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Pledged Equity Proxy Rights and the Rise of the Board Flip

Borrower beware: in times of distress, your credit documents may give your secured lenders an opportunity to “flip” control of your board

Distress happens, even at companies that once appeared financially solid. When it does, the company, its board (which may be controlled by a sponsor in a public or private equity scenario), and its lenders often enter into restructuring discussions in search of a consensual path forward, typically under the terms of a forbearance agreement.

USA, Company & Commercial, Insolvency & Restructuring, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, Bankruptcy, Private equity
Supreme Court Resolves Split on U.S. Trustee Fees

Introduction

USA, Insolvency & Restructuring, Litigation, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, US Congress, Supreme Court of the United States
Conflicting Rulings on Applicable Rate of Postpetition Interest Set the Stage for Hertz Post-Confirmation Interest Rate Litigation

On June 10, 2021, Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath of the District of Delaware confirmed the chapter 11 plan filed by The Hertz Corporation debtors. In the days just prior to confirmation, the debtors filed a revised plan that proposed to pay unimpaired unsecured creditors postpetition interest at the federal judgment rate. However, the plan reserved to those unsecured creditors the right to later assert entitlement to postpetition interest at higher contractual rates, while also reserving to the debtors the right to argue that no postpetition interest is payable at all.

USA, Insolvency & Restructuring, Litigation, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
In re Buffets: A Fees-t for the United States Trustee

The holidays came early for the United States Trustee (the “U.S. Trustee”) on November, 3, 2020, when a three-judge panel of the United States Circuit Court for the Fifth Circuit, on direct appeal, reversed the bankruptcy court and upheld the constitutionality of a 2017 increase to quarterly fees payable to the U.S. Trustee in Hobbs v. Buffets LLC (In re Buffets LLC), No. 19-50765, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 34866 (5th Cir. Nov. 3, 2020). Although the Fifth Circuit’s opinion addresses a variety of constitutional challenges to the recent increase to U.S.

USA, Insolvency & Restructuring, Litigation, Private Client & Offshore Services, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, Trustee, Fifth Circuit
Supreme Court Reiterates That Rejection of Executory Contract Constitutes Breach, Does Not Terminate Non-Debtor Counterparty’s Rights Under Contract

The U.S. Supreme Court held today in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC that a trademark licensee may retain certain rights under a trademark licensing agreement even if the licensor enters bankruptcy and rejects the licensing agreement at issue. Relying on the language of section 365(g) of the Bankruptcy Code, the Supreme Court emphasized that a debtor’s rejection of an executory contract has the “same effect as a breach of that contract outside bankruptcy” and that rejection “cannot rescind rights that the contract previously granted.”

USA, Insolvency & Restructuring, Litigation, Trademarks, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, Bankruptcy, Supreme Court of the United States, Seventh Circuit, First Circuit