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Today's Approach to Distressed Situations: A Lessor's Guide
Back in 1985, one of us contributed to an industry publication an article titled Strategies for Recovery in Lessee Bankruptcy. Twenty-two years later, the landscape of bankruptcy law and the leasing industry have changed dramatically, and issues and problems faced by the equipment lessor today have much different priorities. As the equipment leasing community contemplates the landscape today, some new approaches and decision drivers face the leasing executive when his lessee files Chapter 11, or threatens to do so.
Whether bankruptcy professionals blame it on a continuously robust company, too much liquidity in the credit markets, or some other cause, the financial community recognizes that corporate Chapter 11 filings are way down. While these stated reasons are doubtless valid and contributory, the bankruptcy bar and turnaround professionals sometimes fail to recognize and admit that they have been, to some extent, agents of their own distress. Chapter 11 has simply fallen out of favor as a cost-effective and expeditious remedy for debtors and creditors, in part, because every lender and lessor has cultivated an in-house restructuring group ' non-lawyers who can see business solutions in distressed situations and then reach consensus with the customer and other creditors to achieve an end result without the trauma of an intervening bankruptcy case. This private process, however, is more often than not conducted in the looming shadow of the Chapter 11 filing, which will follow if the private restructuring does not come together. To understand and effectively negotiate his position, the equipment lessor's restructuring executive has to grasp the downsides and upsides of a failed negotiation and an ensuing Chapter 11 filing. Here, we briefly point out the important points that have become so much more central to pre-bankruptcy workouts and many of the Chapter 11 cases filed today.
Even as cost and time factors today result in far fewer operating Chapter 11 cases ending in true reorganization, Chapter 11 remains a very popular vehicle to complete going concern sales of the debtor's business, whether on an expedited basis by employment of '363 of the Bankruptcy Code or confirmation of a plan, pre-packaged or not. Within these contexts, the equipment lessor must, as a first order of business, drill down and spread its legal position even as it does the same with the customer's historical and projected financial data. While every case might be different, the restructuring executive is going to be an effective negotiator if he knows his equipment values, the functionality of the equipment in the customer's business, his customer's financials and has a solid grasp of the legal drivers in almost every lease restructure.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
The Anti-Assignment Override Provisions
UCC Sections 9406(d) and 9408(a) are one of the most powerful, yet least understood, sections of the Uniform Commercial Code. On their face, they appear to override anti-assignment provisions in agreements that would limit the grant of a security interest. But do these sections really work?