Judge Robert Gerber will be stepping down at the end of this year, ending a storied judicial career highlighted by his oversight of the 2009 chapter 11 case of General Motors Corporation (“Old GM”).
The Third Circuit Rules in Favor of the Bankruptcy Estate Creating a Further Circuit Split
There were nearly a million bankruptcy cases filed by individuals and businesses in 2014. It is safe to say that only the tiniest fraction of such debtors have any familiarity with the Supreme Court’s decision in Stern v.
Energy Future Holdings (EFH), f/k/a TXU Corp., an energy company centered in Texas, was taken private in 2007 in the largest leveraged buyout transaction that has ever taken place. The deal was largely predicated on an anticipated rise in natural gas prices; when prices instead plummeted the company, which had borrowed nearly $40 billion, was left with a massively unbalanced capital structure. The chapter 11 cases of EFH and its subsid
Questions Standing of Indenture Trustees to Pursue Fraudulent Conveyance Claims
The Bankruptcy Code definition of “intellectual property” does not explicitly include “trademarks.”1 This has led to trademark licensees losing their rights to use the trademark upon rejection of the license in bankruptcy.
One month ago, Judge Christopher Klein ruled in the city of Stockton, CA bankruptcy case that public employee pension obligations can be impaired in municipal bankruptcy cases under Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code. Last week, however, Judge Klein approved the plan of adjustment for Stockton that left public pension obligations intact over the vociferous objection of Franklin Investments, a major city bondholder whose claim was substantially reduced. The confirmation of the Stockton plan underscores that even as there now appears to be a sound legal foundatio
Almost every significant bankruptcy case eventually involves preference demands and litigation. Around this abundance of litigation developed a significant body of jurisprudence, to which Judge Sean Lane of the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court recently added in clarifying the ordinary course of business preference defense.
In recent years, second lien financings have increased in popularity. Senior creditors rely on intercreditor agreements to protect their interests by limiting the rights that junior lien holders would otherwise enjoy as secured creditors through either lien subordination, payment subordination, or both. Lien subordination requires the turnover to first lien creditors of proceeds of shared collateral until the first lien holders are paid in full.
The perception that public employee pension obligations cannot be impaired in bankruptcy suffered a damaging blow several months ago in the City of Detroit bankruptcy case, and has now been fatally wounded by