When Arbitration Meets Bankruptcy: Considering Arbitration Options in the Wake of a Growing Rise in Corporate Insolvencies
by | posted in: Arbitration, Bankruptcy Administration and Jurisdiction, Bankruptcy Roundtable Updates, Corporate Governance | 0

By Shana A. Elberg, Christine A. Okike, & Jennifer Permesly (Skadden)

Shana A. Elberg
Christine A. Okike
Jennifer Permesly

The economic hardships brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted companies globally, leading many to consider both in-court and out-of-court restructurings. This trend will likely continue as the long-term effects of COVID-19 play out, and companies with arbitration clauses in their commercial agreements may wish to consider the impact of insolvency on their options for pursuing pending or future arbitrations. Under bankruptcy law, the initiation of insolvency proceedings results in an automatic stay of all civil proceedings brought against the debtor, including claims brought in arbitration. An arbitration counterparty may ask a bankruptcy court to lift the stay, which the court is permitted to do under the Bankruptcy Code “for cause.” The decision to lift the stay is ultimately a matter of the bankruptcy court’s discretion, though federal circuit courts have held that a stay of an arbitration involving a noncore matter generally must be lifted. The balance is particularly weighted in favor of arbitration in the international context.   Although the stay of arbitration is intended to apply extraterritorially, it is not always clear that arbitration tribunals seated outside the US, or counterparties located outside the US and not subject to the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction, will consider themselves bound by the stay.  Companies considering their options for pursuing cross-border arbitrations against an insolvent debtor must therefore consider the relevant laws in at least three regimes: the seat of the arbitration, the place in which the debtor has declared insolvency and any countries in which enforcement of the award may ultimately be sought.

The full article is available here.

Three Provocative Business Bankruptcy Decisions of 2018
by | posted in: Arbitration, Insider Status, Supreme Court, Trademarks | 0

By Michael L. Cook (Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP).

The appellate courts have issued at least three provocative, if not questionable, business bankruptcy decisions in the past six months.

Lakeridge:  In March, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided the substantive merits of a 2016 split decision by the Ninth Circuit that had permitted a Chapter 11 debtor to manipulate the reorganization plan process.  Despite the Court’s narrow holding approving the Ninth Circuit’s “clear error” standard for reviewing a bankruptcy court’s fact findings, four Justices wrote two separate opinions challenging the Court’s limited review of the Ninth Circuit’s stunning decision in the face of a powerful dissent.

In re Anderson:  The Second Circuit, on March 7, 2018, held that an asserted bankruptcy discharge violation was not arbitrable due to a conflict between the Federal Arbitration Act and the Bankruptcy Code.  Two months later, though, the Supreme Court stressed that it had rejected every effort to “conjure” conflicts between the Arbitration Act and a raft of other Federal statutes.

In re Temptnology:  the First Circuit, on January 12, 2018, in a split decision, wiped out the rights of a trademark licensee, explicitly rejecting a 2012 decision by the Seventh Circuit.  The First Circuit’s majority opinion relied on a heavily criticized 1985 Fourth Circuit decision, premising its  holding on the primacy of Federal bankruptcy law over Federal trademark law and distinguishing between a statutory breach and a common law breach.

The losing parties in the First and Second Circuit cases filed petitions for certiorari in June, 2018.  Given the Circuit split in one case and the later Supreme Court arbitration ruling in the other, both cases warrant Supreme Court review.

The full article is available here.

We at the Bankruptcy Roundtable will take a break from posting this August and hope that you too will be able to get away from your desk at work. We’ll be back after Labor Day.