“How was I supposed to know that something wasn’t right here … Show me how you want it to be.  Tell me baby ‘cause I need to know now…” – Britney Spears

“I can [resolve] that” – Sam the Onion Man, Holes (as modified)

It may only be Galentine’s Day as we post this, but given that V-Day is imminent, The Bachelor is in full-swing, and Fifty Shades of Gray just came out on the big screen, we decided to find some reasonable nexus between bankruptcy, romance, and love. In this year’s edition, we learn that all bets are off when former lovers end up in court.

The timing of a bankruptcy petition filing is often a carefully calculated decision that a debtor makes to obtain certain protections of the Bankruptcy Code, most notably, the automatic stay, in advance of a looming event. In many cases, a debtor may be close to tripping a covenant, missing a debt payment, or a creditor may be attempting to foreclose on the debtor’s assets. The debtor must be cognizant of the timing of these events as the protections of the Bankruptcy Code only apply after the petition has been filed.

As a company turns in the widening gyre of financial distress, its directors and officers are often confronted with situations that require them to make difficult decisions. Should things fall apart, those decisions may give rise to claims that directors or officers breached their fiduciary duties to the company. A 

On Monday 17 November 2014, Weil held its inaugural European Distressed Investor Conference at The Dorchester in London. A summary of the key discussion points follows.

Panel A:

Introduction

“Why is electricity so expensive these days? Why does it cost so much for something I can make with a balloon and my hair?” – Dennis Miller

To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, publication notice is, quite often, the debtor’s “last refuge.” Yet it is frequently a necessary feature of the notices provided in bankruptcy cases. Debtors rarely possess an accurate method for notifying the many unidentifiable potential claimants. And so enters publication notice. Pursuant to well-settled law, publication notice – if sufficient – may satisfy the requirement to provide due process to unknown creditors in a bankruptcy proceeding.

As this Blog has discussed in a number of recent posts, free and clear sales under section 363(f) of the Bankruptcy Code often lead to disputes over whether section 363(f) can strip assets of particular types of claims and interests. Although section 363(f) plays an important role in maximizing the value of a debtor’s assets in a section 363 sale, adversely affected parties may object to those assets being sold free and clear of their claims.