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In In re Nine West LBO Securities Litigation (Case No. 20-2941) (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 4, 2020), a federal district court denied in part a motion to dismiss claims brought by the Nine West liquidating trustee against former directors (the "Defendants") of The Jones Group, Inc. (the "Company"), Nine West's predecessor, for, among other things, (i) breaches of their fiduciary duties of care and loyalty, and (ii) aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duties. The litigation arises from the 2014 LBO of the Company by a private equity sponsor ("Buyer").

The United States Supreme Court (the “Court”) recently issued a long-awaited decision in Czyzewski v. Jevic Holding Corp. (“Jevic”), which limits the use of “structured dismissals” in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, requiring structured dismissals pursuant to which final distributions are made to comply with the Bankruptcy Code’s priority scheme, or the consent of all affected parties to be obtained.1

What is a Structured Dismissal?

In a case that should alarm secured creditors who thought they could lawfully exercise their secured creditor rights to foreclose on collateral, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld sanctions against a secured creditor that did exactly that. In 2006, the State Employees Federal Credit Union ("SEFCU") made a loan to Mr. Weber, secured by Mr. Weber’s pick-up truck (the principles in this case apply equally in the corporate finance world). After Mr. Weber defaulted on the loan in 2009, SEFCU legally repossessed Mr.