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About Christopher M. Cahill

Christopher M. Cahill

Mr. Cahill is a Senior Counsel at Dykema, in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to a wide variety of corporate work, including with respect to digital assets, he guides secured lenders, creditors, debtors, creditors’ committees, potential purchasers and others through bankruptcy cases, out-of-court workouts, assignments for the benefit of creditors, and receiverships. Mr. Cahill has substantial mega-case experience at national law firms representing very large debtors, and has counseled and litigated on behalf of manufacturers and secured lenders in large and middle-market cases.

Mr. Cahill also publishes frequently and speaks regularly on commercial insolvency and secured credit issues. For example, he is co-author of Wiliam Houston Brown, Lawrence Ahern, III & Christopher Cahill, The Law of Debtor and Creditors (West, 2022), and annually-updated treatise published by West; and he has spoken recently before the Arizona Private Lenders Association on the collateralization of digital assets, and before the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals on the Federal Priority Act.


Articles by Christopher M. Cahill

Subchapter V works. It saves businesses. It helps the people that own those businesses. And it is cheap and fast, at least compared to “traditional” chapter 11.

Why Sell a Bankruptcy Claim? Imagine this: One of your customers sends you a notice stating it has filed for chapter 7 or chapter 11 bankruptcy protection rather than the payment for goods or services provided that you were expecting. In technical terms, you now have a “claim” against the “debtor,” but you aren’t sure you want to deal with the bankruptcy process and delay only to recover part of what you are owed. When a bankruptcy claims purchaser offers to purchase your bankruptcy claim from you for cash, you […]

The borrower is an LLC managed by a greedy principal member. The borrower slowly pays the secured creditor and unsecured creditors over years and its business becomes insolvent. The insolvent LLC makes cash distributions to its members, but not to the secured creditors. Is there a law against this sort of behavior?

What is the Consolidated Appropriations Act? Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 on December 21, 2020, and President Trump signed the massive act into law six days later, when it became effective. The act includes several changes to title 11 of the United States Code, which is usually called the “Bankruptcy Code,” and most changes sunset on either the first or second anniversary of the effective date of the act. Here are the changes you need to know, in the order they are presented in the act. Property That […]

The Battle Over Post-Petition Interest for Oversecured Creditors In bankruptcy, an oversecured creditor (in which the value of its collateral is higher than its claim) is first in line to be paid. Unfortunately, oversecured creditors are also entitled to post-petition interest (interest that accrues or would accrue after the start of bankruptcy proceedings, regardless of whether or not it is allowed in the proceeding). As a debtor who successfully increases the value of the asset/collateral—how do you alleviate an increased claim and maintain liquidity? And what say does the secured […]

Considerations for Distressed Private Equity   You are a PE fund manager. Your fund employs a loan-to-own strategy (also referred to as distressed private equity) to effect take-overs of target companies. You are accustomed to exerting powerful leverage in chapter 11 cases, particularly when you buy enough claims to confirm a plan or to block confirmation of a plan by other parties. For a plan to be approved consensually, each class of claims or interests must approve it. Approval by a class of claims requires a “yes” vote by a […]

Is It Commercially Reasonable Notice, If No One Is Reading? You represent a secured lender. You are to assist your client in its exercise of rights under UCC §9-610 to sell its collateral after it has foreclosed upon the collateral. Or maybe you represent a chapter 11 debtor and are selling its assets under Bankruptcy Code §363. Or perhaps you are a federal equity receiver selling under 28 U.S.C §2001 et seq. Or you are an assignee for the benefit of creditors or state court receiver who is selling a […]

NAFER (the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers) held another wisdom-rich conference in October, this time at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.  It was the seventh annual event and attracted 200 attendees. The conference included the Training Camp as well as panel discussions on snares and pitfalls for receivers, cryptocurrency, overseas asset recovery and more. We note gratefully that the proceedings were again overseen and moved along by the witty and time-sensitive Robert P. Mosier. Chicago, our kind of town and hometown, provided ample pleasant settings in which fellow practitioners […]

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded:  reclamation rights are illusory in bankruptcy cases.  Where a supplier ships goods to a company that later files for bankruptcy, section 546(c) of the Bankruptcy Code provides reclamation remedies (i.e., supplier getting the goods back) under certain circumstances (there are time limits, etc.) if the supplier has such rights under state law (e.g., Uniform Commercial Code section 2-702). But most corporate debtors have a secured creditor in place with liens on all property of the debtor, including inventory and proceeds thereof.  And most […]

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and others (“JPM”) lent $1.5 billion to General Motors Corporation (“Old GM”) under a term loan agreement (the “Term Loan Agreement”).  JPM was the senior secured creditor of Old GM.  Old Gm went into chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Under the terms of the DIP financing approved by the bankruptcy court, proceeds of the DIP loan were used to pay $1.5 billion to JPM for its claims under the Term Loan Agreement.  The unsecured creditors committee formed in the Old GM chapter 11 case (the “Committee”) wants that […]

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