Declining to create a circuit split, Third Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro held that a retirement plan structured according to ERISA is excluded from estate property even if transactions by the trust violated ERISA or IRS Code regulations.

The opinion by Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro reads Jevic as animating the solvent-debtor exception to the disallowance of unmatured interest.

The ‘attenuated possibility of insolvency’ in the future does not establish ‘financial distress,’ Circuit Judge Ambro said, interpreting his own prior opinion.

Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro prohibits big companies from filing chapter 11 cases absent ‘financial distress.’

An opinion by Thomas Ambro shows how the Third Circuit won’t cut any slack for nonbankruptcy lawyers when it comes to retention disclosure.

The failure to convert a contingent interest into ownership is not a transfer that could be avoided as a fraudulent transfer.

The Third Circuit opinion by Thomas Ambro explained that the ‘close nexus’ test does not apply when a post-conformation dispute is ‘core’ or entails enforcing a court order.

Absent an ‘actual conflict,’ disqualification is not automatic, the Third Circuit says.

Although Section 1141(d)(1) sets a default rule only discharging claims that arose before confirmation, Circuit Judge Ambro says that a plan may alter the default rule and allow discharge of administrative claims arising after confirmation.

Circuit Judge Ambro generously interprets Katz to mean that ratification of the Constitution waived state sovereign immunity broadly for suits to augment a bankrupt estate.