Features
Michael L. Cook
Recent appellate decisions reflect a distaste for appeals from bankruptcy court sanction orders. A split Fourth Circuit even refused to hear such an appeal. Other courts tend to limit sanctions or, alternatively, accept a bankruptcy judge's findings under a stringent "abuse of discretion" standard.
Features
Daniel A. Lowenthal
If a foreign debtor doesn't reside in, have a domicile or place of business in, or have property in the U.S., can the foreign representative of the debtor utilize Chapter 15 to obtain discovery to use in the foreign proceeding?
Features
Michael L. Cook
A bankruptcy court properly held that derivative claims based on "piercing the corporate veil theory of liability [were] released under" a confirmed reorganization plan, but that direct "claims for negligent undertaking" were not released and "could be asserted" in state court against the debtors' equity sponsors.
Features
Michael L. Cook
"… [T]he term 'securities contract' as used in [Bankruptcy Code] §546(e) unambiguously includes contracts involving privately held securities," The Seventh Circuit held in Petr v. BMO Harris Bank, N.A.
Features
Michael L. Cook
When courts have made important exceptions in the past year, they have either added a gloss on the Judicial Code, corrected lawyers' errors, filled in statutory gaps, or clarified the relevant statutory language.
Features
Michael L. Cook
By enforcing deadlines strictly, refusing to hear appeals from interlocutory orders, and rarely bypassing the district court for direct appeals, appellate courts have generally avoided what they view as unnecessary work and delay. But a few courts have made important exceptions in the past year.
Features
Brad Jones
Courts have struggled with the interpretation of the 2019 amendment to Section 547, specifically whether the due diligence requirement is an element of a preference claim that must be adequately pleaded in the plaintiff's complaint. While the law is still developing, there are three important takeaways for trustees to consider.
Features
Jeffery Lula
In today's volatile economic climate, companies need to be more creative to find ways to mitigate risk. Litigation finance is one of those out-of-the-box solutions that can provide benefits.
Features
Michael L. Cook
Pundits are raving about the current increase in business bankruptcy cases. But they rarely, if ever, mention the spike in bankruptcy appeals. A brief survey of recent decisions shows that appellate courts are, among other things, finding ways to (a) avoid making decisions or to (b) avoid litigation delay and uncertainty by expediting appellate review. Practitioners can avoid surprises by grasping what these courts are actually doing.
Features
Robert W. Dremluk
On Oct. 20, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Momentive Performance Materials, Inc. v. BOKF, NA (In re MPM Silicones, L.L.C. "MPM")…
