The POWER List: John J. Cruciani

Husch Blackwell, Kansas City

As leader of Husch Blackwell’s Insolvency & Commercial Bankruptcy team, John Cruciani counsels clients on bankruptcy, insolvency, creditors’ rights and commercial litigation matters.

He regularly represents debtors, trustee, creditors, committees and buyers in bankruptcy actions, and he has substantial bankruptcy experience within the manufacturing industry. He is board-certified in business and consumer bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification and is a certified public accountant in Missouri.

Cruciani’s work includes counseling Emerson Electric on nationwide bankruptcy and insolvency matters. He has also led bankruptcy counsel for PatientFirst Healthcare and affiliates in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The group of companies included a surgical specialty hospital and physician practices and emerged in a true reorganization.

Additionally, he served as lead bankruptcy counsel for the largest agricultural cooperative Chapter 11 bankruptcy case ever filed in Kansas.

Cruciani’s restructuring experience includes healthcare clients, including surgical specialty hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices and critical-access hospitals; transportation, such as capital equipment firms; agriculture, such as cooperative restructuring; and insurance.

He has published periodic articles in Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association’s KC Counselor and has spoken on bankruptcy topics for American Bankruptcy Institute, Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association, Kansas Bar Association and Kansas City Bankruptcy Bar Association events.

He served on the board of directors for the American Board of Certification between 2003 and 2009.   He co-chaired the Midwestern Bankruptcy Institute Advisory Board from 2017 to 2018.

Since 2002, Cruciani has served on the Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Committee and served as committee chair in 2018.

Since 2018, he has been a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. Other memberships include the Kansas City Bankruptcy Bar Association, the Kansas Bar Association, Missouri Bar and Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants.

He earned his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1994. He was a team member of the Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court while in law school.