On May 13, 2013, the Supreme Court declined to review the ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit¹ that had held that a security interest may extend to the “proceeds” of the future transfer of a license holder’s interest in its Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) broadcast license and that, under applicable state law, the security interest attached upon execution of the security agreement, despite the fact that the parties did not contemplate a transfer of the license at that time.

The legalization under state law of the marijuana business in Colorado through Amendment 20 (medical marijuana) and Amendment 64 (recreational marijuana) (Amendment 20 and Amendment 64 shall be referred to collectively as the "Colorado Amendments") raises serious issues for banks whose customers or borrowers are involved in the marijuana business in Colorado. The Colorado Amendments do not affect federal law that defines marijuana as a Class 1 controlled substance.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently resolved a split within the circuit when it held that a bankruptcy court has the power to recharacterize debt as equity.

American Airlines’ CEO, Tom Horton, moved one step closer to receiving the $20 million severance payment he’s negotiated with the bankrupt airline.  On Tuesday, the bankruptcy judge hearing American’s case allowed the payment to stay in the airline’s disclosure statement (approval of the statement is a predicate step to ultimately “reorganizing” and exiting bankruptcy).  The approval c

The Federal Reserve has issued an interim final rule clarifying the treatment of uninsured U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks under Section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Act ("Swaps Pushout Rule"). The interim final rule clarifies that, for purposes of the Swaps Pushout Rule, all uninsured U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks are treated as insured depository institutions.

Your good client Michael Bluth calls you from the Delaware bankruptcy court. Now that his family’s business, The Bluth Company, has filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code and his late nights with DIP lenders and our bankruptcy colleagues have come to a temporary pause, Michael’s ready to turn back to his typical day-to-day job running his business.

October 17, 2013, will mark the eighth anniversary of the enactment of chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code as part of the comprehensive U.S. bankruptcy-law reforms implemented in 2005. Chapter 15, which governs cross-border bankruptcy and insolvency cases, is patterned after the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (the “Model Law”), a framework of legal principles formulated by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (“UNCITRAL”) in 1997 to deal with the rapidly expanding volume of international insolvency cases.

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its first bankruptcy decision of 2013 on May 13. In a unanimous ruling, the court held in Bullock v. BankChampaign N.A., 2013 BL 125909 (U.S. May 13, 2013), that the term “defalcation” for purposes of denying discharge of a debt under section 523(a)(4) of the Bankruptcy Code includes a “culpable state of mind” requirement involving knowledge of, or gross recklessness with respect to, the improper nature of a fiduciary’s behavior.

You might think that a company in bankruptcy wouldn’t be able to give its CEO a multi-million-dollar severance payment. 

But just because a company is in bankruptcy doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t have any money – it just means it doesn’t have enough to pay all of its debts, or to function as a continuing concern.  The company may, in fact, have the means to make a rather generous severance payment – like the $20 million American Airlines is proposing to pay its CEO, Tom Horton, as the airline comes out of Chapter 11 and into a merger with US Airways. 

On May 28, Freddie Mac issued Bulletin 2013-9, which extends for two months the date by which servicers must adhere to certain new requirements related to the management of law firms for default servicing, bankruptcies, and related litigation.