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“It’s like déjà vu all over again.”
— Yogi Berra

I’m a creature of habit, to be sure. It wouldn’t be the holidays without talking about a classic holiday movie: Frank Capra’s 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s the story of George Bailey, who inherits the Bailey Building & Loan Association founded by his father in the 1940s, and who forgoes his dreams of traveling the world to instead help the multicultural residents of fictional Bedford Falls, N.Y., realize the dream of home ownership.

Everyone is feeling the impacts of the highest rate of inflation in decades, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) still reporting a 8.3% year-over-year rate of inflation. Many pundits are blaming the impact of the Russian sanctions as a primary driver. This month, U.S. companies reporting earnings are repeating the same mantra.

“Digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, have seen explosive growth in recent years, surpassing a $3 trillion market cap last November and up from $14 billion just five years prior. Surveys suggest that around 16 percent of adult Americans — approximately 40 million people — have invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrencies.” — White House Fact Sheet.

Nonconsensual third-party releases in bankruptcy are the hot topic of debate recently. Even though there is no provision of the Bankruptcy Code that expressly authorizes these releases, no Code provision prohibits them, either. Therefore (drumroll), different circuits have different views on third-party releases, and because Congress is not always hot and heavy on the Bankruptcy Code, these splits tend to slowly get worked out in the appellate court process.

Hello, Commercial and Regulatory Law Committee members! As you might have noticed, our committee’s leadership has changed quite a bit, so we thought we would take a moment to introduce ourselves.

Jeffrey K. Garfinkle
Co-Chair
Buchalter
Irvine, Calif.

On October 27, 2021, at 12:00 noon EDT, the Commercial and Regulatory Law Committee hosted a webinar, “CFPB Mortgage Servicing Regulations and Their Effects on Bankruptcy: An Update.” The panelists discussed the background and scope of the latest mortgage-servicing regulations promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and how they impact your day-to-day bankruptcy practice. Diane Bettino, a partner at Reed Smith LLP in Princeton, N.J., moderated the panel.

“One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small….”
— “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane

Senior Care Centers Inc., a chain of skilled nursing facilities, accomplished the feat of filing once as a complex chapter 11 case in 2018 (“First Case”) and then re-filing as a small business debtor in 2021 (“Second Case”). This success can be attributed to its ability to shed debt in its First Case, as well as in its decision to exclude its operating subsidiaries (and their debt) from its Second Case.