In bankruptcy as in federal jurisprudence generally, to characterize something with the near-epithet of “federal common law” virtually dooms it to rejection. But, since “common law” is “[t]he body of law derived from judicial...more
I don’t know if Congress foresaw, when it enacted new Subchapter V of Chapter 11 of the Code in the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (“SBRA”), that debtors in pending cases would seek to convert or redesignate their...more
Our February 26 post reported on the first case dealing with the question whether a debtor in a pending Chapter 11 case may redesignate it as a case under Subchapter V, the new subchapter of Chapter 11 adopted by the Small...more
Our February 26 post entitled “SBRA Springs to Life” reported on the first case known to me that dealt with the issue whether a debtor in a pending Chapter 11 case should be permitted to amend its petition to designate it as...more
We reported on the adoption of the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (“SBRA”), with its 180-day runway to effectiveness, at the time of its adoption last year. The wait is over, and SBRA is springing to...more
Whether because of, or in spite of, the proliferating case law it is hard to say, but the issues in, underlying and surrounding third-party releases in Chapter 11 plans just continue to arise with incessant regularity, albeit...more
In the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (“2005 Act”), Congress amended the Bankruptcy Code and Title 28 of the U.S. Code to provide special rules and procedures for “small business debtors.” The...more
Can another vain attempt to mitigate a $1.5 billion mistake provide the occasion for a thorough review of the doctrine of earmarking? It did for Southern District Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in the long tail on the General...more
In hindsight, it seems inevitable that constitutional and other jurisdictional problems would arise when Congress, in enacting the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, created impressive new powers and responsibilities for the...more
Our February 22 post (with updates on March 19, April 17 and April 25) reported on a bankruptcy court decision dismissing a voluntary corporate Chapter 11 petition that had not been approved by a preferred stockholder of the...more
Our February 22 post reported that the Franchise Services of North America, Inc. decision of Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington of the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing a Chapter 11 petition because a shareholder had...more
4/26/2018
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Briefs ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Filing Requirements ,
Oral Argument ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Shareholders
Our February 22 post reported that the Franchise Services of North America, Inc. decision of Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington of the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing a Chapter 11 petition because a shareholder had...more
4/18/2018
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Briefs ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Consent ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Shareholders
Substantive consolidation is the ultimate disregard of the corporate separateness of a group of related debtors--it is “the effective merger of two or more legally distinct (albeit affiliated) entities into a single debtor...more
Our February 22 post reported that the Franchise Services of North America, Inc. decision of Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington of the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing a Chapter 11 petition because a holder of...more
3/20/2018
/ Appeals ,
Appellate Briefs ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Corporate Governance ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Jurisdiction ,
Veto Rights
Back in the day--say, the last two decades of the twentieth century--we bankruptcy lawyers took it largely on faith that the right structural and contractual provisions purporting to confer bankruptcy-remoteness were...more
2/23/2018
/ Appeals ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Special Purpose Entities ,
Special Purpose Vehicles
A long-running issue concerning the treatment of trademark licenses in bankruptcy has seen a new milestone with the January 12 decision of the First Circuit in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC. The issue was...more
When the fallout from failed intellectual-property litigation collides with bankruptcy, the complexities may be dizzying enough, but when the emerging practices and imperatives of litigation financing are imposed on those...more
12/8/2017
/ Attorney Malpractice ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Chapter 11 ,
Chapter 7 ,
Collateral ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Litigation Funding ,
Secured Debt ,
Trustees
It is a unique characteristic of debt restructuring under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code that a majority of a class of creditors can accept a modification of the terms of the debts owed to the class members, as provided in...more