As of Q1 2021, vaccines have started to reduce hospitalisations in numerous countries, but global variations in vaccine manufacturing, distribution, procurement and adoption ensure that 2021 will be a year of patchwork ‘new normals’ worldwide. New, more infectious and potentially more robust variants may render COVID-19 endemic, further fragmenting governments’ response. Despite the prominence of the pandemic, other issues (such as Brexit and data protection) have also been notable within searches.
Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 saw some significant developments in offshore restructuring, insolvency and corporate recovery, with the passage of new legislation and the handing down of judgments providing welcome clarification on laws relevant to practitioners in this area.
This week’s TGIF considers the decision of the Supreme Court of New South Wales In the matter of Gearhouse BSI Pty Ltd [2021] NSWSC 98. In this case, one of the joint venture parties obtained an order to wind up the joint venture on the basis that the underlying purpose of the business had failed.
Key takeaways
Both creditors and debtors need to know about unsecured creditors committees. These committees can help parties in a bankruptcy case, but they come with a cost. And most of the time, they’re appointed as a matter of course.
What is an unsecured creditors committee?
In civil disputes — including bankruptcy litigation — it is not uncommon for questions to arise about a client’s potential exposure to criminal liability, whether the client is a party or a witness. Civil litigators must therefore understand the role of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in the civil context.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed the dismissal of a borrower’s petition seeking relief under the federal All Writs Act for purported violations of the automatic bankruptcy stay in continued foreclosure proceedings and purported violations of the borrower’s rights to remove the state court proceedings to the bankruptcy court.
1. Introduction
In Li Yiqing v Lamtex Holdings Ltd [2021] HKCFI 622, the Companies Court considered whether to put a Bermuda-incorporated company into immediate liquidation in Hong Kong or to adjourn the local winding-up petition to allow restructuring to proceed with the involvement of joint provisional liquidators appointed in Bermuda.
The Court of Appeal of Alberta issued the latest decision in the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) proceedings of Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. (Bellatrix).1
Early evening on February 23, 2021, Belk Inc. and its affiliates (collectively, “Belk”) filed their Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Less than seventeen hours later, Judge Marvin Isgur confirmed Belk’s pre-packed plan of reorganization. Belk is not the first Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to accomplish plan confirmation within the first twenty-four hours after filing a petition, and it certainly won’t be the last. In 2019, Sungard Availability Services Capital, Inc.