Bankruptcy

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Law Firms Mentioned

• Blank Rome
• Greenberg Traurig

Companies Mentioned

• AMR Corporation
• Calpine Corporation
• Southwest Airlines Co.

• February 14, 2006

  Greenberg Traurig Net Snags Professionals, Minorities

  Greenberg Traurig’s rapidly expanding business reorganization and bankruptcy practice, already one of the largest and most active in the world, is helping the firm hold fast to its prestigious reputation.

• January 30, 2006

  Consensus Building Key To Success, Says Blank Rome

  Blank Rome expects the volume of Chapter 11 filings to remain relatively low, but business remains frisky for the firm, which is involved in headline-grabbing bankruptcies of companies such as Delta, Delphi, Northwest and Winn-Dixie.

Expert Analysis

• How To Reposition Your Bankruptcy Practice

  

  Bankruptcy and financial restructuring work is not going away immediately, but it will lessen over the next economic cycle. Now is the time to be thinking about how to reposition your practice so that others regard you as an attorney to whom clients can turn for a broader business perspective, says Sharon Berman of Berbay Corp.

• Understanding Where And When To File A Claim

  Excerpt from Lexis Practice Advisor

  

  Courts are much more likely to allow late filed claims if the creditor was not originally listed on the debtor’s schedules and the creditor did not have actual or constructive notice of the debtor’s pending bankruptcy case. On the other hand, a creditor who had notice of the bankruptcy is less likely to have its late proof of claim deemed timely, says Steven Wilamowsky of Bingham McCutchen LLP.

• Federal Standard For Successor Liability Applies To FLSA

  

  The Seventh Circuit ruling in Teed v. Thomas & Betts Power Solutions LLC serves as a reminder and warning to buyers who are pursuing distressed acquisition strategies for a company or its assets, that through the doctrine of successor liability, they may still be held responsible for the federal labor law claims against the seller, even if they affirmatively disclaim all liabilities in the documentation of sale, say attorneys with Haynes and Boone LLP.

• Cyprus Bailout: Potential Recourse For Lost Investments

  

  Large depositors in Cyprus’s two largest banks may consider international arbitration and appeals to the European courts to recover funds lost under the bailout plan, say attorneys with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.

• Turnover Under Ch. 15: In Re AJW Offshore

  

  What happens when a foreign representative wishes to exercise rights or powers under provisions of the Bankruptcy Code that are neither expressly included nor excluded in the UN's Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency? In In re AJW Offshore Ltd., the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York addressed this silent zone in considering a foreign representative’s request for turnover of records pursuant to sections 542 and 543, says Kevin Ray of Greenberg Traurig LLP.

• A Lesson In Drafting Make-Whole Provisions

  

  Today’s historically low interest rates provide debtors with the opportunity to use bankruptcy, at least in part, to refinance high-yield notes with lower interest debt while seeking to avoid paying any premium on the debt being refinanced. As a result, disputes surrounding noteholders’ rights to make-whole amounts may occur with greater frequency. The recent Southern District of New York decision in the American Airlines case is a good example, say Mark Broude and Melinda Franek of Latham & Watkins LLP.

• A Look At Claim And Interest Treatment Under Ch. 11

  Excerpt from Lexis Practice Advisor

  

  "Treatment" generally refers to whether a particular class of claims or interests will be unimpaired or impaired under the Chapter 11 plan and, if the class is impaired, what, if anything, the class will receive on account of its claims or interests. The treatment of a claim or interest will depend on a number of factors, says Gary Kaplan of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

• The Intersection Of National Security And Bankruptcy

  

  There is little doubt that bankruptcy judges may be in the best position to submit a foreign investment transaction to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Although such a shift may alter the economics of foreign investment in U.S. bankruptcies, the ultimate certainties for debtors, bidders, creditors and others may be well worth any delays and costs incurred, say Richard Chesley and Daniel Simon of DLA Piper.

• More International Insolvencies Test Limits Of Ch. 15

  

  With more cross-border insolvencies being filed, and more petitions for recognition of foreign proceedings coming before U.S. bankruptcy courts, it is clear that the outlines of Chapter 15 will continue to be limned. It is also clear that the question of comity in Chapter 15 proceedings will figure prominently in those proceedings and in the continued development of this area of the law, says Kevin Ray of Greenberg Traurig LLP.

• How Lawyers Benefit From Early Neutral Evaluation

  

  Early neutral evaluation usually asks a retired judge to consider one party’s case, as if preparing to rule on summary judgment or presiding over a bench trial. Effective evaluation can supply a reality check on a case — it gives the lawyer the gift of seeing the case as others see it, says James Rosenbaum, a panelist with JAMS and former U.S. district judge for the District of Minnesota.