The Labor and Employment Group at Hogan Lovells is proud to have contributed to the 2020 version of the firm’s Doing Business in the United States Guide. The Guide provides a high-level overview of the laws and practices important to foreign investors interested in operating in the United States, including recent legal developments.
Two recent decisions involving health care companies demonstrate how reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code1 can be used to manage large liabilities.
Hogan Lovells Publications | 17 February 2020
"The Net Short": U.S. and European High-Yield Covenant Trends in Response to Net Short Activism
Almost a decade into the current bull market, many economic prognosticators are warning of a coming downturn. At the same time, political upheaval and uncertainty around the world is changing the landscape for cross-border trade—including mergers and acquisitions activity. Hogan Lovells partners Richard L. Wynne and David A. Gibbons recently discussed how that macro environment is impacting distressed M&A today, and what steps business leaders and dealmakers should be taking to prepare for a shift in the economic winds.
The U.S. is one of the easiest jurisdictions in the world in which to do business.1 Regulatory barriers are generally low, establishing a branch or business entity is quick and easy, labor and employment laws are much more employer-friendly than in most other developed economies, and the legal system is well-developed and transparent. However, there are certain barriers to entry and challenges to doing business that should be taken into account before investing or establishing operations in the U.S. This publication provides an overview of trade control issues that could limit a non-U.S.
In Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC, 587 U.S. ___ (2019), the Supreme Court held that a debtor’s rejection of a trademark license does not eliminate the licensee’s right to use the trademark through the completion of the contract, settling a split in the Circuits. The Supreme Court also ruled that the case was not moot, despite the bankruptcy estate’s distribution of all of its assets, which may have important implications for the developing jurisprudence on mootness in bankruptcy cases.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that bankrupt trademark licensors cannot use federal bankruptcy law to rescind the rights of their trademark licensees to continue use of duly licensed trademarks. The decision settles a long-simmering circuit split on a question that the International Trademark Association has labelled “the most significant unresolved legal issue in trademark licensing.”
In In re 1141 Realty Owner LLC, et al., No. 18-12341 (SMB), 2019 WL 1270818 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. March 18, 2019), Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York recently reaffirmed that upon sufficient contractual language, "make whole" prepayment premiums are enforceable under New York law even after loan acceleration. The court emphasized that the language of the contract provided for such a result and that this was an enforceable liquidated damages clause under New York law.
In a recent decision, EMA GARP Fund v. Banro Corporation, No. 18 CIV. 1986 (KPF), 2019 WL 773988 (S.D.N.Y. 21 February 2019), District Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York enforced a foreign reorganization plan in the United States on the basis of international comity, notwithstanding that no application for recognition and enforcement had been made under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Banro Corp.
In a unanimous 25 February panel decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff's investment firm can claw back billions in Ponzi scheme proceeds from investors who received the proceeds indirectly through non-U.S. "feeder funds" (funds that aggregate investor capital to invest in funds such as Madoff's).