The Supreme Court issued a landmark and potentially far-reaching decision in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P., No. 23-124 (“Purdue”), on June 27, 2024. We set forth the facts and our initial observations below, with a more complete description of the decision at the end of this bulletin.
What Did the Court Decide?
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that because Indian tribes are indisputably governments, the Bankruptcy Code unmistakably abrogates their sovereign immunity to bankruptcy court proceedings.
In what might prove to be an important ruling, on April 12th the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware ruled that a secured creditor had, before the debtor filed bankruptcy, properly exercised an irrevocable proxy to change the management of the debtor’s subsidiary. The Court also ruled that the creditor had not violated the automatic stay by refusing to relinquish the proxy following the bankruptcy filing. Though a clear victory for secured creditors, the Court’s ruling hinges on a well drafted proxy provision.
The Facts of the Case
On January 23, the NY DFS released updated guidance with regard to better protecting consumers in the event of virtual currency insolvency. This updated guidance applies to entities that DFS has licensed or chartered to hold or maintain virtual currency assets on behalf of their customers.
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.
On October 31, 2021, PWM Property Management LLC and eight of its affiliates (collectively, “PWM” or the “Debtors”) filed chapter 11 petitions in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.[1] The Debtors hold direct or indirect interests in two real properties—245 Park Avenue in New York City (“245 Park”) and 181 West Madison Street in Chicago (the “Chicago Property”). S.L.
On December 16, 2021, U.S.
As of November 1, 2021, dealers in security-based swaps (“SBS”) whose dealing activity exceeds certain de minimis thresholds (e.g., gross notional amount of $3 billion for credit default SBS, $150 million for other SBS, and $25 million for SBS where the counterparty is a special entity) are required to register with the SEC as a security-based swap dealer (“SBSD”) and to comply with the SEC’s regulations applicable to SBS.
Corporate restructuring transactions are often motivated by tax planning, though there are usually other legitimate corporate needs to be achieved. The Corporations Tax Code of Japan contains provisions granting the government power to deny the effects of corporate restructuring for tax purposes—e.g., Article 132 (for family company group transactions) and Article 132-2 (for intra-group mergers and other reorganizations). In recent years, Japanese courts have been trying to clarify the standard for denying the tax effect of certain restructuring transactions.