednesday submitted its petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs partner Rufus T. Dorsey IV and associate Tyronia Morrison are American Synthol’s legal counsel.

Listed as American Synthol’s largest creditor is I.S.E.L. Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., which is owed about $565,000, according to a court document. I.S.E.L. filed a suit against American Synthol in federal court in Florida last month, in a dispute over payments for lubricants that I.S.E.L. had manufactured for American Synthol.

American Synthol, of Marietta, Ga., makes its lubricant products available under the Amerilube name, but also sells the products to private-label distributors.