Business Reorganization

CRITICS QUESTION WHY BIG BANKS, EXECS DO NOT FACE MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGES



A few former federal prosecutors are critical of the Justice Department's record $1.9 billion settlement against British bank HSBC last week, saying that it was only the latest case of the government stopping short of bringing criminal money laundering charges against a big bank or its executives, the Associated Press reported yesterday. While some prosecutors heralded the settlement as a powerful blow to a dysfunctional institution accused of laundering money for Iran, Libya and Mexico’s murderous drug cartels, others called the action “too big to jail.” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney Eric Holder after the HSBC settlement, saying that the government "appears to have firmly set the precedent that no bank, bank employee, or bank executive can be prosecuted even for serious criminal actions if that bank is a large, systemically important financial institution." Read more.

COMMENTARY: LAST-DITCH ATTEMPT TO DERAIL VOLCKER RULE



In an attempt to prevent implementation of the Volcker Rule, representatives of megabanks are asserting that the Volcker Rule violates the international trade obligations of the United States and would offend other member nations of the Group of 20, according to a commentary in today's New York Times DealBook blog. The Volcker Rule is almost finished winding its way through the regulatory process, and a version should be implemented soon. But in a last-ditch attempt to block it, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to the United States Trade Representative asserting that the Volcker Rule creates a discord in G20 and invites foreign governments to retaliate at a time when we need those same regulators in foreign countries to support initiatives to liberalize trade in financial services. According to the commentary, there is no violation because there is no provision in any trade agreement that says U.S. banking regulators cannot protect our financial system by engaging in prudent regulation. Read more.

FITCH: BELOW-AVERAGE U.S. HIGH YIELD DEFAULT RATE TO PERSIST INTO 2013



Fitch Ratings is projecting a U.S. high yield par default rate of 2 percent in 2013, in line with 2012 activity, Reuters reported today. However, a bankruptcy filing by Energy Future Holdings, given its large size ($16 billion), has the potential to drive up the rate an additional 1.5 percent. The leading support for another below-average default year is Fitch's expectation of modestly higher U.S. GDP growth of 2.3 percent in 2013 combined with relatively good corporate fundamentals and the Federal Reserve's commitment to loose monetary policy. While the default rate is projected to remain low in 2013, it is important to note that the positive high yield rating drift of 2010 and 2011 reversed direction over the course of 2012 and the 'CCC' or lower pool expanded for the first time since 2009 - now $228 billion in size versus $197 billion at the beginning of the year. Read more.

NEW YORK FED: PROGRESS BEING MADE IN IMPROVING TRI-PARTY REPO SECTOR



The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported today that progress was being made in reducing the risk created by a key market where dealers go to finance trading positions, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The bank said that JPMorgan and the Bank of New York Mellon have both made key changes that will reduce the amount of intraday credit in the tri-party repo market, the New York Fed said. The tri-party repo market allows bond dealers to borrow and lend securities. The New York Fed has been pressuring market participants to reform their market sector as part of a bid to strengthen the overall state of the financial system. Read more.

UPDATED EDITION OF MUNICIPALITIES IN PERIL: THE ABI GUIDE TO CHAPTER 9 NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!



The second edition of Municipalities in Peril: The ABI Guide to Chapter 9 has been revised and updated to include coverage of the latest cases and offers insight into pending actions in such larger urban settings as Detroit. Including a convenient summary of all relevant state statutes, this Guide is a must-have for bankruptcy professionals entering this burgeoning practice area, as well as for municipal finance personnel and counsel seeking detailed information about the fundamental issues of governance, credit and debt adjustment that uniquely surround municipal debt cases. Member price is $35 (Please log in to obtain the member price.) Orders will ship in mid-January. Click here to pre-order.

ABI IN-DEPTH

LATEST CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: STATE OF MONTANA V. BLIXSETH (IN RE BLIXSETH; 9TH CIR.)



Summarized by Joel Newell of Lane & Nach, P.C.

The majority opinion ruled that by using the "context-specific" analysis based on the Nevada Statutes the involuntary bankruptcy case is viewed in the same context as a creditor seeking a charging order pursuant to the Nevada Statutes. The majority further held that Blixseth’s interests in the Nevada entities were created and exist under the Nevada Statutes; therefore, his creditor’s remedies are limited by Nevada state law, that is sufficient reason to deem Blixseth’s interests to be located in Nevada.

There are more than 700 appellate opinions summarized on Volo, and summaries typically appear within 24 hours of the ruling. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.

NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT AND THE HOUSING BUBBLE



The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A recent blog discusses a recently released research paper examining the role of the Community Reinvestment Act and the housing bubble.

Be sure to check the site several times each day; any time a contributing blog posts a new story, a link to the story will appear on the top. If you have a blog that deals with bankruptcy, or know of a good blog that should be part of the Bankruptcy Exchange, please contact the ABI Web team.

ABI Quick Poll

A licensee of a trademark has the right to retain the license even when a debtor rejects the underlying contract creating the license. (Sunbeam Products, 7th Cir.)

Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL



INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialize in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 37 member associations worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals participating as members of INSOL International. As a member association of INSOL, ABI's members receive a discounted subscription rate. See ABI's enrollment page for details.

Have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn Account?

Join our networks to expand yours.

2013

January

- Western Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

     January 21, 2013 | Las Vegas, Nev.

- Rocky Mountain Bankruptcy Conference

     January 24-25, 2013 | Denver, Colo.

February

- Caribbean Insolvency Symposium

     February 7-9, 2013 | Miami, Fla.

- Kansas City Advanced Consumer Bankruptcy Practice Institute

     February 17-19, 2013 | Kansas City, Mo.

- VALCON 2013

     February 20-22, 2013 | Las Vegas, Nev.

March

- 37th Annual Alexander L. Paskay Seminar on Bankruptcy Law and Practice

     March 7-9, 2013 | St. Petersburg, Fla.

- Bankruptcy Battleground West

     March 22, 2013 | Los Angeles, Calif.

April

- Annual Spring Meeting

     April 18-21, 2013 | National Harbor, Md.

RESTRUCTURING EXPERTS: RECESSION DID NOT IMPROVE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE



The Great Recession taught businesses some valuable lessons, but a recent survey found that restructuring experts do not think companies learned enough about changing their corporate governance practices, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In its 2013 Outlook Survey of restructuring experts, advisory firm AlixPartners said that slightly less than half of the 98 professionals questioned believe corporate governance is better now than it was before the recession. Corporate governance breakdowns have indeed been a major factor in several bankruptcies of the past few years, including the collapse of MF Global Holdings Ltd. and the massive fraud at Peregrine Financial Group Inc. Despite those events, more than two-thirds of the restructuring professionals who think corporate governance is worse said that it was because of liquidity oversight. When asked which sectors might face increases in distressed situations, the restructuring gurus picked industries facing scrutiny in Washington, D.C. Forty-one percent of those surveyed picked health care, up from just 20 percent last year. The restructuring experts also expect an uptick in distressed situations at energy companies, along with aerospace and defense. Read more. (Subscription required.)

PRIVATE EQUITY BRACING FOR BUYOUT-BOOM SHAKEOUT



The private-equity industry, comprised of nearly 4,500 firms with $3 trillion in assets, is bracing for a shakeout that has been brewing since the collapse of credit markets choked off a record leveraged-buyout binge, Bloomberg News reported today. Firms that attracted an unprecedented $702 billion from investors from 2006 to 2008 must replenish their coffers for future deals and avoid a reduction in fee income when the investment periods on those older funds run out, typically after five years. As many as 708 firms face such deadlines through 2015, according to London-based researcher Preqin Ltd. Many firms are suffering from below-average profits on their boom-period funds, and top executives from Carlyle Group LP co-founder David Rubenstein to Blackstone Group LP President Tony James say that future returns will be far more modest than those investors got used to in the past. As investors gravitate to the best-performing managers and cut loose others, 10 to 25 percent of the firms may find themselves without fresh money. Read more.

REPORT: SEC'S REVOLVING DOOR HURTS ITS EFFECTIVENESS



The Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group long critical of the SEC's revolving door, released a study yesterday highlighting a pattern of SEC alumni going to bat for Wall Street firms, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. The report, similarly skeptical of Wall Street lawyers joining the SEC, cites recent enforcement cases and scuttled money market regulations to underscore its concerns. "Former employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission routinely help corporations try to influence SEC rule-making, counter the agency's investigations of suspected wrongdoing, soften the blow of SEC enforcement actions, block shareholder proposals and win exemptions from federal law," the report says. Read more.

SPECULATIVE BETS PROVE RISKY AS SAVERS CHASE PAYOFF



Regulators across the country are confronting a wave of investor fraud that is saddling retirement savers with steep losses on complex products that until a few years ago were pitched only to the most sophisticated investors, the New York Times reported yesterday. The victims are among the millions of Americans whose mutual funds and stock portfolios plummeted in the wake of the financial crisis, and who started searching for ways to make better returns than those being offered by bank deposits and government bonds with minuscule interest rates. Tens of thousands of them put money into speculative bets promoted by aggressive financial advisers. The investments include private loans to young companies like television production firms and shares in bundles of commercial real estate properties. Those alternative investments have now had time to go sour in big numbers, state and federal securities regulators say, and are making up a majority of complaints and prosecutions. "Since the crisis, we've seen more and more people reaching out into different types of exotic investments that are a big concern to us," said William F. Galvin, the Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth. Last Wednesday, Galvin's office ordered one of the nation's largest brokerage firms, LPL Financial, to pay $2.5 million for improperly selling the real estate bundles, known as nontraded REITs, or real estate investment trusts, to hundreds of state residents from 2006-09, in some cases overloading clients' accounts with them. Read more.

COMMENTARY: QUIETLY KILLING A CONSUMER WATCHDOG



Having failed to block the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, Senate Republicans are now trying to take away its power by filibuster, and they may well succeed, according to a New York Times editorial today. Under the Dodd-Frank law, most of the CFPB's regulatory powers -- particularly its authority over nonbanks like finance companies, debt collectors, payday lenders and credit agencies -- can be exercised only by a director. Knowing that, Republicans used a filibuster to prevent President Obama's nominee for director, Richard Cordray, from reaching a vote in 2011. Obama then gave Cordray a recess appointment, but a federal appeals court recently ruled in another case that the Senate was not in recess at that time because of the Republicans' tactics. That opinion, if upheld by the Supreme Court, is likely to apply to Cordray as well, which could invalidate the rules the bureau has already enacted. The president has renominated Cordray, but Republicans have made it clear that they will continue to filibuster to block his confirmation. Earlier this month, 43 Senate Republicans wrote a letter to the president vowing to block any nominee until "key structural changes" are made, including a bipartisan commission to run the bureau instead of one director, and congressional control of its appropriations. Other bank regulators, like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, are not subject to the appropriations process, as a shield against political interference. Congress does, however, control the budgets of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and House Republicans have voted to strip those agencies of money needed to regulate derivatives and curb abuses. Read the full editorial.

ANALYSIS: S&P'S TOXIC AAA RATINGS OF MORTGAGE DEBT HAD FAR-REACHING EFFECTS



Institutions throughout the financial services industry felt the effects of the damages inflicted when S&P allegedly inflated rankings of mortgage debt that contributed to the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, according to a Bloomberg News analysis yesterday. As a result, the Justice Department sued New York-based S&P and parent McGraw-Hill Cos. last week. The world's leading financial institutions suffered more than $2.1 trillion of writedowns and losses after soaring U.S. mortgage defaults caused the credit crunch. Some of the biggest losers were banks, including Citigroup and Bank of America Corp., which created and purchased collateralized debt obligations. Many of these investments -- created by packaging mortgage-backed bonds, derivatives and other CDOs and dividing them into new securities with varying degrees of risk -- imploded within a year after they were sold, even though they had pristine credit ratings. Smaller financial institutions were also ruined by mortgage-backed debt. Western Federal Corporate Credit Union failed after its executives employed an improperly "aggressive investment strategy" that had no limits on highly rated mortgage bonds, according to a regulatory report on its collapse. Read more.

ABI LIVE WEBINAR: REVISITING RADLAX AND HALL – NEW LEGAL AND PRACTICAL IMPACT OF THE DECISIONS



See why this was the top-rated panel at the ABI Winter Leadership Conference last month! Join the expert panel on Feb. 19 from 12:00-1:15pm EST as they summarize and discuss the legal impact and practical implications of the Supreme Court’s 2012 decisions in Radlax and Hall. Participants include:

• Susan M. Freeman of Lewis and Roca LLP (Phoenix)

• Adam A. Lewis of Morrison & Foerster LLP (San Francisco)

• Prof. Charles J. Tabb of the University of Illinois College of Law (Champaign, Ill.)

• Eric E. Walker of Perkins Coie LLP (Chicago)

Click here to register!

POWER TO VETO BANKRUPTCY SALES AMONG ISSUES TO BE EXAMINED AT ABI'S 31ST ANNUAL SPRING MEETING



The 2013 Annual Spring Meeting, to be held April 18-21, 2013, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., features a roster of the best national speakers, while the depth and scope of topics offer something for everyone. Specifically, four concurrent workshops will cover various “tracks,” including programs for attorneys in commercial cases, a track for restructuring professionals, a track of professional development programming and a track dealing solely with consumer issues. More than 16 hours of CLE/CPE is offered in some states, along with ethics credit totaling 3 hours, making the cost only about $50 per credit. In addition, committee sessions will drill down on other topics to provide you with the most practical and varied CLE/CPE experience ever. Sessions include:

- 17th Annual Great Debates

- Mediation: An Irrational Approach to a Rational Result

- Creditors' Committees and the Role of Indenture Trustees and Related Issues

- Current Issues for Financial Advisors in Bankruptcy Cases

- The Individual Conundrum: Chapter 7, 11 or 13?

- Real Estate Issues in Health Care Restructurings

- Law Firm Bankruptcies

- How to Be a Successful Expert

- The Ethical Compass: Multiple Ethical Schemes Applicable to Financial Advisors

- Chapter 9s, Nonprofits and Other Nontraditional Restructuring Processes

- And much more!

The Spring Meeting will also feature a field hearing of the ABI Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, a report from the ABI Ethics Task Force, a luncheon panel discussion moderated by Bill Rochelle of Bloomberg News, and a Final Night Gala Dinner featuring a concert by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts!

Enter code "LOVEASM50" at checkout to save $50 on a new registration this week! Click here to register today!

ABI IN-DEPTH

DON'T MISS THE 9TH ANNUAL WHARTON RESTRUCTURING AND DISTRESSED INVESTING CONFERENCE ON FEB. 22!



The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business will be holding the 9th Annual Wharton Restructuring and Distressed Investing Conference on Feb. 22 at the Hyatt at The Bellevue in Philadelphia. The theme of this year's conference is “Health of Nations: Distress, Recovery or Revival?” It will offer a unique opportunity to hear from a distinguished gathering of keynote speakers and panelists in their discussion of the current economic climate and issues of debt, investing, and restructuring across the globe. To register, please click here.

NEW BANKRUPTCY PROFESSIONALS: DON'T MISS THE NUTS AND BOLTS PROGRAM AT ABI'S ANNUAL SPRING MEETING! SPECIAL PRICING IF YOU ARE AN ASM REGISTRANT!



An outstanding faculty of judges and practitioners explains the fundamentals of bankruptcy in a one-day Nuts and Bolts program on April 18 being held in conjunction with ABI's Annual Spring Meeting. Ideal training for junior professionals or those new to this practice area!

The morning session covers concepts all bankruptcy practitioners need to know, and the afternoon session splits into concurrent tracks, focusing on consumer and business issues. The session will include written materials, practice tip sessions with bankruptcy judges, continental breakfast and a reception after the program. Click here to register!

LATEST CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: LEAVITT V. FINNEY (IN RE FINNEY; 9TH CIR.)



Summarized by David Hercher of Miller Nash LLP

The Ninth Circuit ruled that because the chapter 13 debtor received a chapter 7 discharge in a prior case commenced during the four-year period before the current petition date, she was not entitled to a discharge in the current chapter 13 case, even though the first case was commenced under chapter 13 and converted to chapter 7 before discharge.

There are more than 750 appellate opinions summarized on Volo, and summaries typically appear within 24 hours of the ruling. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.

NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: CASE FOCUSES ON A COMMERCIAL LANDLORD'S CLAIM FOR INDEMNIFICATION



The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A recent post examines the case of In re Mervyn's Holdings, LLC, in which the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware held that a claim arising from an indemnification provision, in a non-residential commercial lease, which was rejected post-petition, was entitled to administrative priority pursuant to § 365(d)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code.

Be sure to check the site several times each day; any time a contributing blog posts a new story, a link to the story will appear on the top. If you have a blog that deals with bankruptcy, or know of a good blog that should be part of the Bankruptcy Exchange, please contact the ABI Web team.

ABI Quick Poll

After Stern, bankruptcy courts do not have the constitutional authority to enter final judgments on fraudulent conveyance claims.

Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL



INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialize in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 37 member associations worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals participating as members of INSOL International. As a member association of INSOL, ABI's members receive a discounted subscription rate. See ABI's enrollment page for details.

Have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn Account?

Join our networks to expand yours.

2013

February

- ABI Live Webinar: Revisiting RadLAX and Hall- New Legal and Practical Impact of the Decisions

     February 19, 2013

- VALCON 2013

     February 20-22, 2013 | Las Vegas, Nev.

- 9th Annual Wharton

Restructuring and Distressed Investing Conference

     February 22, 2013 | Philadelphia, Pa.

March

- 37th Annual Alexander L. Paskay Seminar on Bankruptcy Law and Practice

     March 7-9, 2013 | St. Petersburg, Fla.

- Bankruptcy Battleground West

     March 22, 2013 | Los Angeles, Calif.

April

- "Nuts and Bolts" Program at ASM

     April 18, 2013 | National Harbor, Md.

- Annual Spring Meeting

     April 18-21, 2013 | National Harbor, Md.

May

- "Nuts and Bolts" Program at NYCBC

     May 15, 2013 | New York, N.Y.

- New York City Bankruptcy Conference

     May 16, 2013 | New York, N.Y.

- Litigation Skills Symposium

     May 21-24, 2013 | Dallas, Texas

June

- Memphis Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

     June 7, 2013 | Memphis, Tenn.

ANALYSIS: HOW CHAPTER 11 SAVED THE U.S. ECONOMY



Harvard Business School Prof. Stuart C. Gilson’s recent study of the 2008 financial crisis says that restructuring and chapter 11 played a heroic role in helping the country rebound. In his article in the 2012 Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Gilson writes that the "amount of debt that needed to be restructured posed a seemingly insurmountable challenge." At one point, "$3.5 trillion of corporate debt was distressed or in default. [Between] 2008 and 2009, $1.8 trillion worth of public company assets entered chapter 11 bankruptcy protection—almost 20 times more than during the prior two years," according to Gilson. A significant portion of the private-equity industry, he says, was "widely believed to be on the verge of extinction." Instead, in a relatively short time, much of the corporate debt that defaulted during the financial crisis has been managed down, mass liquidations have been averted, and corporate profits, balance sheets and values have rebounded with remarkable speed, according to Gilson's analysis. Read more.

REPORT: U.S. STUDENT LOAN WRITE-OFFS HIT $3 BILLION IN FIRST TWO MONTHS OF 2013



An Equifax study showed that U.S. banks wrote off $3 billion of student loan debt in the first two months of 2013, up more than 36 percent from the same period a year ago, Reuters reported yesterday. The credit reporting agency also said that student lending has grown from last year because more people are going back to school and the cost of higher education has risen. "Continued weakness in labor markets is limiting work options once people graduate or quit their programs, leading to a steady rise in delinquencies and loan write-offs," Equifax Chief Economist Amy Crews Cutts said in a statement. U.S. student loan debt reform has become a more pressing issue since the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reported in March 2012 that the total surpassed $1 trillion by the end of 2011 and as interest rates on subsidized Stafford loan rates are set to double in July. The cost of earning a 4-year undergraduate degree has gone up by 5.2 percent per year in the last decade, according to the CFPB, forcing more students to take out loans. Read more.

For more information, be sure to register for ABI's "Student Loans: Bankruptcy May Not Have the Answers – But Does Congress?" webinar presented by ABI's Consumer Bankruptcy Committee on April 10 from noon-1:15 ET. Click here for more information.

U.S. CRACKS DOWN ON "FORCED" INSURANCE



A U.S. housing regulator is cracking down on a little-known practice that has hit millions of struggling borrowers with high-price homeowners' insurance policies arranged by banks that benefit from the costly coverage, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plans to file a notice today to ban lucrative fees and commissions paid by insurers to banks on so-called force-placed insurance. Such "forced" policies are imposed on homeowners whose standard property coverage lapses, typically because the borrower stops making payments. Critics say that the fee system has given banks a financial incentive to arrange more expensive homeowners' policies than are necessary. FHFA's move would apply nationwide to all mortgages guaranteed or owned by Fannie and Freddie—about half of the housing market. Read more. (Subscription required.)

COMMENTARY: IS IT ALREADY TIME TO WEAKEN DODD-FRANK?



A key effort in the Dodd-Frank financial reform act has been to bring transparency and reforms to the complex market of derivatives, but Republicans and Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday approved seven bills that would roll back parts of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, according to a commentary in Sunday's Washington Post. However, Dodd-Frank's regulation of derivatives is crucially important to alleviate future financial crises and set a proper course for reform, according to the commentary. The bills now headed to the House floor for a vote weaken Title VII of Dodd-Frank, which is the part that regulates derivatives. "Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal," financier Warren Buffett said. Bill Clinton said that he was wrong to avoid regulating derivatives when he had the chance. These financial instruments played a central role in the financial crisis, culminating in the collapse and bailout of AIG. Since Dodd-Frank, there has been extensive debate about the new rules for derivatives, which range from collateral to price transparency. But there has also been a counter-debate about who has to follow the new rules. Those who fall under "end-user exemptions" are largely able to forgo following the Dodd-Frank rules, and the easiest way to understand the bills passed out of the Agriculture Committee is to note that they seek to expand the scope of those exemptions. One bill would weaken cross-border regulations, allowing U.S. firms that run their derivatives in other countries to avoid following the new derivative rules. In the age of electronic trading and overlapping jurisdictions, this limits the ability of regulators to make sure that prudential standards are set in this country. Read more.

LAWSUIT SHEDS LIGHT ON ALLEGED INFLATION OF LEGAL BILL



The thorny issue of law firm billing is at the heart of a lawsuit involving a fee dispute between a law firm and Adam H. Victor, an energy industry executive, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. After DLA Piper sued Victor for $675,000 in unpaid legal bills, Victor filed a counterclaim, accusing the law firm of a "sweeping practice of overbilling." Victor's feud with DLA Piper began after he retained the firm in April 2010 to prepare a bankruptcy filing for one of his companies. The lawsuit has brought to light e-mails from DLA Piper’s lawyers about how the bill was running way over budget. Another described a colleague’s approach to the assignment as "churn that bill, baby!" Legal ethics scholars said that it is highly unusual to find documentary evidence of possible churning — the creation of unnecessary work to drive up a client's bill. Read more.

HOTEL BLOCK FOR ABI'S ANNUAL SPRING MEETING ALMOST SOLD OUT! REGISTER TODAY!



The hotel block at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., is almost sold out for ABI’s 2013 Annual Spring Meeting! Held April 18-21, 2013, ASM features a roster of the best national speakers, while the depth and scope of topics offer something for everyone. Specifically, four concurrent workshops will cover various “tracks,” including programs for attorneys in commercial cases, a track for restructuring professionals, a track of professional development programming and a track dealing solely with consumer issues. More than 16 hours of CLE/CPE is offered in some states, along with ethics credit totaling 3 hours, making the cost only about $50 per credit. In addition, committee sessions will drill down on other topics to provide you with the most practical and varied CLE/CPE experience ever. Sessions include:

• 17th Annual Great Debates

• Mediation: An Irrational Approach to a Rational Result

• Creditors’ Committees and the Role of Indenture Trustees and Related Issues

• Current Issues for Financial Advisors in Bankruptcy Cases

• The Individual Conundrum: Chapter 7, 11 or 13?

• The Power to Veto Bankruptcy Sales

• Real Estate Issues in Health Care Restructurings

• How to Be a Successful Expert

• The Ethical Compass: Multiple Ethical Schemes Applicable to Financial Advisors

• Chapter 9s, Nonprofits and Other Nontraditional Restructuring Processes

• And much more!

The Spring Meeting will also feature a field hearing of the ABI Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, a report from the ABI Ethics Task Force, a luncheon panel discussion moderated by Bill Rochelle of Bloomberg News, and a Final Night Gala Dinner featuring a concert by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts!

Make sure to register today!

ABI IN-DEPTH

TEE OFF ON THE NEW ABI GOLF TOUR!



Starting with the Annual Spring Meeting, ABI will offer conference registrants the option to participate in the ABI Golf Tour. The Tour will take place concurrently with all conference golf tournaments. The Tour is designed to enhance the golfing experience for serious golfers, while still offering a fun networking opportunity for players of any ability. As opposed to the format used at ABI’s regular conference events, Tour participants will "play their own ball." They will be grouped on the golf course separately from other conference golf participants and will typically play ahead of the other participants, expediting Tour play. Tour participants will be randomly grouped in foursomes, unless otherwise requested of the Commissioner in advance of each tournament. Prizes will be awarded for each individual Tour event, which are sponsored by Great American Group. The grand prize is the "Great American Cup," also sponsored by Great American Group, which will be awarded to the top player at the end of the Tour season. Registration is free. Click here for more information and a list of 2013 ABI Golf Tour event venues.

NEW BANKRUPTCY PROFESSIONALS: DON'T MISS THE NUTS AND BOLTS PROGRAM AT ABI'S ANNUAL SPRING MEETING! SPECIAL PRICING IF YOU ARE AN ASM REGISTRANT!



An outstanding faculty of judges and practitioners explains the fundamentals of bankruptcy in a one-day Nuts and Bolts program on April 18 being held in conjunction with ABI's Annual Spring Meeting. Ideal training for junior professionals or those new to this practice area!

The morning session covers concepts all bankruptcy practitioners need to know, and the afternoon session splits into concurrent tracks, focusing on consumer and business issues. The session will include written materials, practice tip sessions with bankruptcy judges, continental breakfast and a reception after the program. Click here to register!

LATEST CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: NORTH AMERICAN BANKING CO. V. LEONARD (IN RE WEB2B PAYMENT SOLUTIONS INC.; 8TH CIR.)



Summarized by Brendan Gage, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern & Western Districts of Arkansas

Affirming the bankruptcy court, the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit held that a creditor loses its possessory lien in deposit accounts when it turns over the account funds to the trustee without requesting a court to adequately protect its lien in the funds.

There are more than 800 appellate opinions summarized on Volo, and summaries typically appear within 24 hours of the ruling. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.

NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: WHAT IS NEXT FOR CREDITORS OF DETROIT?

The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A recent blog post examines the potential next steps for creditors of financially distressed Detroit.

Be sure to check the site several times each day; any time a contributing blog posts a new story, a link to the story will appear on the top. If you have a blog that deals with bankruptcy, or know of a good blog that should be part of the Bankruptcy Exchange, please contact the ABI Web team.

ABI Quick Poll

Who will win the NCAA basketball tournament?

Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL



INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialize in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 37 member associations worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals participating as members of INSOL International. As a member association of INSOL, ABI's members receive a discounted subscription rate. See ABI's enrollment page for details.

Have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn Account?

Join our networks to expand yours.

2013

April

- ABI Live Webinar: "Legacy Liabilities : Dealing with Environmental, Pension, Union and Similar Types of Claims"

     April 5, 2013

- ABI Live Webinar: "Student Loans: Bankruptcy May Not Have the Answers - But Does Congress?"

     April 10, 2013

- "Nuts and Bolts" Program at ASM

     April 18, 2013 | National Harbor, Md.

- Annual Spring Meeting

     April 18-21, 2013 | National Harbor, Md.

May

- "Nuts and Bolts" Program at NYCBC

     May 15, 2013 | New York, N.Y.

- ABI Endowment Cocktail Reception

     May 15, 2013 | New York, N.Y.

- New York City Bankruptcy Conference

     May 16, 2013 | New York, N.Y.

- Litigation Skills Symposium

     May 21-24, 2013 | Dallas, Texas

June

- Memphis Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

     June 7, 2013 | Memphis, Tenn.

- Central States Bankruptcy Workshop

     June 13-16, 2013 | Grand Traverse, Mich.

July

- Northeast Bankruptcy Conference and Northeast Consumer Forum

     July 11-14, 2013 | Newport, R.I.

- Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop

     July 18-21, 2013 | Amelia Island, Fla.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OPENS JPMORGAN INQUIRY



The Justice Department has opened an inquiry into JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s $2 billion-plus trading loss, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The probe is at an early stage and it is not clear what possible legal violation federal investigators may be focusing on. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission began its own review of the matter, examining the company's accounting and disclosures to investors. The trading loss has aroused intense scrutiny in Washington, D.C., where some lawmakers have been fighting efforts by big banks to delay or scale back regulations mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul. Read more. (Subscription required.)

ANALYSIS: BANKS TREAD A FINE LINE IN TRADING



When JPMorgan Chase revealed its $2 billion loss last week, it looked as though the big Wall Street banks were up to their old tricks, using their government-backed funds to make risky trades in a misguided effort to improve their profits, according to an analysis in the New York Times' Dealbook Blog on Sunday. While few other banks pursue the complex strategies that led to JPMorgan's losses, many traditional lenders regularly buy and sell securities, and make bets with derivatives, as part of their core operations. Financial firms say that such activities allow them to earn a basic return on the deposits they collect and to offset risks on their balance sheets. These widespread trading practices are creating a headache for regulators, who are trying to devise new rules to prevent another financial crisis. Regulators are putting the finishing touches on the so-called Volcker Rule, which would ban banks from making speculative bets with their own money. However, regulators face a dilemma when faced with the question of "what constitutes proprietary trading?" Such activities are easy to spot when financial firms run independent trading units devoted to making profits. Already, most big banks have moved to exit these businesses in preparation for the Volcker Rule. Regulators, however, are having a harder time telling when other trading activities — like market-making and portfolio hedging — cross the line. Big banks, even those with little presence on Wall Street, contend that their trading activities are part of prudent risk-management. Without the ability to invest in bonds and other securities, these companies argue that they would not be able to make loans or extend credit as easily. Read more.

DOJ NOT KEEPING STATS ON FINANCIAL CRISIS CONVICTIONS



The Department of Justice has been short on answers for congressional inquiries looking to find out how many executives have been convicted of criminal wrongdoing related to the financial crisis of 2008-09, as the department said that it does not keep count of the numbers of board-level prosecutions, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal. In a response earlier this month to a March request from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the Justice Department said that it does not hold information on defendants' business titles. "Consequently, we are unable to generate the [requested] comprehensive list" of Wall Street convictions stemming from the 2008 meltdown, the letter from the Department of Justice to Grassley said. Prof. William Black, a former bank regulator, said that the government used to keep these figures. He points to a 1993 report by the Government Accountability Office on the savings-and-loan crisis of a generation ago. The report said that "30 percent of those prosecuted are the major corporate insiders—CEOs, presidents, shareholders, directors and officers" of the affected firms. Some other law-enforcement agencies are keeping a similar tally for the latest financial crisis. The Securities and Exchange Commission highlights on its website its civil crisis-related enforcement actions against senior corporate officers—a total of 55 so far. Read more. (Subscription required.)

In related news, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday titled "Examining the Settlement Practices of U.S. Financial Regulators." Click here to view the witness list.

COMMENTARY: SAYING NO TO STATE BAILOUTS



States that have followed Europe's economic policy model of unbridled spending are getting Europe's economic results: low growth and looming fiscal catastrophe, according to a commentary by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), members of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), in today's Wall Street Journal. Compared with the 10 U.S. states with the lowest rates of economic growth since 1990, according to a JEC report released today, the states with the highest rates of growth had smaller unfunded pension ratios (by 26 percent); lower debt ratios (by 18 percent); less tax revenue collected (by 22 percent); and lower welfare benefits (by 31 percent). The report also shows that over the last decade, states with no income tax have much higher rates of job growth and population growth than states with the highest income taxes. The fuse on the U.S. debt bomb—which according to the National Bureau of Economic Research may be armed with as much as a $211 trillion fiscal shortfall—may prove to be the states' public-employee pension systems, according to the commentary. Years of overly optimistic growth projections, underfunding and overpromising by politicians, according to the commentary, have rendered many of these public pension systems toxic assets on states' books. Read more. (Subscription required.)

REGISTER FOR THE LABOR & EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE'S "EVOLVING LABOR ISSUES IN CHAPTER 11" WEBINAR



Make sure to mark your calendars for May 23 from 2-3:30 p.m. ET for the ABI Labor and Employment Committee's "Evolving Labor Issues in Chapter 11" Webinar. A panel of experts will be discussing recent developments in several large complex bankruptcy cases, including Hostess, Kodak, Nortel and American Airlines. The expert panel includes Babette A. Ceccotti of Cohen, Weiss & Simon LLP (New York), former chief counsel of the PBGC Jeffrey B. Cohen of Bailey & Ehrenberg PLLC (Washington, D.C.), Marc Kieselstein of Kirkland & Ellis LLP (New York) and Ron E. Meisler of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Issues to be discussed include:

• Hostess' efforts to eliminate their multi-employer pension plan contribution liability through motions to reject their labor agreements under Section 1113.

• Kodak's attempt to terminate retiree health benefits.

• The effect of the automatic stay upon efforts by the U.K. Pension Protection Fund and the U.K. Nortel Pension Plan to enforce its powers under the U.K. Pensions Act.

• American Airlines' efforts to reduce legacy costs in bankruptcy.

Click here to register.

U.S. TRUSTEE PROGRAM RE-OPENS COMMENT PERIOD ON PROPOSED GUIDELINES FOR ATTORNEY COMPENSATION IN LARGE CHAPTER 11 CASES



The U.S. Trustee Program has re-opened the comment period until May 21, 2012, on proposed guidelines for reviewing applications for attorney compensation in large chapter 11 cases ("fee guidelines"). The USTP also scheduled a public meeting for June 4, 2012, at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. on the proposed fee guidelines. Click here for more information on submitting comments or attending the public hearing.

ABI IN-DEPTH

JUNE 5 WEBINAR WILL EXAMINE HOW TO HANDLE AN ADMINISTRATIVELY INSOLVENT ESTATE



Panelists from one of the top-rated sessions at the 2011 Winter Leadership Conference are going to reconvene for an ABI and West LegalEd Center webinar on June 5 titled, "Handling the Administratively Insolvent Estate- What to Do When Your Chapter 11 Goes South." CLE credit will be available for the webinar, which will last from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. ET.

Speakers include:

• Robert J. Feinstein of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP (New York)

• Cathy Rae Hershcopf of Cooley LLP (New York)

• Robert L. LeHane of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP (New York)

Robert J. Keach of Bernstein Shur (Portland, Maine) will be the moderator for the webinar.

The webinar costs $115, and purchase provides online access for 180 days. If you are purchasing a live webcast, you will receive complimentary access to the on-demand version for 180 days once it becomes available. Click here for more information.

LATEST CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: MCNEAL V. GMAC MORTGAGE, LLC (IN RE MCNEAL; 11TH CIR.)



Summarized by Melissa Youngman of McCalla Raymer, LLC

The Eleventh Circuit held that a wholly unsecured junior lien on a chapter 7 debtor's home may be "stripped off" pursuant to Section 506(d) of the Bankruptcy Code.

More than 500 appellate opinions are summarized on Volo typically within 24 hours of the ruling. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.

NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: FURTHER INSIGHT ON HOW THE SUPREME COURT MAY APPROACH CREDIT BIDDING IN THE RADLAX CASE



The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A blog post provides further insight on a few approaches that the Supreme Court may take on the credit-bidding issues presented in the RadLAX case.

Hear a discussion of the RadLAX post-argument featuring lead counsel David Neff by clicking here. ABI will hold a webinar on the Court’s decision as soon as it is announced in late June.

Be sure to check the site several times each day; any time a contributing blog posts a new story, a link to the story will appear on the top. If you have a blog that deals with bankruptcy, or know of a good blog that should be part of the Bankruptcy Exchange, please contact the ABI Web team.

ABI Quick Poll

The Constitutional scheme of uniform federal bankruptcy is a bad idea; the states should have more leeway to adopt their own different approaches to financial distress, at least for their own individual citizens and companies with purely intra-state operations. Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL



INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialize in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 37 member associations worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals participating as members of INSOL International. As a member association of INSOL, ABI's members receive a discounted subscription rate. See ABI's enrollment page for details.

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May

- ABI Labor and Employment Committee's "Evolving Labor Issues in Chapter 11" Webinar

     May 23, 2012



June

- Memphis Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

     June 1, 2012 | Memphis, Tenn.

- ABI'S "Handling the Administratively Insolvent Estate- What to Do When Your Chapter 11 Goes South?" Webinar

     June 5, 2012

- Central States Bankruptcy Workshop

     June 7-10, 2012 | Traverse City, Mich.

July

- Northeast Bankruptcy Conference and Northeast Consumer Forum

     July 12-15, 2012 | Bretton Woods, N.H.

- Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop

     July 25-28, 2012 | Amelia Island, Fla.

August

- Mid-Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop

     August 2-4, 2012 | Cambridge, Md.

REVAMPED CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY FORMS OUT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT



The Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure is asking for comment on the first proposed modernization of bankruptcy forms in two decades, according to a Department of Justice press release today. The revised forms, published for comment, are all used by individual debtors and include the fee waiver and installment fee forms, income and expense forms, and the means test forms, replacing previous forms. The comments, submitted by the public, will be reviewed over the coming months and will be used to fine-tune the forms. The deadline for submitting comments is Feb. 15. Click here to review the revised forms.

ANALYSIS: APPEALS COURT RULING ON ROTHSTEIN FORFEITURE COULD SET PRECEDENT IN BANKRUPTCY CASES



A new federal court case could overturn U.S. District Judge James Cohn's 2009 decision allocating which victims of Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein would receive proceeds from an asset sale, the South Florida Business Journal reported yesterday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit could rule instead that a bankruptcy trustee overseeing the dissolution of Rothstein’s defunct law firm, Hebert Stettin, had the authority to corral and distribute Rothstein's loot. The outcome of the case could set a precedent that would further define the powers of a bankruptcy court-appointed trustee versus the U.S. Department of Justice in a complicated financial criminal case. Rothstein’s $1.4 billion fraud came to light at the end of October 2009. The feds moved quickly to seize cars, boats and luxury goods from Rothstein’s home. Rothstein’s law partners voluntarily sought a receiver to take over the firm on Nov. 1, 2009. Stettin was named a receiver under state court authority on Nov. 2. By Nov 10, investors who lost money in the scheme filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition, and Stettin became a bankruptcy trustee by order of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Raymond Ray. Read more.

SWAP TRADERS CLOSE TO WINNING U.S. PORTFOLIO COLLATERAL OFFSET



U.S. regulators plan to allow hedge funds and other credit-swap traders to reduce the amount of collateral needed to back transactions through the use of accounts that offset different types of trades, Bloomberg News reported today. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are close to allowing collateral offsets for credit swaps that are tied to indexes and single securities through a process known as “portfolio margining.” Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc., owner of the largest clearinghouse for credit swaps, Citadel LLC and other hedge and mutual funds and banks, spent more than a year pushing regulators to support the system for client trades. The regulation was issued by the SEC for comment on Dec. 14, and a companion measure could be approved by the CFTC as soon as this week. Dodd-Frank Act requirements that credit swaps be guaranteed at clearinghouses are set to take effect mid-March. The central counterparties stand between buyers and sellers and accept collateral to limit the risk from a trade default spreading throughout the financial system. Read more.

COMMENTARY: MADOFF ASIDE, FINANCIAL FRAUD DEFIES POLICING



The challenge of financial fraud oversight is not getting any easier, as the ranks of financial advisers are swelling, according to a commentary in the New York Times DealBook blog yesterday. As new regulations instituted following the 2008 financial crisis put a crimp on profits, big banks like Wells Fargo are ramping up their brokerage businesses in an effort to make up for lost revenue. Amid the renewed focus, banks have spent millions of dollars to beef up their compliance systems and improve their oversight. Regulators, too, have bolstered their efforts, increasing enforcement and adopting new measures. Every month, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a Wall Street watchdog, penalizes more than 100 brokers for various actions, including unauthorized trading and fraudulent activities, as well as smaller violations. "Theft, Ponzi schemes and other financial scams continue to happen at an alarming rate," according to plaintiff's lawyer Thomas Ajamie. Read more.

LATEST ABI PODCAST EXAMINES TREATMENT OF PERSONAL INDEBTEDNESS AROUND THE WORLD



ABI's latest podcast features ABI Executive Director Samuel J. Gerdano speaking with Professor Jason Kilborn of the John Marshall Law School (Chicago). Prof. Kilborn, the ABI Resident Scholar for the 2011 Fall Semester, chairs a drafting group for the World Bank to study and report on the various ways that nations approach personal indebtedness. Prof. Kilborn discusses the project and the initial report that was presented last month at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Click here to listen.

ABI IN-DEPTH

LATEST CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: SULLIVAN V. COSTA (IN RE COSTA; 1ST CIR.)



Summarized by Samuel Mushell, The Kelly Firm, P.C

The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit affirmed a bankruptcy court ruling that held that a creditor's untimely filing of a motion objecting to discharge had lapsed.

There are more than 700 appellate opinions summarized on Volo, and summaries typically appear within 24 hours of the ruling. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.

NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: COULD 2013 SEE LEHMAN BEING PUT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN?



The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A new post examines a case in which the BAP for the Sixth Circuit dismissed a debtor's chapter 11 petition because the debtor's filing was abusive.

Be sure to check the site several times each day; any time a contributing blog posts a new story, a link to the story will appear on the top. If you have a blog that deals with bankruptcy, or know of a good blog that should be part of the Bankruptcy Exchange, please contact the ABI Web team.

ABI Quick Poll

A licensee of a trademark has the right to retain the license even when a debtor rejects the underlying contract creating the license. (Sunbeam Products, 7th Cir.)

Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL



INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialize in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 37 member associations worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals participating as members of INSOL International. As a member association of INSOL, ABI's members receive a discounted subscription rate. See ABI's enrollment page for details.

Have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn Account?

Join our networks to expand yours.

2013

January

- Western Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

     January 21, 2013 | Las Vegas, Nev.

- Rocky Mountain Bankruptcy Conference

     January 24-25, 2013 | Denver, Colo.

February

- Caribbean Insolvency Symposium

     February 7-9, 2013 | Miami, Fla.

- Kansas City Advanced Consumer Bankruptcy Practice Institute

     February 17-19, 2013 | Kansas City, Mo.

- VALCON 2013

     February 20-22, 2013 | Las Vegas, Nev.

March

- 37th Annual Alexander L. Paskay Seminar on Bankruptcy Law and Practice

     March 7-9, 2013 | St. Petersburg, Fla.

- Bankruptcy Battleground West

     March 22, 2013 | Los Angeles, Calif.

April

- Annual Spring Meeting

     April 18-21, 2013 | National Harbor, Md.

SENATE POISED TO END FILIBUSTER ON NOMINEES



Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today his intention to force a vote on Monday to change the Senate’s longstanding rule permitting extended debate on executive branch nominees. The rule change would permit the majority to approve nominations with a simple majority vote. This so-called “nuclear option” would be a profound change in a fundamental Senate rule. Most immediately, the rule change would allow the Senate’s Democratic Majority to confirm Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with two nominees to the NLRB. Cordray was renominated after his recess appointment by President Obama was cast into doubt by a D.C. Circuit decision holding that the NLRB Nominees were recess appointed (on the same day in January 2012) in an unconstitutional manner.

HOUSE HEARING EXAMINES IF DODD-FRANK ACT'S "ORDERLY LIQUIDATION AUTHORITY" IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL



Arguing that due process rights “are vaporized” under the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA), witnesses told the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Tuesday that aspects of the DFA might be unconstitutional, the National Law Journal reported yesterday. Members of the subcommittee focused on the law’s all new—and as yet untested—orderly liquidation authority. Intended as a third way between bankruptcy and bailout, the provision gives the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (in conjunction with other regulators) the ability to take over an institution whose failure might pose a risk to the financial stability of the United States. Columbia Law School professor Thomas Merrill testified that DFA raises serious constitutional issues—almost sure to lead to litigaion the first time the provision is invoked, with potentially disastrous consequences. “It’s very likely to cause the whole process to go off the rails and become chaotic,” he said. “My concern is that the constitutional issues will work against the purpose [of the provision]…at a time when it’s least appropriate to bring them to the fore.” But Pepper Hamilton partner Timothy McTaggart argued that the law likely would pass constitutional muster, pointing out that fewer than 170 laws enacted by Congress between 1789 and 2002 were held unconstitutional. “A difference in policy choice as reflected in enacted legislation does not make the legislation unconstitutional,” he said. To date, no court has held Dodd-Frank to be unconstitutional, but a case pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, State National Bank of Big Spring v. Lew, may provide the first test. Former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray is co-counsel in the case, brought by a Texas community bank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the 60 Plus Association and several states. He testified before the subcommittee that Dodd-Frank “violates the Constitution’s system of checks and balances” and gives “regulators effectively unlimited power.” Read more.

Click here to read the prepared witness testimony.

COMMENTARY: HOW TO AVOID THE NEXT MF GLOBAL SURPRISE



When MF Global went bankrupt in October 2011, thousands of its customers in the United States discovered that their overseas investments were not as safe or secure as they had assumed—and that they no longer had access to their funds, according to an editorial in yesterday's Wall Street Journal by MF Global Trustee James Giddens. The company faced extraordinary liquidity demands in its final, chaotic days, including margin calls on massive European sovereign-debt bets taken by CEO Jon Corzine and others. Desperate for funds, management improperly raided segregated customer money held by the company's broker-dealer in the U.S., resulting in a $900 million shortfall, according to Giddens. Once MF Global U.K. was put into liquidation, British administrators determined that under U.K. law virtually no money had been actually segregated for customers—which added an additional $700 million shortfall in customers' foreign accounts. Another problem in MF Global—and to some extent in Lehman Brothers—was the company's large, complicated legal structure. The trustee for the MF Global holding company had a different constituency of lenders and general creditors than Giddens did as trustee for the customers and creditors of the U.S. broker-dealer. Trustees with differing priorities led to confusion and further delay. Going forward, Giddens said that there is a need for clear and consistent cross-border rules regarding the protection of money in customer accounts. Clearer rules would pave the way for quicker and more efficient return of customer property when the next MF Global or Lehman occurs. Read more. (Subscription required.)

SENATORS NEAR DEAL ON STUDENT LOAN RATES



Senators are near a deal to provide a long-term fix to student loan rates, but that compromise will likely rest on a score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), as well as members' ability to sell the compromise to skeptical members in both parties, The Hill reported today. The potential agreement would look broadly similar to a competing proposal offered by a group of Republicans and Democrats and comes one day after Senate Democrats failed to muster enough support for a one-year freeze of lower interest rates. A bipartisan group of senators pushing a competing student loan proposal met with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) yesterday, as well as Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.). Harkin and Reed were strong proponents of the one-year freeze, which was broadly rejected by Republicans on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
The senators pushing the competing proposal at the meeting were Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.). Members at that meeting agreed on a framework of a bill and now are waiting for a CBO score to determine if the measure is close enough to deficit-neutral to assuage Democrats who had blasted the original proposal, which would have reduced the deficit by $1 billion. Read more.

COMMENTARY: GOOD AND BAD BANK CAPITAL



Three years after President Obama signed Dodd-Frank, U.S. financial regulators have taken their first significant step toward protecting taxpayers from giant bank failures, according to an editorial today in the Wall Street Journal. Under a proposal released on Tuesday from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the eight largest U.S. financial houses would be required to hold more capital. Specifically, the FDIC and their regulatory colleagues at the Federal Reserve and Comptroller of the Currency proposed to increase the leverage ratio at giant bank holding companies to 5 percent from 3 percent, and to 6 percent for the insured deposit-taking banks inside these holding companies. The proposal is still a major step toward taxpayer protection, according to the editorial, and might require the giants to increase capital by close to $90 billion by 2018, or to shrink their balance sheets to operate more safely with the level of capital they hold today. Read more. (Subscription required.)

ANALYSIS: HOW STOCKTON’S BANKRUPTCY MAY CHANGE THE WAY WE ANALYZE MUNICIPAL CREDIT RISK



The bankruptcy of Stockton, Calif., and the forthcoming legal battle has the potential to permanently change the way municipal credit risk is viewed both in California and on a national level, according to a recent briefing paper prepared by Thornburg Investment Management. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Klein on April 1 accepted the city of Stockton’s petition to proceed with chapter 9 bankruptcy. The interesting aspect of the Stockton case revolves around the treatment of pension obligations. Pensions are protected by California statute, to the detriment of bondholders. Because of this protection, public employees in Stockton and throughout California have traditionally been unwilling to make material concessions when negotiating with troubled municipalities. In fact, this issue is pervasive across the country. In general, public labor unions have seldom made material concessions because of a perceived protection of future benefits. Unfortunately for the public employees in Stockton and around the country, the bankruptcy case will be heard in federal court and the status of the pensions will play a key role. Should Judge Klein rule in favor of pension holders, protecting their benefits above the claims of bondholders, it would essentially subordinate bondholders to the claims of public workers. A ruling of that type would immediately decrease the credit quality of all municipal bonds. In the future, public employees would have no incentive to negotiate with stressed municipalities, knowing that their benefits are protected. The result could be an increase in chapter 9 filings as municipalities lose the flexibility to control future expenses. On the other hand, should Judge Klein rule that public employees must take a haircut in line with other creditors, municipal bondholders will benefit. Click here to read the full analysis.

COMMENTARY: TO CATCH A CREDITOR



Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission completed a multiyear study of credit-report errors and found that nearly 20 percent of consumers had errors in at least one of their credit files, and that 13 percent saw an improvement in their scores when the errors were corrected, according to an op-ed in today' New York Times. A 2012 study by The Columbus Dispatch analyzed 30,000 complaints to the FTC; of those, 1,500 people reported that their files included someone else’s information. Nearly a third said that the credit agencies did not correct the errors, despite being asked to do so. Most egregious, almost 200 people said their reports showed them as deceased. While federal law requires credit bureaus to conduct a reasonable investigation of consumer complaints, the marketplace can penalize credit bureaus that investigate too aggressively, according to the op-ed. Credit bureaus are heavily dependent on lenders for both revenue and the information the bureaus package and sell; if a credit bureau presses a lender too hard, the lender could patronize a different bureau and withhold data about its customers. In contrast, consumers have little power over credit-reporting agencies. Consumers cannot, for example, block credit bureaus from obtaining information about their transactions. Read more.

ABILIVE WEBINAR NEXT WEEK TO FOCUS ON THE § 1111(b) ELECTION, PLAN FEASIBILITY AND CRAMDOWN ISSUES



Utilizing a case study, ABI's panel of experts will explore issues surrounding a lender’s decision on whether or not to make an election under § 1111(b), plan feasibility and voting. The abiLIVE panel will also walk attendees through the necessary mathematical analyses used to analyze these issues. The webinar will take place on July 15 from 1-2:15 p.m. ET. Special ABI member rate available! Click here to register.

NEW abiLIVE WEBINAR ON AUGUST 20: HOW WILL THE NEW U.S. TRUSTEE FEE GUIDELINES IMPACT YOU?



The new U.S. Trustee Fee Guidelines will affect all attorneys and firms who work on larger chapter 11 cases filed on or after November 1st. ABI's Ethics & Professional Compensation Committee will present a panel of experts, including Cliff White, the Director of the U.S. Trustee Program, to discuss some of the ways the new guidelines may change day-to-day operations in firms, issues relating to the new market rate benchmarks, and how these changes might alter insolvency practice. Register today to hear government, attorney and academic perspectives on this important and timely topic.

ABI GOLF TOUR UNDERWAY; NEXT STOP IS THE SOUTHEAST BANKRUPTCY CONFERENCE NEXT WEEK



The next stop for the ABI Golf Tour is the famed Golf Club of Amelia Island course on Amelia Island, Fla., in conjunction with the Southeast Bankruptcy Conference next week. Final scoring to win the Great American Cup—sponsored by Great American Group—is based on your top three scores at seven scheduled ABI events, so play as many as you can before the tour wraps up at the Winter Leadership Conference in December. See the Tour page for details and course descriptions. The ABI Golf Tour combines networking with fun competition, as golfers "play their own ball." Including your handicap means everyone has an equal chance to compete for the glory of being crowned ABI's top golfer of 2013! There's no charge to register or participate in the Tour.

ABI IN-DEPTH

NORTON JUDICIAL EXCELLENCE AWARD NOMINATIONS OPEN



Nominations are now open for the 8th Annual Judge William L. Norton Judicial Excellence Award, to be presented during the ABI luncheon at the annual meeting of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges on Nov. 1, 2013. The award is presented by ABI and Thomson Reuters each year to the current or retired bankruptcy judge whose career embodies the same continued dedication and outstanding contributions to the insolvency community as the award’s namesake, Judge Norton. Nominations are considered by a committee made up of representatives from the Norton treatise and past ABI presidents. Nomination forms are available from Clay Mattson at Thomson Reuters (clay.mattson@thomsonreuters.com) and should be submitted by July 29.

NEW ABI "BANKRUPTCY IN DEPTH" ON-DEMAND CLE PROGRAM LOOKS AT PRINCIPLES OF PROPERTY OF THE ESTATE: DEMYSTIFYING EQUITABLE INTERESTS



In this 90-minute seminar, Profs. Andrew Kull of Boston University School of Law and Scott Pryor of Regent University School of Law provide an in-depth analysis of a legal principle that has become, in their words, "a long-lost area of the law": § 541 of the Bankruptcy Code. Seeking to demystify what is meant by "property of the estate" and, in particular, the distinction between legal or equitable interests of the debtor in property, Kull and Pryor describe the legal entanglements that ensue when legal title belongs to one person but the equitable title belongs to someone else. The cost of the seminar, which includes written materials and qualifies for 1.5 hours of CLE, is $95. To order or to learn more, click here.

ASSOCIATES: ABI'S NUTS & BOLTS ONLINE PROGRAMS HELP YOU HONE YOUR SKILLS WHILE SAVING ON CLE!



Associates looking to sharpen their bankruptcy knowledge should take advantage of ABI's special offer of combining general, business or consumer Nuts & Bolts online programs. Each program features an outstanding faculty of judges and practitioners explaining the fundamentals of bankruptcy, offering procedures and strategies tailored for both consumer and business attorneys. Click here to get the CLE you need at a great low price!

NEW CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: PERRY V. KEY AUTO RECOVERY (IN RE PERRY; 9TH CIR.)



Summarized by Hilda Montes de Oca of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California

Affirming the bankruptcy court, the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) held that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion when it declined the debtor’s request for a hearing on his second motion for reconsideration and instead entered an order denying the second motion for reconsideration because the debtor did not set the second motion for reconsideration for hearing as required under the Local Bankruptcy Rules for the Central District of California. The BAP also held that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion when it declined to consider the “new evidence” presented by the debtor in support of his second motion for reconsideration because the debtor could have submitted the “new evidence” from 2004 earlier to the bankruptcy court.

There are more than 900 appellate opinions summarized on Volo, and summaries typically appear within 24 hours of the ruling. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.

NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: CORKER-WARNER BILL: A GREAT STARTING POINT IN THE GSE REFORM DEBATE

The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A recent blog post discusses how the Corker-Warner legislation may be a bridge between the advocates of a purely private market and those who favor some role for the federal government in housing.

Be sure to check the site several times each day; any time a contributing blog posts a new story, a link to the story will appear on the top. If you have a blog that deals with bankruptcy, or know of a good blog that should be part of the Bankruptcy Exchange, please contact the ABI Web team.

ABI Quick Poll

When will the dowward trend of consumer bankruptcy filings turn around?

Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL



INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialize in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 37 member associations worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals participating as members of INSOL International. As a member association of INSOL, ABI's members receive a discounted subscription rate. See ABI's enrollment page for details.

Have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn Account?

Join our networks to expand yours.

2013

July

- Northeast Bankruptcy Conference and Northeast Consumer Forum

     July 11-14, 2013 | Newport, R.I.

- abiLIVE Webinar: § 1111(b) Election, Plan Feasibility and Cramdown Issues

     July 15, 2013

- Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop

     July 18-21, 2013 | Amelia Island, Fla.

August

- Mid-Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop

    August 8-10, 2013 | Hershey, Pa.

- abiLIVE Webinar: How Will the New U.S. Trustee Fee Guidelines Impact You?

     August 20, 2013

- Southwest Bankruptcy Conference

    August 22-24, 2013 | Incline Village, Nev.

September

- ABI Endowment Golf & Tennis Outing

    Sept. 10, 2013 | Maplewood, N.J.

- ABI Endowment Baseball Game

    Sept. 12, 2013 | Baltimore, Md.

- Lawrence P. King and Charles Seligson Workshop on Bankruptcy & Business Reorganization

    Sept. 18-19, 2013 | New York

- abiLIVE Webinar: Complex Requirements and Ethical Duties of Representing Consumer Debtors

     Sept. 24, 2013

- Bankruptcy 2013: Views from the Bench

    Sept. 27, 2013 | Washington, D.C.

October

- Midwestern Bankruptcy Institute Program and Midwestern Consumer Forum

    Oct. 4, 2013 | Kansas City, Mo.

- ABI Endowment Football Game

    Oct. 6, 2013 | Miami, Fla.

- Professional Development Program

    Oct. 11, 2013 | New York, N.Y.

- Chicago Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

    Oct. 14, 2013 | Chicago, Ill.

November

- Austin Advanced Consumer Bankruptcy Practice Institute

   Nov. 10-12, 2013 | Austin, Texas

- Detroit Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

   Nov. 11, 2013 | Detroit, Mich.

December

- ABI/St. John’s Bankruptcy Mediation Training

    Dec. 8-12, 2013 | New York