Greetings from the Mediation Committee! As 2023 has now drawn to a close, and we hope all of our members enjoyed a very happy holiday season! Here’s a report of committee events for the last quarter of 2023, and we hope to see all of you at the Annual Spring Meeting in 2024.
Over the past year, case law around privacy and data security has been evolving in crypto industry bankruptcies, as courts grapple with familiar issues in a new industry.
![Photo of Elias Marwan Yazbeck [1]](https://abi-org-corp.s3.amazonaws.com/committee/Authors/Elias_Yazbeck_0.jpg)
The Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, also known as SBRA (Pub. L. No. 116-54), became effective on Feb. 19, 2020. This legislation allows a small business debtor to choose, during the filing process, to proceed under subchapter V within chapter 11.
Increasingly, consumer bankruptcy lawyers will be using AI in the future. It therefore is incumbent upon them to develop procedures and policies for its use and in billing for such services. Doing so will be a combination of art and science controlled by both ethical and practical considerations.
Season’s Greetings from the ABI International Committee leadership. It is hard to believe how quickly pumpkin spice and caramel apples have turned into peppermint mocha and eggnog. The weather is turning colder, and the holidays are quickly approaching. We hope that the end of 2023 brings you time with family and friends, and maybe even a little bit of international travel.
On October 24, 2023, the ABI International Committee hosted the 2023 Cross-Border Insolvency Program at Blank Rome LLP’s Conference Center in Midtown Manhattan. This annual day-long program featured four educational panels and a networking happy hour.
The British Virgin Islands Court has reached a different conclusion to the courts of Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Hong Kong in holding that, in certain circumstances, ultimate beneficial bondholders have standing as contingent creditors to make applications for the appointment of liquidators to bond issuers, without the need to show a direct pre-existing contractual relationship with the issuer.
On October 17, the International Committee hosted the initial webinar in its planned series of “Directors’ Duties Across Borders in the Insolvency Zone.” The first episode focused on Europe, with speakers from France (Alexandre Koenig of Stephenson Harwood), Germany (Bernd Meyer-Loewy of Kirkland & Ellis), Ireland (Gemma Freeman of Dentons)
The International Committee community continues to grow! We welcome the following members to our committee:
These overviews from ABI committee experts will arm you with vital information you can use in your practice well into the new year.
The ABI Health Care Committee hosted a panel on to discuss the state and future of the health care industry. Members of the Committee discussed the factors driving distress, including exhaustion of COVID-19 funds, labor shortages, increasing costs, increasing interest rates. The panel also highlighted how these sources of distress will likely lead to an increase in bankruptcies, remedies, and workouts in various health care sub-industries, such as senior living, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and biotech.
Sponsored by ABI's International Committee. India has emerged as a leading insolvency jurisdiction since it enacted its new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in late 2016. The IBC heralded a new insolvency process, enabling large corporations to reorganize and maximize value. In the six years since, more than 4000 cases have been filed and scores of important Indian companies have been successfully restructured.
Sponsored by ABI's Real Estate Committee, Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC and Summit Investment Management LLC
These overviews from ABI committee experts will arm you with vital information you can use in your practice well into the new year.
These overviews from ABI committee experts will arm you with vital information you can use in your practice well into the new year.
This panel will delve into issues involving digital accounts, cryptocurrency and NFTs, including how to getsecured and perfected, how to liquidate, and bankruptcy-specific considerations. The panelists also will discuss UCC Article 12 and its impact on the digital-asset world for secured parties, and help practitioners better understand the considerations and issues they should be spotting when advising their constituents on dealing with digital assets.
This panel will discuss some of the more interesting aspects of the asset-recovery process as it relates to locating foreign assets (i.e., Russian yachts). The panelists also will focus on post-COVID-19 issues, including situations where banks were not monitoring collateral as closely as they should have been and are now having trouble locating said assets and selling them, particularly in international cases where the bankruptcy is abroad but the parties are seeking recognition in the U.S.
Heading into the pandemic, health care was a hot sector in the restructuring landscape. Economic stimulusfunding and a need for health care facilities to address the COVID-19 pandemic led to a slowdown inrestructuring in the sector. However, stimulus funds are now drying up, and health care organizations that were struggling operationally or financially heading into the pandemic are facing even more challenges.
Over the last several years, an increasing number of states, including New York, have adopted the UniformVoidable Transactions Act (UVTA), the latest update to the Uniform Voidable Transfer Act. The UVTA made a number of minor changes and updates to the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA), including changingthe name. What changes were significant? What opportunities to fix problems/vagaries in the UFTA did the drafters miss? What amendments should the UVTA drafters consider?