By Steven Fink, Peter Amend and Monica Perrigino ( November 28, 2017, 1:04 PM EST) -- Various courts have invoked a so-called "new-value exception" to the absolute priority rule, which permits existing equity holders to retain their ownership interest in a debtor even where more senior, dissenting classes of creditors are impaired. However, there is a surprising dearth of case law addressing how the new-value exception should be applied in multidebtor bankruptcies. Multidebtor filings are common in large-scale restructurings because often the parent company and most (if not all) subsidiaries need to go through bankruptcy to deleverage the organization's balance sheet. Given these realities, practitioners should be mindful of whether it is possible to achieve a confirmed new-value plan for multiple, jointly administered debtors. This article examines some of the considerations at play when parties are negotiating or litigating such a plan....