A little wheel is spinning on this exiting-the-pandemic thing. Many stops and starts. In person vs. Zoom. However, our committee will continue to plow forward with mediating in challenging times. Bankruptcy and mediation are continually changing, and our committee adapts accordingly with insightful programs, best practices and information.
Time and timing permeate all aspects of the mediation process, including:
Through a preference claim, a debtor or trustee seeks to recover, subject to certain creditor defenses, payments that a trade creditor received within the 90-day period prior to a bankruptcy filing. Preference claims have always been an unfortunate reality for trade creditors.
As co-chairs, we thank all of the members of ABI’s International Committee for their continued support and involvement with the committee during this pandemic-dominated year.
On Jan. 1, 2021, the Dutch Act on the Confirmation of Private Plans (hereafter referred to by its Dutch acronym, “WHOA,” or the “Dutch Scheme”) entered into force. It represents a robust and flexible restructuring framework. This brief article provides a summary of the Dutch Scheme and an update about the first published cases involving the scheme.
The COVID-19 crisis has encouraged many countries to amend their bankruptcy laws. In many cases, these amendments took place temporarily — especially during the hibernation phase of the pandemic. In other countries, however, the pandemic has led to permanent changes in their insolvency legislations.
In recent times, global businesses based all over the world have often turned to chapter 11 or the English scheme of arrangement to implement their debt restructurings, often due to the failure of local restructuring and insolvency laws to provide an adequate or optimal restructuring solution.
Approval of bid protections in connection with the sale of significant assets pursuant to § 363 of the Bankruptcy Code has become an established practice in chapter 11 cases.[1] In nonbankruptcy transactions, bidding incentives like break-up fees and expense reimbursements are measured against a business judgment standard.
Unsecured creditors are often out-of-the-money or positioned to receive a pittance of a distribution by the terms initially proposed by chapter 11 debtors and the secured lenders who consent to the proposal. This is particularly true if an unpaid portion of secured debt looms as a deficiency claim, threatening to further dilute general unsecured creditor (GUC) recoveries.
![Photo of Jonathan D’Andrea [1]](https://abi-org-corp.s3.amazonaws.com/committee/Authors/DAndrea_2.png)
One of the primary purposes of chapter 11 is to maximize the value of a debtor’s assets.
