On January 14, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit in In the Matter of Sharon Sylvester (Sylvester vs Chaffe McCall LLP) held that a trustee’s attorney is entitled to compensation under Bankruptcy Code § 330(a) “only for services requiring legal expertise that a trustee would not generally be expected to perform without an attorney’s assistance.”
Committees
Section 547(c)(2)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code, often referred to as the “subjective OCB defense,” provides a defense to a preference suit if the defendant can show that the challenged payments made during the 90-day preference period are sufficiently consistent with the historical payments made by the debtor to the defendant.
Trade creditors will undoubtedly want to take steps to protect themselves when dealing with financially distressed customers that are potentially heading toward bankruptcy — such as by decreasing credit limits, tightening payment terms or otherwise ramping up collection efforts.
EI&T Committee Member Spotlight
The committee is pleased to introduce its Committee Member Spotlight, a new newsletter feature that highlights members and their favorite things about ABI! Join us this quarter for our first installment featuring Rebecca F. Redwine, a partner at Hendren, Redwine & Malone, PLLC and the committee’s Education Director.
So-called “ultra-high-speed” delivery (UHSD) companies were a staple of the early pandemic metropolitan lifestyle. Apps and services like GoPuff and Instacart offered to have anything from diapers and detergent to cigarettes and beer sitting on your doorstep in 15 minutes or less.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (among others) recently re-introduced a bill to “fundamentally reform” the private-equity system “by closing the legal, tax, and regulatory loopholes that allow private equity firms to capture all the rewards of their investments while insulating themselves from risk.” [1] If enacted, the legislation will great
Businesses continue to face a myriad of challenges in today’s economy. Initially, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the widespread closure of multiple businesses. Now, U.S. consumer demand for goods is strong, but supply chain woes persist. Compensation costs have increased, while inflation hinders the benefit to workers from that higher pay.
“Digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, have seen explosive growth in recent years, surpassing a $3 trillion market cap last November and up from $14 billion just five years prior. Surveys suggest that around 16 percent of adult Americans — approximately 40 million people — have invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrencies.” — White House Fact Sheet.
Nonconsensual third-party releases in bankruptcy are the hot topic of debate recently. Even though there is no provision of the Bankruptcy Code that expressly authorizes these releases, no Code provision prohibits them, either.
