Business Bankruptcy Issues

When a company is facing financial distress, the question often comes up whether creditors can "force" the company into bankruptcy. Although the answer is more complicated than it may seem, this post aims to sort out what being "forced into bankruptcy" really means (hint: there are two different ways this can happen) and why it matters to companies and creditors.

Bankruptcy Rule Amendments. As reported in a post last month, this year's amendments to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure have now taken effect today, December 1, 2011.

Almost every year, changes are made to the set of rules that govern how bankruptcy cases are managed -- the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. The changes address issues identified by an Advisory Committee made up of federal judges, bankruptcy attorneys, and others. There are seven amendments to the national bankruptcy rules this year.

The Summer 2011 edition of the Absolute Priority newsletter, published by the Bankruptcy & Restructuring group at Cooley LLP, of which I am a member, has just been released. The newsletter gives updates on current developments and trends in the bankruptcy and workout area.

It's been a long wait, but we finally have a published decision from a U.S. Court of Appeals answering whether a trademark license is assignable in bankruptcy without the licensor's consent. On July 26, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued an opinion in In re: XMH Corp., written by Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, and a copy of the opinion is available by following the link in this sentence.