It has been another great year for the International Committee. As co-chairs, we would like to thank all the members of the ABI International Committee for their support and continued participation on the committee for 2019. The committee’s success reflects the hard work of its members each year.
As always, we also thank the support of the ABI staff and the ABI Board of Directors, both of whom helped to facilitate and guide our work throughout the year.
This year especially, we express our huge thanks to Sam Gerdano, who concluded his role as ABI executive director last year and who has been instrumental in the success of our cross-border conferences. We happily welcome incoming Executive Director Amy Quackenboss, who has always been a vital resource for our committee.
Lastly, we want to let everyone know that 2020 will be Rafael Zahralddin’s last year serving as co-chair for this committee. He has served as Special Projects Leader, Education Director and Newsletter Editor for the committee in recent years. He has also served on the Advisory Committee for the Cross-Border Conference, for which he also acted as a moderator, speaker and author of CLE materials. We thank him for his dedicated service in all of these roles. We especially want to thank Rafael’s firm, Elliott Greenleaf, P.C., who has been a sponsor in various capacities for the committee during this time.
Please read on for some of the committee’s activities in 2019, as well as plans for 2020.
Committee Panel at the 2019 Annual Spring Meeting
The International Committee paired with the Commercial Fraud Committee at the 2019 Annual Spring Meeting in D.C. to present “How to Find Hidden Foreign Assets Here and There.” The panelists were Patricia A. Redmond of Stearns, Weaver, Miller, Weissler, Alhadeff & Sitterson, PA in Miami, Ryan W. Blackney of Freeborn & Peters LLP in Chicago, Adam Crane of HSM Chambers in Grand Cayman, and Ian De Witt of Tanner De Witt in Hong Kong. The panel focused on the challenges of foreign-asset discovery in chapter 15 proceedings. Since most foreign discovery is obtained either pursuant to Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 2004 or through the application of the Hague Convention, the discussion covered how effective these methods are, given the cumbersome and often complicated process of obtaining discovery, whether there are more effective and efficient methods toward obtaining these results, and whether foreign jurisdictions have less cumbersome and more expedited processes to propound this type of discovery. The panel also touched on commonly faced issues in obtaining discovery when locating and seizing assets, how to obtain records to determine the financial condition of the parties, and how foreign law may work to limit discovery. We thank all who helped put the program together.
Committee Panel at the 2019 Winter Leadership Conference
The International Committee paired with the Young and New Members Committee for the 2019 Winter Leadership Conference at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., to present “Recent Trends in the Credit Bidding of Assets and Cross-Border Issues.” The panelists included Rafael X. Zahralddin of Elliott Greenleaf, P.C. in Wilmington, Del., Natalie E. Levine of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP in Toronto, Michael S. Neumeister of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Los Angeles, and Kaitlin R. Walsh of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. in New York. The panel explored recent cases and trends of credit bidding in chapter 11 cases. The panel also examined recent decisions on credit bidding and what limitations courts have applied to a secured creditor's right to credit bid in bankruptcy cases, with a special emphasis on cross-border issues concerning credit bidding on groups of assets owned by foreign entities, and the interplay between courts concerning the sale of these types of assets.
We were very fortunate to have an experienced Canadian lawyer on the panel, which allowed us to do a thorough comparative analysis of the issues both under Canadian law and where Canadian and U.S. law intertwined. In addition, the panelists had a lively discussion regarding chapter 15 under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and its complimentary revisions under Canadian law. We thank everyone who put in time and effort to develop this presentation. It’s been a goal of our committee to involve as many younger lawyers and other restructuring professionals as possible in the preparation of the accompanying written materials for all of our presentations, so we give special thanks to the following, who, in addition to the panelists, contributed to our written materials: Jane Dietrich (Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP), Sophie Moher (Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP), Joshua Fried (Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP), David Doyle (Fox Rothschild LLP), Tara J. Schellhorn (Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP), Courtney A. Snyder (Elliott Greenleaf, P.C.) and Sarah Denis (Elliott Greenleaf, P.C.).
15th Annual International Insolvency and Restructuring Symposium
ABI partnered with IWIRC, the International Insolvency Institute, INSOL and TMA Europe to provide two days of education and fellowship in Paris with insolvency professionals from around the world. Presenters included professionals from Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. Panels discussed U.S.-EU distressed investing, French insolvency law, UNCITRAL model law, monetizing assets through third-party funding, restructuring from an American perspective, and how global volatility in trade wars, elections and commodities are affecting restructurings around the world. Please stay tuned for the dates and location for the 2020 symposium so you can make room in your schedule for this excellent program. Very special thanks go to Hon. Christopher M. Klein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (E.D. Cal.) in Sacramento and Chief Judge Cecelia G. Morris of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (S.D.N.Y.) in New York for the time and valuable expertise they added to the panels of this symposium.
Cross-Border Insolvency Program
The International Committee is grateful for the efforts of its members, officers, the Advisory Committee for the program, and the ABI staff for putting together another great program under the leadership of program chairs Rafael Zahralddin and Patrick Shea. Panels included topics such as dealing with IP licenses across borders, stakeholder communications in cross-border cases, China’s enterprise bankruptcy law, and general perspectives and updates on the growing cross-border practice. The program materials in several of the panels involved a wide variety of younger members of the committee as part of our push to involve more of our newer lawyers and financial professionals. Very special thanks go to Hon. Robert D. Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (S.D.N.Y.) in White Plains and Hon. Elizabeth S. Stong of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (E.D.N.Y.) in Brooklyn for their valuable contributions. Special thanks also go to our host for the second year in row, Dentons US LLP, and to the multiple members of the International Committee who provided their guidance, insights and ideas for the programming for this outstanding conference.
We are pleased with our efforts to assist in the professional development of future leaders and contributors on our committee, and we extend an open invitation to committee members to take advantage of opportunities for next year’s conference and welcome ideas for the program.
Planning for 2020
For the Annual Spring Meeting, the committee will be pairing with the Mediation Committee to present "Peace Bridge or Bridge of Sighs: Cross-Border Mediation of Insolvency-Related Disputes." The panel will examine the varied goals of cross-border constituencies and the role of mediation in helping these parties bridge the gap in a restructuring. As the global insolvency community has started to recognize the advantages of attempting a restructuring over immediately defaulting to a liquidation scenario, the use of mediation to resolve insolvency disputes and the hybrid mediation/arbitration process have become more prevalent. This promises to be a particularly engaging panel, as it will be done through a mock mediation that promises plenty of potential for audience participation. A panel of experienced judges and cross-border mediators and practitioners from various jurisdictions will illustrate the pitfalls and benefits of using mediation to resolve cross-border insolvency disputes. The panelists are Jack Escher of MWI-CBI in Boston, Patrick Shea of Gowling WLG in Toronto, Kyle Ortiz of Togut, Segal & Segal in New York, Annerose Tashiro of Schultze Braun in Frankfurt, Germany, and Chief Judge Barbara J. Houser of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (N.D. Tex.) in Dallas. We will share more details as the event gets closer.
The International Committee is continually working to expand its social media presence and integration with other key partnerships with organizations that will bring more foreign professionals to the committee to enhance and enrich our professional development as ABI International Committee members. We are working closely with Vice President-International Affairs Annerose Tashiro to coordinate these efforts. With her help and keen leadership, ABI has revitalized the globalinsolvency.com website. There are plans for the International Committee to help to moderate the website and integrate it into the committee’s responsibilities, as there is a great deal of potential for the site to attract and serve more global restructuring professionals and attract them to the ABI. We are very excited about this project’s development. Please check out the new look of the site, and let us know your thoughts.
Help Any Way You Can in 2020
We are always looking for new ideas, opportunities and participation from committee members.
Contributions to our newsletter help the committee better serve its members. Suggestions for presentation and annual meeting topics are also greatly appreciated. We will continue to have our Special Projects Leader coordinate and facilitate contributors to our program materials to support our various panels and presentations for the Cross-Border Insolvency Program, Annual Spring Meeting and Winter Leadership Conference. Please contact Kyle Ortiz if you wish to help or if you have another colleague you would like to recommend, especially a younger lawyer aspiring to do more for the committee.
Support in producing new webinar content is another area in which we welcome help. We would like to have one webinar in the spring and one in the fall, and we greatly appreciate new ideas and new active participants. Please contact Kyle Ortiz if you’d like to contribute your time and expertise to these programs.
We will be publishing a list of dates for quarterly meetings in the near future to discuss ideas for all of the above. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate. We find that these quarterly meetings are particularly helpful because they allow for us to get new ideas and direction, as well as volunteers to help carry out the committee’s work. Our prior calls were especially helpful in assisting ABI, which cannot take an official position on any pending legislation, but which can facilitate our individual members in providing commentary and participating in the legislative process. A good example of this is the commentary produced by members of the International Committee and reported on by Kyle Ortiz, Rafael Zahralddin, and Sarah Denis in their article “NBC’s Proposed Revisions to Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code” in the ABI Journal’s October 2018 Legislative Update column. Please join our efforts and participate in these quarterly calls. You may reach out to Rafael Zahralddin with ideas for agenda items.
If you are interested in contributing to the committee in any way at all, please reach out to any of the committee leaders. Their contact information can be found on the International Committee’s web page: abi.org/membership/committees/international. All newsletters and past webinars are also accessible there.
Finally, if there is any way you think the International Committee can provide more value to you, please reach out to us and share your ideas and time.
2019 International Committee Leadership
.jpg)
