 | | Featured Premium Content | | | | | BankruptcyData: FY24 Advisory/Group Member Activity Report
Read an exclusive analysis from BankruptcyData providing an overview of top bankruptcy firms, financial advisors, investment bankers and more in their FY24 Advisory Group Member Activity Report. Click here to access the report. (Free registration.). | | |  | | Editor's Picks | | | | | January Chapter 11 Commercial Filings Increase 16 Percent Over Last Year
There were 539 commercial chapter 11 filings recorded in January 2025, a 16 percent increase from the 465 commercial chapter 11s in January 2024, according to data provided by Epiq AACER, the leading provider of U.S. bankruptcy filing data. Overall commercial bankruptcy filings rose 11 percent in January 2025, with the 2,358 filings ticking up from the 2,126 filings in January 2024. Small business filings, captured as subchapter V elections within chapter 11, increased 7 percent to 171 in January 2025, up slightly from 160 in January 2024. READ MORE | | Outdoor Apparel Brands Retailer Liberated Files for Bankruptcy
Liberated Brands, an apparel seller under labels that include Volcom, Billabong and Spyder, has filed for bankruptcy and plans to shut more than 120 stores in North America after struggling with shoppers shifting to fast fashion, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The chapter 11 petition filed on Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., came roughly two months after Liberated defaulted on licensing agreements with financial backer and label aggregator Authentic Brands. Liberated, which has primarily focused on outdoor clothing brands and retail licenses that also include Quiksilver and Boardriders, listed debt of $226 million. READ MORE | | CFPB Halts Work After Trump Appoints Bessent as Acting Head
President Donald Trump on Monday appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a powerful watchdog agency whose operations Bessent immediately halted pending a review, the Washington Post reported. In an email to agency staff sent from the “acting director,” Bessent ordered the bureau to cease all work to craft regulations, enforce its rules, conduct investigations or provide “public communications of any type,” citing a need to “promote consistency” with the goals of the new administration. READ MORE
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March 3 | | ABI Distressed Real Estate SymposiumPendry Newport Beach
March 26-28 | Newport Beach, Calif. | | | | |  | | Daily Roundup | | | | | Franchise Group Lenders Fight Bankruptcy Lawyers Over Alleged Conflicts
Franchise Group’s chapter 11 case is spotlighting its lawyers’ ties to the holding company’s former chief executive, Brian Kahn, as junior creditors argue that its primary bankruptcy counsel has a disqualifying conflict of interest, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A group of junior lenders joined Saturday in government lawyers’ challenge to the retention of law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher as bankruptcy counsel to the conglomerate that owns retailers Vitamin Shoppe and Sylvan Learning. Willkie can’t serve as an unbiased adviser because of its prior work for Kahn, Franchise Group’s controlling shareholder who stepped down last year amid federal investigations into the collapse of hedge fund Prophecy Asset Management, according to papers filed by the company’s junior lenders. READ MORE | | U.S. Banks Say Demand for Business Loans Rose in Q4 -Fed Survey
U.S. banks say demand for business loans strengthened in the fourth quarter, with the net share of banks reporting an increase turning positive for the first time in two years, a Federal Reserve survey on Monday showed, Reuters reported. The net share of banks reporting stronger demand for commercial and industrial loans from large and medium-sized businesses rose to 9.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024, and from small firms to 3.4%. READ MORE | | China Hits U.S. with Retaliatory Tariffs
China hit the U.S. back with retaliatory tariffs across the board over President Trump’s enforcement of tariffs on Chinese goods that went into effect today, The Hill reported. China’s Ministry of Finance announced the countermeasures, imposing a 15 percent tariff on liquefied natural gas and coal. China also said it would slap a 10 percent tariff on crude oil, pickup trucks, agricultural machinery and large-displacement cars. READ MORE | | U.S. Construction Spending Beats Expectations in December
U.S. construction spending increased more than expected in December, boosted by single-family homebuilding, but high mortgage rates could curb further gains in new residential construction, Reuters reported. The Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Monday that construction rose 0.5% after an upwardly revised 0.2% increase in November. READ MORE | | Preliminary-Round Judges Needed for the Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition!
The Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition, now in its 33rd year and widely recognized as one of the nation’s preeminent moot court competitions, will be held in New York March 1-3, 2025. Fifty-three teams from law schools across the country will compete through written briefings and oral argument. Please find the fact pattern by clicking here. Volunteers are needed to judge the preliminary rounds (sign up here) of the competition. Click here for more information and to volunteer. | | | | |
