“Lending to the most highly indebted companies in the U.S. and Europe is surging.”—   Wall Street Journal

When a large business files for bankruptcy, there is one group that almost always suffers. It is a group with little-to-no power. It is the unsecured trade creditors. It is those that supply the everyday goods and services that makes a business run. The business cannot operate without them, but — individually — they are replaceable, expendable and at the mercy of the bankruptcy process.

Some trade creditors can be exceedingly important to a business debtor: e.g., a major supplier without which the debtor is incapable of operating and to which the debtor owes a great deal of money. Such creditors wield great amounts of power over the debtor. But these are the exception.

The Electronic Discovery (ESI) in Bankruptcy Cases Subcommittee of the ABA Business Law Section, Bankruptcy Court Structure and Insolvency Process Committee, chaired by the author, drafted a proposed amendment to add the concept of proportionality to Bankruptcy Rule 2004(c). In addition to the proposed amendment, the subcommittee drafted a report to accompany the proposed rule amendment, which explained the reasons for its recommendation. The subcommittee had previously published a “Best Practices Report on Electronic Discovery (ESI) Issues in Bankruptcy Cases” in the August 2013 issue of The Business Lawyer.

The proposed amendment recommends that Rule 2004(c) be amended by adding the following sentence at the end of subsection (c): “Proportionality considerations apply to a request for the production of documents or electronically stored information in connection with a Rule 2004 examination.”

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!).

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!

• Jeremy Fischer
• Ryan Foley
• Elizabeth Gunn
• Paul Hage
• Shanti Katona
• Jennifer Kimble
• Shane Ramsey
• Oksana Rosaluk
• Sage Sigler
• Eric Walker

Take a look at our full list of outstanding honorees!