Once again from my in-laws’ home in Potomac, Maryland, here’s Plan Proponent’s Best of 2017 post, a link by link Top 10 of our third year of blogging–although my wife just asked, in rather savage fashion, “Did you even have 10 posts this year?” Wow. (We had 11 posts, so one unlucky post about tax avoidance in Chapter 11 plans didn’t make the cut! Shocker.)

In lieu of my usual year-end pictures from D.C., we leave you with Plan Proponent’s first and only homemade “political cartoon” from last February and inspired by Justice Gorsuch’s In re Haberman opinion. What a year for judges!

Happy New Year from Stone & Baxter!

Our Top 10 Posts of 2017 (the titles are clickable)

10.  Insider Status Travels With Claim? SCOTUS Now Has the Case (Sort Of)

In this post, a sort of follow-up to Tom’s post from 2016, we linked over to oral argument from the day before, wherein the Supreme Court took up In re The Village at Lakeridge, LLC.  Specifically, the Court is still considering whether, on appeal, the standard of review for determining insider status should be de novo review (as used by the 3rd, 7th, and 10th Circuits) or clearly erroneous review (as used by the 9th Circuit).

The only thing to add since that post is a link to the now available oral argument audio: click here

9.  The Los Angeles Dodgers in October: Bankruptcy Edition

Our World Series posts would likely win out each year if they weren’t posted so relatively late in the year. The posts that our families and friends enjoy are our favorite posts.

8.  Preserving Post-Confirmation Causes of Action – Part 2

7.  Preserving Post-Confirmation Causes of Action – Part 1

In these two posts, we explored a novel question of our asking: Does Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly bear on the issue of preserving post-confirmation causes of action in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases? Ultimately, we concluded that Twombly shouldn’t apply in preserving causes of action. However, framing the preservation issue in terms of Twombly helped illuminate the preservation issue.

6.  Establishing Till-compliant Interest Rates in Chapter 11 without an Expert

In this post, we shamelessly promoted my and Richard Gaudet’s Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors article titled “Till Realized: Calculating Objective Chapter 11 Cramdown Rates without Expert Testimony.” The focus of the article is on the application of the U.S. Supreme Court case of Till v. SCS Credit Corp. (2004) to Chapter 11 debtors who can’t afford to hire an interest rate expert. Specifically, is it possible for a debtor to establish a Till-compliant cramdown interest rate objectively and economically, all without the necessity of engaging an expert witness? We think so.

5.  Revisiting David Cassidy and the Absolute Priority Rule

Our second blog post on February 16, 2015 was about David Cassidy and the absolute priority rule (APR) in individual cases. Cassidy had filed an individual Chapter 11 case in the Southern District of Florida in early 2015. At the time, we thought that his case might be a good test case for the (diminishing) split of authority regarding the APR. On the one hand, our 2015 post is our second most popular post ever. On the other hand, his case didn’t turn out to be a good test case–that, and an update to our Absolute Priority Rule Chart, was the subject of this February 2017 post.

As an update, it appears that the bankruptcy court approved Cassidy’s January disclosure statement in July. Two ballots were cast–one in favor of the plan by American Express and one against by Rodier & Rodier, P.A., Cassidy’s non-bankruptcy lawyers who claimed to be owed $122K. Rodier & Rodier also objected to the plan. It’s basically an APR objection without being captioned as such. The bankruptcy court took-up confirmation on September 27 and, ultimately, denied confirmation and dismissed the case with prejudice.

And sadly, David Cassidy died last month of liver failure.

4.  Administrative Expenses under DIP Financing: The Joke’s On You

I’m not sure how Tom’s post about DIP financing and administrative fees beat out David Cassidy, but it did. In this post, we discussed Delaware Bankruptcy Judge Sontchi’s decision in the Molycorp case wherein he ruled that a professional fees cap in a DIP financing order was ineffective to cap an $8 million committee fees claim once Molycorp confirmed its plan.

3.  Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Bankruptcy Opinions – Part 2

2.  Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Bankruptcy Opinions – Part 1

We enjoyed blogging about Justice Scalia and Judge Merrick Garland last year. Likewise, we enjoyed blogging this year about Judge (now Justice) Gorsuch and what his nomination could mean for bankruptcy cases. Justice Gorsuch can really turn a phrase, even in bankruptcy opinions, and we captured the fun stuff in two parts.

And 2017’s winner is…

1.  Book Excerpt: A Southern Lawyer’s Lunch with Harvey Miller 

We’re really proud of this post. It barely had four months to get a clicks foothold and it still won out rather easily. And other than our having good taste, we can’t even take credit for it. Rather, it’s an excerpt from Doug Ford’s (a commercial bankruptcy attorney in Atlanta at Quirk & Quirk, LLC) book I Do My Own Stunts: Finding My Way as an Attorney. Even my mom approves.

And that’s it for 2017. Thanks for following!

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