In a recent case from the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, In re Paragon Offshore PLC, the bankruptcy court provided guidance on whether a post-plan effective date litigation trust's distributions constituted disbursements subject to the U.S. Trustee fee "tax."
Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code grants debtors the ability to assume or reject any executory contract or unexpired lease. Debtors must assume or reject a lease in its entirety and are not free under Section 365 to assume only favorable provisions of a lease. Courts, however, have consistently held that they will not find a multi-property master lease to be a unitary lease merely because such properties are demised in a single document.
'Purdue Pharma' Looms Although four cases presenting important bankruptcy issues were teed up for the Supreme Court's consideration this term, the Court denied certiorari for each. Each of these petitions involve splits among the circuit courts of appeals, influencing choice of venue and the extent to which bankruptcy decisions are subject to meaningful appeal.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged commercial landlords to rely on various legal theories to protect their legitimate rights. As federal, state and local governments enact laws to protect tenants from evictions and/or the enforcement of personal lease guarantees, a landlord's counsel must seek avenues to press its clients' rights against any entity who may be liable for outstanding rent arrears due and owing under a commercial lease.
Attorneys general from 41 states, along with Puerto Rico and Guam, have issued a statement in support of legislation before Congress geared toward stopping corporations from venue-shopping bankruptcy cases.
Historically, the "fugitive disentitlement" doctrine has foreclosed challenges to criminal charges by a defendant who does not physically submit to a U.S. court's jurisdiction. As a consequence, to make even threshold challenges to an indictment, a defendant who lives abroad must leave home, waive the right to oppose extradition, and risk pre-trial detention in the United States.
While we all look forward to returning to normal, the normal we left in early 2020 remains elusive. For those who are leading teams (such as executive committees, practice and industry groups, client teams, administrative departments, and firm committees), the struggle is more complex.
After a year filled with filings, commercial Chapter 11 bankruptcies fell off a cliff in 2021, causing bankruptcy lawyers to work on out-of-court restructurings or pivot to practices with overlapping skills such as real estate and commercial litigation.
Several recent court rulings aptly demonstrate how the right of publicity continues to be a vital cutting-edge area of celebrity law.
Litigation analytics can be considered a roadmap of sorts — an important guide to ensure the legal professional arrives at the correct litigation strategy or business plan. However, like roadmaps, litigation analytics will only be useful if it's based on data that is complete and accurate.
