Fulltext Search

Both the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken by governments have led to unprecedented legal questions that require immediate attention and solutions. These are challenging times. We have therefore prepared the following overview of some of the pertinent legal questions and the answers to consider, in the hope they provide useful preliminary guidance.

Topic

Main issues in relation to the risk of director liability

Question

On 23 March 2020, the German Federal Cabinet adopted further urgent measures to mitigate the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The package of measures includes an emergency aid programme for micro-enterprises, self-employed persons and freelancers of up to EUR 50 billion and an economic stabilisation fund of EUR 600 billion as well as a Law to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in civil law, insolvency law and criminal proceedings.

In a unanimous decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch (Rodriquez v. FDIC No 18-12690), the Supreme Court vacated a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (In reUnited Western Bancorp, Inc.914 F. 3d 1262 (10th Cir, 2019)) that awarded a federal income tax refund of a failed bank to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver.

En 2019, les tribunaux canadiens, dont la Cour suprême du Canada, ont rendu un certain nombre de décisions qui présentent un intérêt pour les prêteurs commerciaux et les spécialistes des dossiers de restructuration. Le présent article propose, pour chacune de ces affaires, un résumé des enjeux d’importance.

In 2019, a number of judicial decisions were rendered across Canada, including by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), that will be of interest to commercial lenders and restructuring professionals. This article summarizes the core issues of importance in each of these cases.

In 2019, a number of judicial decisions were rendered across Canada, including by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), that will be of interest to commercial lenders and restructuring professionals. This article summarizes the core issues of importance in each of these cases.

A decision this month out of the Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan (SDNY) could have a significant impact on the market for student loan securitizations. Student loan asset-backed securities (SLABS) are unsecured, but market participants typically assume that the underlying student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. A new ruling by the chief judge of the SDNY’s Bankruptcy Court challenges this assumption.

In October 2019, syncreon Group Holdings B.V. and its subsidiaries (collectively, the syncreon Group) completed a landmark cross-border balance sheet restructuring of approximately US$1.1-billion of debt. The syncreon Group’s restructuring is believed to be the first time that English scheme of arrangement proceedings have been used to restructure debt issued by a U.S.-based multinational enterprise (Scheme Proceedings).

On November 1, 2019, certain amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) and the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) will come into force and have potentially far-reaching implications on the way in which restructuring and liquidation proceedings under those statutes are conducted.

As described in further detail below, the amendments:

EMPLOYMENT (news)

Diversity in boards of larger companies

Targets (i.e., at least 30% women) imposed by Dutch law for a more balanced composition of the executive and supervisory boards of ‘large’ companies shall cease to exist as of 2020. A ‘large’ company is a company that meets two of the following requirements: (i) EUR 20 mio balance sheet total; (ii) net turnover of EUR 40 mio; and (iii) 250 employees. This does not, however, mean that diversity is no longer on the agenda of the Dutch Government.