Asset Sales Committee Newsletter

vol 14, num 4 | December, 2017

ASSET SALES

AN ABI COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER

Visit the Asset Sales Committee page

► IN this issue:

A Year-End Note From Your Co-Chairs
New Law Site Launched for Dec. 1 Code & Rule Changes
ABI Honors Industry's Best with Inaugural 40 Under 40 Class
Year-End Giving: ABI Offers Two Ways to Give Back
A Business Creditor's Guide to Distressed Vendors, Debt Collection and Bankruptcy

A Year-End Note from your Co-chairs

Peter J. Barrett
Kutak Rock LLP
Richmond, VA

Eric J. Fromme
Theodora Oringher PC
Costa Mesa, Calif.

It’s been another great year for the Asset Sales Committee. Throughout 2017, the committee has strived to provide committee members with access to helpful content and the opportunity to engage in discussions on relevant issues.

Here are a few highlights of the committee’s activities over the past year:

Conference Programs

For the 2017 Annual Spring Meeting, Peter Barrett organized the committee’s partnership with the Health Care Committee to present a program on issues arising in the bankruptcy sales of assets in the health care industry, entitled The Top 10 Issues to Be Aware Of When Buying a Health Care Business, and How to Plan for the Inevitable Surprises.

For the 2017 Winter Leadership Conference, the committee partnered with the Financial Advisors and Investment Banking Committee to present a program on the role of financial advisors and investment bankers in bankruptcy sales, exploring the anatomy of the bankruptcy sales process, and focusing on optimizing value by drawing on the resource skills of attorneys, investment banks, financial advisors and real estate advisors.

For the 2018 Annual Spring Meeting, Dawn Cica has organized the committee’s partnership with the Secured Creditors Committee to present a program comparing asset sales through a 363 sale with asset sales through a chapter 11 plan.

Webinars

In March 2017, the Asset Sales Committee presented a webinar on the strategic interplay between secured creditors and unsecured creditors’ committees in asset sales under chapter 11 with speakers Brian S. Hermann of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Mark Indelicato of Hahn & Hessen LLP.

In November 2017, the Asset Sales Committee’s Evelyn Meltzer organized and moderated a webinar on bidding procedures in 363 sales featuring Elizabeth B. Vandesteeg of Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Hammer LLP and James A. Wright III of K&L Gates LLP.

Recordings of the committee’s webinars are available for free on ABI’s website on the committee’s webpage.

Newsletters

The committee also published three newsletters, one each in July, October and November 2017, that featured a total of six articles on topics involving asset sales. The newsletters are available on the committee’s webpage. The committee is always looking for articles and authors. If you are interested in drafting an article for the newsletter, please contact Newsletter Editors Janice Alwin and Leyza Blanco.

Planning for 2018

Over the course of the coming year, we will continue to identify ways for our committee members to get involved. Newsletter articles are a great way to become involved, so please contact our Newsletter Editor, Janice Alwin, with your ideas and submissions. We also invite you to share with us any other questions or thoughts that you may have regarding the Asset Sales Committee or ABI in general.

As co-chairs, we would like to thank all members for their support and continued participation on the Asset Sales Committee for 2017. The committee is really only as good as its members and their contributions. In that vein, the committee is always looking for contributors to its newsletter, suggestions for presentation topics, or help producing new webinar content. If you are interested in contributing to the committee, please reach out to any of the committee leaders.

Is there a way you can quickly peruse the Bankruptcy Code, Rules and local rules? Indeed, there is: ABI’s new and improved law.abi.org site! ABI's Law site has always been the most reliable, up-to-date online Code and Rules, but now it has a new look and brand new features.

As before, ABI members can access, annotate and bookmark the Code and Rules from any device, and Law contains all of the new amendments effective December 1. The newly designed site now also allows members to:

view local rules for all 50 states and territories (new!);
read corresponding pertinent Collier case updates (from LexisNexis), Rochelle’s Daily Wire analyses and cross-references from ABI’s Volo site (new!); and,
cut and paste sections easily into documents and e-mails (new!).

Best of all, Law is portable and always current, so you can reference it whenever and wherever you need it! Visit law.abi.org today!

ABI is pleased to announce the inaugural class of its “40 Under40” initiative. The honorees were recognized at a special luncheon during ABI’s 2017 Winter Leadership Conference. Candidates were chosen from both large and small firms from every region of the country, and represent diverse practice areas such as law, finance, consulting, academia, government and more.

A special congratulations to our ABI member committee leaders who were part of the inaugural class!

Take a look at our full list of outstanding honorees!

Year-End Giving: ABI Offers Two Ways to Give Back

ABI has two great opportunities for those who are looking to give back to their communities. We invite you to offer your year-end giving to one of the tax deductible organizations below.

The ABI Endowment Fund was created in 1989 to provide resources for research and education. Named to honor late Vice President of Development Tony Schnelling, the Endowment has awarded more than $3 million in grants, prizes and scholarships since its first award in 1990. For more information on the Endowment, click here. To donate now, click here.

Credit Abuse Resistance Education (CARE) is a national 501(c)3 non-profit that connects bankruptcy and other professionals with young people to teach basic personal finance and encourage smart credit decisions. Founded in 2002, by now-retired U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge John C. Ninfo II, CARE has grown exponentially and has doubled its chapter presence in the last year. Financial literacy is crucial to the success of the next generation and your financial support of CARE goes a long way to preparing our future leaders. Donating is easy at www.care4yourfuture.org/care-support.

ABI has a new publication aimed at business practitioners and their clients. A Business Creditor’s Guide to Distressed Vendors, Debt Collection and Bankruptcy provides an insider’s look into the options available to help screen a business’s customers, plan for worst-case scenarios, and, if the situation does arrive, efficiently handle the fallout. This book offers background and insight into such matters as why businesses fail, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and other statutes that affect a business’s relationship with its vendors, relevant chapters of the Bankruptcy Code that affect debt settlement, out-of-court alternatives to bankruptcy that might come into play, and several other concepts that business owners should be aware of when dealing with distressed vendors. The book is available for pre-order now, and ships at the end of December.