The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (“ISDA”) published the ISDA 2014 Resolution StayProtocol (the “Protocol”) on November 12, 2014 in response to continued efforts by regulators to build additional flexibility into the statutory regimes that would apply in the event of the insolvency of a major financial institution.

Extra Extra Read All About It. It was a cataclysmic weekend in college football for the Big 12 conference. The college football playoff committee elevated the one-loss Ohio State Buckeyes (Big 10) into the fourth and final slot in the inaugural College Football Playoff, taming a one-loss Baylor Bears (Big 12) sloth and a one-loss TCU Horned Frogs (Big 12) colony in the process. Some naysayers may look to the Big 12′s soft schedules and the absence of a league tiebreaker game as drivers of the committee’s decision.

If a creditor violates the automatic stay by seizing property of the estate and fails to cure that violation before the debtor files an action under sec. 362(k), may the debtor recover his attorney’s fees for prosecuting the stay violation under sec. 362(k)?  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that, in these circumstances, attorney’s fees incurred in prosecuting a stay violation are recoverable by a debtor against the creditor committing the violation.

Atlantic City has been struggling in recent years, and it remains unclear how the city’s problems will improve in the face of a deteriorating tax base.  According to the Update Report of Governor’s Advisory Commission on New Jersey Gaming, Sports and Entertainment, total Atlantic City casino revenues fell from a peak of $5.2 billion in 2006 to just $2.9 billion in 2013, and are projected to be approximately $2.5 billion in 2014. Four of the city’s 12 casinos have closed this year, including Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s The Atlantic Club and Showboat Atlantic City, the Trump Plaza

The purchaser of assets from one bankruptcy debtor objected to the plan of reorganization filed by a related bankruptcy debtor because the plan did not recognize the purchaser’s rights in a deep water well pursuant to a lease between the two debtors.  The bankruptcy court determined that the buyer did not acquire any rights to the well, the district court affirmed, and the buyer appealed to the 8thCircuit.

On December 1, 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act of 2014(FIBA).  The legislation passed on a voice vote and is supported by the major Wall Street banks.

The American Bankruptcy Institute (“ABI”) Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 issued today a 400-page report (the “Report”) recommending changes to Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code (“Code”). The Report is the result of a two-year effort by 150 practitioner-ABI members.[1] Without considering the likelihood of Congressional passage in the near term, we will evaluate each significant proposed change separately in subsequent Alerts over the next several weeks.

This week we present for your consideration two cases: (a) an Eleventh Circuit decision upholding a copyright infringement award against a venue operator for playing five copyrighted songs without a license; and (b) an Alabama Supreme Court decision reversing damages awarded to a farmer for a claim of conversion against a foreclosing bank that took possession of harvested crops.

An important battle about the place of secured lending in the United States economy is set to begin. When the battle ends, fundamental assumptions about the expected recovery rates for defaulted secured loans may change.

The meaning of "unreasonably small capital" in the context of constructively fraudulent transfer avoidance litigation is not spelled out in the Bankruptcy Code. As a result, bankruptcy courts have been called upon to fashion their own definitions of the term. Nonetheless, the courts that have considered the issue have mostly settled on some general concepts in fashioning such a definition. In Whyte ex rel. SemGroup Litig. Trust v. Ritchie SG Holdings, LLC (In re SemCrude, LP), 2014 BL 272343 (D. Del. Sept.