The epidemiological outbreak of COVID-19 has collapsed the international health systems and provoked huge economic losses to global economies. For these reasons, countries affected by COVID-19 have adopted sanitary and economic measures to reduce the spread and negative impact to its economies.
At the end of March, the Government introduced measures providing a moratorium on evictions for commercial tenants for non-payment of rent until 30 June 2020.
Earlier this month, a Wolverhampton-based financial advisor was banned by the Insolvency Service for eight years after his firm provided poor pension investment advice, resulting in clients losing £7 million.
Background
As we close the week which has seen the Government and the Bank of England publish details of their financial support package for business, the business community awaits the formal launch of both the Coronovirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) next week.
CBIL scheme
Courts struggled last year to find a balance between state-licensed cannabis activity and the federal right to seek bankruptcy protection under the Bankruptcy Code. During 2019, we had the first circuit-level opinion in the bankruptcy/cannabis space that appeared to open the door to bankruptcy courts, albeit slightly. We also had lower court opinions slamming that door shut.
Below, we look at a few of the most important decisions issued throughout 2019 and analyze the current state of the law.
The Ninth Circuit's Garvin Decision
On August 26, 2019, President Trump signed the Small Business Reorganization Act (“SBRA”) into law. The SBRA is scheduled to take effect on February 22, 2020.
Définitivement adoptée le 11 avril dernier, la loi relative à la croissance et la transformation des entreprises, dite « Loi Pacte », a fait l’objet de plusieurs recours en Conseil constitutionnel les 16 et 23 avril. À l’heure où nous rédigeons ces lignes la loi n’est pas encore promulguée. Les dispositions ci-dessous ne sont pas concernées par les recours.
Regulation 7(1) of TUPE usually makes a dismissal automatically unfair if it is for a reason connected with the business transfer. But what if the reason for the dismissal is actually good old personal dislike and the transfer is just the context in which it surfaced?
Paul Muscutt, London restructuring partner at law firm Squire Patton Boggs, talks to Andrew Tate, former R3 President, Chair of R3’s Policy Group and Partner at accountancy firm Kreston Reeves LLP, about conflicts of interest in the restructuring and insolvency profession*.
Cathryn Williams and Paul Muscutt, partners in the Squire Patton Boggs Restructuring & Insolvency team in London, interview Ian Fletcher, Director of Policy (Real Estate) of the BPF (the trade association for UK residential and commercial real estate companies) to get the BPF’s views on the recent spate of CVAs seeking to reduce/compromise lease liabilities.
Do you think the current use of CVAs is fair on landlords?