Mid Cap
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February 07, 2025
3 Firms Seek To Co-Lead Suits Over Banks' Synapse Ties
Attorneys from three firms are seeking to represent fintech customers in consolidated class claims in Colorado federal court against several banks over $85 million in funds that went missing after the failure of fintech-to-bank middleman company Synapse Financial.
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February 07, 2025
For These Victims, Death Came Before Bankruptcy Resolution
Thousands of people have died with no compensation in recent years as big institutions shield themselves in bankruptcy court from claims related to opioids, fraud, asbestos and sexual abuse, plaintiffs' lawyers say. Critics say it's an inherent part of a bankruptcy court system that helps insiders and hurts creditors.
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February 07, 2025
Ex-NFL Star Romanowski's Bankruptcy Converted To Ch. 7
Former NFL player Bill Romanowski and wife Julie had their Chapter 11 bankruptcy case converted to a Chapter 7 on Friday, after a California judge called a filing from the couple seeking the case's dismissal full of "hyperbole" and said a trustee is needed to examine the pair's assets and liabilities.
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February 07, 2025
Trailer Cos. Sue KAL Freight Over Alleged Theft Of Vehicles
Two manufacturers of truck trailers have sued bankrupt trucking company KAL Freight Inc. in Texas bankruptcy court, saying the company ran a scheme to improperly take ownership of hundreds of trailers without paying for them.
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February 07, 2025
Syracuse Diocese Wants Rep For Unknown Abuse Claimants
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse asked a New York bankruptcy judge to appoint a representative for currently unknown sexual abuse claimants and to extend the deadline for the representative to vote on the diocese's Chapter 11 plan until the end of March.
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February 07, 2025
NAFTA Case Useful In Bid To DQ Quinn Emanuel, Judge Says
A Florida federal judge has ruled that a Mexican oil company can use information on dismissed NAFTA arbitration and other documents in a bid to disqualify former counsel Quinn Emanuel, saying the evidence is relevant to underlying litigation over alleged funds transfers.
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February 07, 2025
4th Circ. Says LeClairRyan Founder May Duck Tax Liability
Defunct law firm LeClairRyan PLLC's operating agreement did not bar founder Gary LeClair from jumping ship in time to potentially dodge massive tax bills tied to the firm's collapse, the Fourth Circuit ruled Friday.
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February 07, 2025
Aztec Fund To Sell 3 Office Buildings To Settle Ch. 11 Dispute
Private equity investment group Aztec Fund told a Texas bankruptcy judge Friday it will sell three office buildings and aim to liquidate through Chapter 11 to resolve a dispute over the insolvency case with Bank of America.
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February 06, 2025
Earthlink Investors' Attys Score $28M In Merger Suit
The attorneys who helped Earthlink investors score an $85 million settlement with the company after they said they were tricked into approving a $1.1 billion merger with a failing telecommunications company will be walking away with almost $28 million for their trouble.
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February 06, 2025
First Mode Gets OK For Ch. 11 Plan Ballot, $15M Sale
Bankrupt electric-engine developer First Mode Holdings Inc. can seek votes for its Chapter 11 plan after a Delaware bankruptcy judge on Thursday overruled an objection from its unsecured creditors over the ballot's third-party releases.
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February 06, 2025
Old Eletson Seeks Pause In Ch. 11 Plan Enforcement
Former shareholders and executives of Greek shipping group Eletson Holdings Inc. asked a New York bankruptcy judge for more time to comply with last month's order directing them to assist in updating the reorganized company's address of record with the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry.
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February 06, 2025
Girardi's Mental Evaluation At NC Prison Extended By 15 Days
A California federal judge Thursday ordered Tom Girardi's psychiatric evaluation at a North Carolina federal prison to be extended by 15 days, and she also lectured Girardi's public defender while saying she "could not have imagined" why it took 17 days to get his client's medical records sent to the facility.
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February 06, 2025
NJ Flooring Co. Owner Can't Shake Biz Sales Tax Liabilities
A shuttered flooring company's sole shareholder is responsible for the company's sales and use tax liabilities that were outstanding after bankruptcy, a New Jersey state appeals court ruled, holding that the statute of limitations for issuing assessments didn't block the state from pursuing the taxes.
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February 05, 2025
'Pay-To-Pay' Fees Are Unfair Debt Practice, 11th Circ. Rules
The Eleventh Circuit said a mortgage servicing company illegally charged borrowers fees for online and phone payments, upholding a Florida federal court's decision that it improperly collected so-called pay-to-pay convenience fees that were not expressly allowed by underlying loan agreements.
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February 05, 2025
US Trustee Blasts Releases In First Mode Ch. 11 Disclosures
The Office of the U.S. Trustee asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to reject the Chapter 11 plan disclosure from bankrupt electric-engine developer First Mode Holdings Inc., arguing that it provides too little information on the third-party releases, uses a confusing ballot, and imposes involuntary third-party releases.
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February 05, 2025
Wave Of Defaults Looms For Fed's Main Street Loans
Some businesses that took out big loans backed by American taxpayers during the COVID-19 pandemic have gone bankrupt, and the stage is set for a wall of similar debt to start crashing later this year when large payments come due.
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February 05, 2025
Judge Nixes Jones' Ch. 7 Deal With Sandy Hook Families
A deal proposed by the Chapter 7 trustee in the bankruptcy case of right-wing conspiracy peddler Alex Jones that would have resolved the nearly $1.5 billion in claims held by the families of Sandy Hook school shooting victims failed to gain court approval Wednesday when a Texas judge said he couldn't grant the requested relief.
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February 05, 2025
Girardi Keese Trustee Sues NY Atty Who Funded Girardi
The bankruptcy trustee for disgraced California attorney Tom Girardi's defunct law firm is suing to prevent New York attorney Joseph DiNardo from discharging $7.5 million in his own bankruptcy, claiming DiNardo received the money by helping Girardi defraud his own clients.
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February 05, 2025
Lowenstein Sandler Aims To Combine Dueling Dispensary Suits
Lowenstein Sandler LLP has moved in New Jersey state court to consolidate its $800,000 legal fee case against a cannabis dispensary with a malpractice suit that the dispensary recently filed against it and handle the cases in Essex County.
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February 04, 2025
Catching Up With New Bankruptcy Case Action
A company that sells Volcom, RVCA and Billabong-branded clothes is seeking Chapter 11 protection after losing its key brand licensing agreements. Meanwhile, the owner of one of the world's largest cobalt processing plants entered bankruptcy with hopes of restructuring under a lender-backed plan.
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February 04, 2025
Liberated Brands Gets OK To Tap $25M In Ch. 11 Financing
A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday agreed to give interim approval for outdoors and athletic clothing retailer Liberated Brands LLC to access $25 million of its $35 million debtor-in-possession financing.
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February 04, 2025
Discount Retail Chain Bargain Hunt Hits Ch. 11
Discount retailer Bargain Hunt Stores, which operates almost 100 outlets, has entered bankruptcy in Tennessee with plans to shut its doors through Chapter 11.
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February 04, 2025
BAPCPA At 20: A Legacy Of Reform, Good And Bad
Two decades after Congress enacted the most sweeping changes to bankruptcy law in modern history, Americans are still dealing with its most enduring legacy: shutting out middle-class consumer debtors from Chapter 7 protection in the name of preventing abuse of the system.
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February 04, 2025
Commercial Ch. 11s Up 16%, Outpacing Individual Filings
Commercial Chapter 11 filings rose by 16% in January compared to the same month a year before, exceeding the increase in consumer bankruptcy filings over the same period, according to data provided by legal tech firm Epiq AACER.
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February 04, 2025
US Trustee Wants Stay For Container Store Plan Appeal
The U.S. Trustee's Office asked a Texas bankruptcy judge to put The Container Store's Chapter 11 plan on hold while it appeals his decision that a creditor's failure to opt out of the plan's third-party releases constitutes consent to those releases.
Under The Radar: Bankruptcy News You May Have Missed
A onetime financial adviser to UpHealth is opposing the debtor's Chapter 11 plan, Hearthside Food Solutions' official committee of unsecured creditors has balked at the company's executive bonus proposal in bankruptcy, and one-time investors in defunct real estate investment firm RealtyShares willingly dismissed a suit against the firm's former directors, litigation that had outlived the firm's Chapter 7 by more than a year.
Russia Sanctions, COVID Landed Plastic Suppliers In Ch. 11
Ohio-based compostable film producer Plastic Suppliers Inc., which has filed for Chapter 11 protection in New Jersey, says it was driven to bankruptcy by a confluence of factors, including a severe blow to its revenues delivered in part by U.S. sanctions on Russia.
Meet The Attys Helping Liberated Brands Through Ch. 11
Outdoor apparel retailer Liberated Brands LLC has assembled a team of attorneys from Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP to guide the company through a Chapter 11 case aimed at winding down and selling parts of its business.
Expert Analysis
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Ch. 11 Ruling Confirms Insurer Standing Requirements
A New York bankruptcy court's recent decision in the Syracuse Diocese's Chapter 11 case indicates that insurers have misread the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum and that federal standing requirements remain unaltered, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex
Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.
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When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law
In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Adventure Photography Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Photographing nature everywhere from Siberia to Cuba and Iceland to Rwanda provides me with a constant reminder to refresh, refocus and rethink the legal issues that my clients face, says Richard Birmingham at Davis Wright.
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How Ch. 11 Can Alleviate Merchant Cash Advance Concerns
Merchant cash advance funding is one of the biggest challenges for small businesses today because funders are so prevalent, aggressive and expensive, but bankruptcy can provide several tools for dealing with MCA agreements that may allow the debtor business to restructure and survive, says Patricia Fugée at FisherBroyles.
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5 Ways To Create Effective Mock Assignments For Associates
In order to effectively develop associates’ critical thinking skills, firms should design mock assignments that contain a few key ingredients, from messy fact patterns to actionable feedback, says Abdi Shayesteh at AltaClaro.
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8 Lessons Yellow Corp. Layoffs Can Teach Distressed Cos.
A Delaware bankruptcy court’s recent decision, examining trucking company Yellow Corp.’s abrupt termination of roughly 25,500 employees, offers financially distressed businesses a road map for navigating layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, say attorneys at King & Spalding.
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Mentorship Resolutions For The New Year
Attorneys tend to focus on personal achievements or career milestones when they set yearly goals, but one important area often gets overlooked in this process — mentoring relationships, which are some of the most effective tools for professional growth, say Kelly Galligan at Rutan & Tucker and Andra Greene at Phillips ADR.
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Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer
While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.
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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025
Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
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Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win
Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.
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Playing Rugby Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experience playing rugby, including a near-fatal accident, has influenced my legal practice on a professional, organizational and personal level by showing me the importance of maintaining empathy, fostering team empowerment and embracing the art of preparation, says James Gillenwater at Greenberg Traurig.
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No, Litigation Funders Are Not 'Fleeing' The District Of Del.
A recent study claimed that litigation funders have “fled” Delaware federal court due to a standing order requiring disclosure of third-party financing, but responsible funders have no problem litigating in this jurisdiction, and many other factors could explain the decline in filings, say Will Freeman and Sarah Tsou at Omni Bridgeway.