An ABI Committee Newsletter
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| Vol 24, Num 2 | June, 2026
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by Jack R. O’Connor, Levenfeld Pearlstein, LLC, Chicago
Gabrielle G. Palmer, Onsager Fletcher Johnson Palmer LLC, Denver
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We are excited to announce that the Young and New Members Committee has officially been rebranded as the Emerging Leaders Committee. While our name has changed, our mission remains the same: to foster the professional development, engagement and leadership of bankruptcy professionals who are under 40 years old and/or have fewer than 10 years of industry experience.
Our new name reflects the energy and talent of our members, as well as the committee’s continued commitment to creating opportunities for the next generation of bankruptcy and restructuring professionals to connect, learn and lead within ABI and the bankruptcy, insolvency and restructuring community as a whole.
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by Jaitegh “JT” Singh, Singh Law Firm, P.A., Tysons, Va.
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For many distressed businesses, a chapter 11 filing is not a carefully staged restructuring months in the making. Instead, it often occurs in response to an immediate crisis: a bank account freeze, a foreclosure scheduled for the next morning, a lender sweeping receivables, or a judgment creditor threatening to shut down operations.
In these situations, counsel and the debtor must quickly transition from crisis-management to stabilization. While the Bankruptcy Code provides powerful tools (most notably, the automatic stay), the first 72 hours following the filing often determine whether the debtor will have a realistic opportunity to reorganize.
Based on recent experiences representing distressed businesses facing aggressive creditor action, this article highlights several practical considerations that can help stabilize a debtor’s operations during the
critical early days of an emergency chapter 11 case.
Read Full Article Online →
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by Reginald Sainvil, Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte, N.C.
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When a company undergoes financial distress, litigation rarely starts in the courtroom. The most consequential struggle begins earlier — in the boardroom.
A “board flip” — when lenders, investors or other stakeholders assume board control (or transfer board control to independent third parties) — can bring order by stabilizing the affairs of a company, aligning stakeholder incentives, and allowing the restructuring of outstanding liabilities. But it can also spark governance disputes, fiduciary duty claims and privilege battles that may determine the future of the company long before a bankruptcy filing. This type of governance transition is becoming both increasingly common and increasingly controversial as credit markets tighten.
What Makes Boards Flip in Today’s Market
Rising interest rates and mounting distress among
private credit portfolios have made governance control a central negotiating term. A board flip typically arises as a secured creditor remedy — an exercise of contractual rights embedded in credit agreements, pledge agreements or other security documents that grant lenders the authority to vote the equity of the borrower or its parent entity. When a borrower defaults, the secured creditor may exercise its proxy rights over pledged equity interests to replace the existing board with new directors that are aligned with the creditor’s restructuring objectives. In some cases, these proxy rights are exercised to install independent directors rather than creditor affiliates, lending the transition an appearance of neutrality even when the practical effect is a shift in strategic control.
Read Full Article Online →
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