New legislation hit the statue books on Wednesday bringing updates to the legislation governing special administrations for regulated water companies in England and Wales. The changes are timely (some may even consider them overdue) given the current market instability, and provide flexible options should the regime have to be used.

On December 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA), the omnibus funding bill that makes consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021. The CAA also provides various forms of economic relief to address the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of its coronavirus response, the CAA includes a number of amendments to the Bankruptcy Code. The key amendments are addressed below.

Temporary statutory protection of certain arrearage repayments under forbearance arrangements

Commercial bankruptcy practice in the United States is governed by Chapter 11 of title 11 of the United States Code. The focus of Chapter 11 is assisting a distressed company to reorganize its debts to emerge as a going concern or liquidate its assets as part of an orderly wind-down. In this article, we highlight the key benefits available to a Chapter 11 debtor and describe the various stages of a case, including statutory requirements, and types of plans.

While a range of outcomes, including a departure under the terms of the current Withdrawal Agreement, remains possible, it is important for businesses to plan for a no-deal Brexit, in which the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement or other deal. Here we look at the potential impact of a no-deal Brexit on cross-border corporate recovery and insolvency.

Key issues

Immediately following the results of the UK referendum on exiting the EU in June 2016, we wrote about the potential impact of Brexit on cross-border restructuring and insolvency work. As we identified then, the key issue in this area is the potentially significant implications of losing the reciprocal effect of the EU Regulation on insolvency proceedings and the Brussels Regulation (recast). In this article we focus on the impact of the loss of recognition under the Insolvency Regulation.

The economic value of IP rights in US bankruptcy proceedings has risen rapidly. Due to Congress's unique view of trademark licenses, appellate courts are increasingly divided on the ability both of debtor-owners to freely reject them, and of licensees to continue to use them. In In re Tempnology LLC,1 the Supreme Court has been asked to provide much-needed certainty on these issues.

There have been a number of smoke signals in the last few months around the increase of consumer debt in the UK and a focus on those firms providing consumer credit across the credit spectrum but particularly in the "sub-prime" or "near-prime" space.

Since the credit crunch, a number of consumer credit businesses have stepped in to fill a gap in the lending market. They give sub-prime or near-prime borrowers, who may find it difficult to obtain credit from traditional sources, with high-cost, short-term credit - instant access to funds.

The Supreme Court's decision in Lehman Waterfall I was handed down this morning. DLA Piper represents one of the successful appellants, Lehman Brothers Limited (in administration) (LBL).

The court was asked to consider certain issues relating to distributions in the estate of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (LBIE), an unlimited company in administration. Such issues arose due to a substantial anticipated surplus in LBIE and sought to resolve particular lacunas in UK insolvency legislation.

The Investment Bank Special Administration Regime (SAR) was introduced in 2011 in response to difficulties faced in the Lehman Brothers administration. Following a review of the regime by Peter Bloxham in 2014, and a Government consultation in 2016, the Treasury has introduced draft regulations to improve the regime - The Investment Bank (Amendment of Definition) and Special Administration (Amendment) Regulations 2017.