Download a Printable PDF of this Article Some Financial Help for the Little Guy: President Trump Does Something Uncontroversial for a Change and Signs Four New Bankruptcy Bills into Law1 President Trump signed four bipartisan bankruptcy bills into law this past Friday, effecting the most significant changes to the Bankruptcy Code since 2005. The four bills, except the SBRA (defined below) became effective as soon as President Trump’s tiny hand signed them into law. The SBRA will become effective 180 days later. The new laws are: The Family Farmer Relief […]

The Myth of the Newspaper Being a Commercially Reasonable Notice

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 […]

A written tour of business bankruptcy and its alternatives. This is the latest in the series, Dealing with Distress for Fun & Profit, which you can read from the beginning if you like. Our last two installments focused on the basics of confirming a plan, followed by specific plan confirmation issues to address with individual classes of creditors. In this installment, our fearless authors take on a discussion of a less frequently used, yet highly effective means of confirming plans–plan support agreements and restructuring support agreements. Overview of Restructuring Support […]

A written tour of business bankruptcy and its alternatives. This is the latest in the series, Dealing with Distress for Fun & Profit, which you can read from the beginning if you like1. Our last installment focused on the basics of confirming a plan. In this installment, our fearless authors drill down into the various ways of confirming a plan with respect to individual classes of creditors.

Bankruptcy Valuation Valuation—the estimation of an entity’s worth—plays a crucial role in all stages of a commercial bankruptcy, as well in any out-of-court restructuring.¹ Valuation can be critical at the beginning of a bankruptcy case in determining whether the debtor can use cash collateral or obtain debtor-in-possession financing. At the confirmation stage, valuation plays a critical role in determining whether a chapter 11 plan can be confirmed and, if so, how much each class of creditors will receive on its claim. Even after confirmation, valuation is an essential issue in […]

Dealing with Distress for Fun & Profit— Installment #18—How to Confirm a Chapter 11 Plan

A written tour of business bankruptcy and its alternatives. This is the latest in the series, Dealing with Distress for Fun & Profit, which you can read from the beginning if you like.  In this bat-installment, we turn to what is, theoretically, one of the most important parts of any chapter 11 case: confirming a chapter 11 plan. Chapter 11 Plans Are Not Always in the Cards Notice our use of the word “theoretically” above?  That is because in many chapter 11 cases there never is a plan. Some cases […]

Corporate Restructuring 2017: Why Some Attorneys See Rising Rates, but Most Don’t

The economy, stupid. -James Carville The corporate restructuring profession has become, much like the broader economy, increasingly a world of few “haves” and many “have nots.” This is not by accident, and it is not going away. Those who see and accept the industry for what it is—and pivot accordingly—will continue to be winners. Those who possess a limited repertoire of moves and simply hope for economic downturns will continue to fight for limited market share. How We Got Here Chapter 11 Was Once New Technology The Bankruptcy Code is […]

A written tour of business bankruptcy and its alternatives We started this series (click here to start reading from the beginning) with a broad overview of business bankruptcy but our last several installments have focused on one small, albeit important, aspect- the automatic stay.  We’ve heard from a number of readers that they would like to read more about the proverbial forest, rather than just the automatic stay tree.  And, so, with this installment we pan the camera back to explain a concept that is at play throughout a bankruptcy […]

A written tour of business bankruptcy and its alternatives Editors’ Note:  If you are a regular reader of this column, you will know that this is the third installment in a row about the automatic stay (it is a big topic and we didn’t want to lay too much on you at once).  If you’re growing bored of the topic, don’t despair, as our next installment will pan the camera back a bit and give you a flavor for how litigation in bankruptcy court works more generally. We’ll spend a […]

A written tour of business bankruptcy and its alternatives Our most recent installment in this series gives an overview of the automatic stay. In this installment we dive a little deeper, and we start with this question:  how do you know when a contemplated action would violate the stay and, thus, require stay relief before the action is taken? Consider these examples: a plaintiff believes that its lawsuit relates wholly to post-petition conduct, but the debtor alleges that it is based on pre-petition events; a creditor believes that it is exercising […]