Last November, in In re LTL Mgmt. LLC, 1 Bankruptcy Judge Craig Whitley in Charlotte, North Carolina, ordered LTL Management LLC’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case moved to New Jersey after finding that LTL Management had used the “Texas Two-Step” to manufacture jurisdiction in North Carolina improperly. LTL Management is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (“J&J”) and a defendant in thousands of talc-related tort claim lawsuits.

How are private practice mediators compensated in a bankruptcy case—procedurally?

We have a new court order providing guidance on how such procedures can work.

The new guidance is from Sears Holding Corp. v. Lampert (In re Sears Holdings Corp.), Adv. Pro. No. 19-08250, SDNY Bankruptcy Court. 

Mediation Order

In the world of cryptocurrency, exchange platforms act as intermediaries allowing investors to buy and sell assets while making money through commissions and transaction fees. Any assets purchased may be held in either non-custodial or custodial wallets. If a customer chooses a custodial wallet, the platform holds and manages the assets through a private key, which is a string of characters that serves as a password. If a key is lost or forgotten, it may be impossible to recover, resulting in the permanent loss of the asset.

IMAGINE THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO: WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING ITS LAWYERS, your firm’s major client, Hapless Client, LLC (“Hapless”) entered into a horrible one-sided contract with Sketchy Business, Inc. (“Sketchy”). To make matters worse, Sketchy just filed a contract claim against Hapless to enforce that contract, and Sketchy’s complaint seeks massive damages that could put Hapless out of business permanently. An interview with Hapless confirms the truth of the essential allegations of the complaint.

Sometimes a dissipation-of-assets claim under the IMDMA isn't enough when a recalcitrant spouse hedes assets. Never fear - the Illinois Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act may be the answer.

Overview

“Trillions of dollars”: That’s the amount of civil penalty claims a group of 40 States are asserting against Johnson & Johnson for consumer protection law violations. [Fn. 1]

Such civil penalty claims:

Recreational cannabis is now legal in 19 states and Washington D.C., driving the growth of legal cannabis sales estimated at $33 billion this year—up 32% from 2021—and expected to reach $52 billion by 2026.[1] This movement signals that financial investment in cannabis is not abating but accelerating notwithstanding the impact of the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.

In the bankruptcy world, not all claims are created equal. Rather, certain special categories of claims have priority status and are not only paid ahead of other claims, but are also often paid in full. One such category of claims is found in Bankruptcy Code § 503(b)(9), which grants priority claim status for goods which were sold in the ordinary course of business and received by a debtor within the 20-day window leading up to the bankruptcy filing. The code section is very clear, however.

In In re Purdue Pharma, L.P., 1 U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York vacated Purdue Pharma’s confirmed plan of reorganization after finding that the bankruptcy court below did not have statutory authority to issue a confirmation order granting non-consensual third-party releases—namely for the benefit of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue.