2007 Winter Leadership Conference Program:
“The Month Before: The People and Technology You Need to Get Your Case Filed”
ABI’s Technology and Telecommunications Committee is presenting a can’t-miss program at the Winter Leadership Conference, which will be held in Rancho Mirage, Calif., Dec. 6-8, 2007. The Saturday morning presentation, entitled “The Month Before: The People and Technology You Need to Get Your Case Filed,” will focus on the practical and practice side of bankruptcy planning (as opposed to venue selection, DIP financing, first day motions, etc.). As every bankruptcy professional knows, it is critical that the proper people and systems are put into place during the 30 days prior to the filing of a chapter 11 case to provide the smoothest possible entry in the bankruptcy arena. Advance planning can be essential to the management of the case and the eventual exit from the reorganization/liquidation proceedings.
The program will feature a faculty of experienced practitioners that each play a different, yet integral role in the process:
• Moderator – H. Jason Gold, Wiley Rein LLP, Washington, D.C.
• Debtor’s Counsel – Ray C. Schrock, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Chicago
• Noticing/Claims Agent – Jeff Pirrung, Administar Services Group LLC, Jacksonville, Fla.
• Management Advisor – Neil Gilmour III, Executive Sounding Board Associates Inc., Wilmington, Del.
• Financial Advisor – Guy A. Davis, Protiviti Inc., Richmond, Va.
For more information regarding the program, please contact the committee co-chairs:
William Snyder at wsnyder@crpllc.net or
Jason Gold at jgold@wileyrein.com
Security Interests in German Insolvency Proceedings
by Annerose Tashiro
and by Amrei Schröder
Schultze & Braun GmbH Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft; Achern, Germany
Recent German insolvency proceedings (such as BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG, Munich) addressed the treatment of security interests in mobile phone parts, software and other tangible and intangible property under German law. Security interests are of vital importance for creditors facing the possibility of a deficiency, particularly when the debtor is insolvent or on the brink of insolvency. Almost every legal system regulates security interests in such circumstances. This article focuses on the treatment of security interests in German insolvency proceedings and provides a brief outline of issues that are especially relevant to many foreign suppliers.
The treatment of security interests in German insolvency cases is regulated in the German Insolvency Code (Insolvenzordnung, InsO), in §47 et seq. InsO. The Insolvency Code differentiates between the right to separation from the estate (Aussonderung) and the right to separate satisfaction (Absonderung), which is a permissible preferential treatment of creditors. In order to enforce their rights to separation from the estate or to separate satisfaction, creditors also often enter into pool agreements, which do not have an equivalent in U.S. bankruptcy proceedings.
New Limits on Access to Debtor’s E-mail in Bankruptcy Crime Investigations
by Meagan M. Gillette
Cox Smith Matthews Inc.; San Antonio
Since at least 1986, the government and its attorneys have been facing the issue of seizing electronically stored information with federal legislation designed to assist them in doing so. Title II of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), 18 U.S.C. §§2701-2712, regulates the government’s ability to obtain electronically stored information from third-party Internet service providers.
Under the Bankruptcy Code, the U.S. Trustee has a duty to seek the enforcement of the bankruptcy laws and rules and to address fraud and abuse in the bankruptcy system, although its power to enforce this mandate with the issuance of search warrants and similar types of process to investigate a debtor is unclear. However, the U.S. Trustee has the power – and is obligated – to refer to the U.S. Attorney any potential criminal activity in the bankruptcy system. Indeed, the government’s ability to address white-collar crime in the bankruptcy system is arguably contingent upon the U.S. Trustee’s referral of bankruptcy crimes to the government’s attorneys. One investigative tool available in such investigations is the ECPA.