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Business Bankruptcy Issues Recent Developments

Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Bankruptcy Procedure Take Effect December 1, 2017

Just about every year amendments are made to the rules that govern how bankruptcy cases are managed — the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. The amendments address issues identified by an Advisory Committee made up of federal judges, bankruptcy attorneys, and others. As the photo above reminds us, the rule amendments are ultimately adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court (and technically subject to Congressional disapproval).

Key Rule Amendments For Business Bankruptcy Cases. This year, the majority of rule amendments involve consumer cases. For example, one notable change should lead to the creation of a national form Chapter 13 plan whose use will be required — unless a local form Chapter 13 plan has been adopted in its place.

Since In The Red® is focused on business bankruptcy developments, this post will highlight only those rule amendments impacting business cases. Be sure to read all of the amendments (see link below) and, if relevant to you, review the changes affecting consumer bankruptcy cases, which are not discussed below.

With that caveat, these changes are of particular note for business bankruptcy cases:

  • Rule 1001 has been amended to note that the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedures are not just to be construed but also “administered” and “employed by the court and the parties” to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every case and proceeding. This is consistent with revisions previously made to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
  • Rule 3002 has been amended in several important ways.
    • First, a secured creditor is now required to file a proof of claim to have an allowed secured claim. Failing to do so will not alone lead to the lien securing the claim being deemed void.
    • Second, the deadline for filing a proof of claim in a voluntary Chapter 7, Chapter 12, or Chapter 13 case is not later than 70 days after entry of the order for relief (or the date of the order of conversion to a Chapter 12 or Chapter 13 case). In an involuntary Chapter 7 case, the proof of claim deadline is not later than 90 days after the entry of the order for relief. The old 90 days after the “first date set for the meeting of creditors” language has been jettisoned. These amendments leave unchanged how deadlines for filing proofs of claim in Chapter 11 cases under Rule 3003(c)(3) are established.
    • Third, Rule 3002 contains other provisions in recognition that the claim deadline will now be earlier in Chapter 7, 12, and 13 cases. The court, on motion filed before or after the deadline expires, may extend the time for filing a proof of claim for not more than 60 days following the date a motion seeking additional time is granted in certain circumstances. Those cover situations where (1) a debtor fails timely to file the required Rule 1007(a) list of creditor names and addresses or (2) the notice was insufficient to provide the creditor with a reasonable time to file a proof of claim but only if the notice was mailed to a foreign address.
  • Rule 3007 has been revised to clarify that Rule 7004’s specific service requirements do not apply to most claim objections. Instead, service of the claim objection by first-class mail on the person most recently designated to receive notices on the original or amended proof of claim will suffice. Exceptions apply to claims by the United States, its officers or agencies, or an insured depository institution. For those claimants, Rule 7004’s service requirements will continue to apply. Rule 3007 also more expressly permits giving notice and only an opportunity to request a hearing, rather than requiring an actual hearing, a practice that has become common in many districts.
  • Rule 3012 now permits determination not only of the amount of a secured claim under Section 506(a) but also of the amount entitled to priority under Section 507, and either by motion or claim objection. As amended the rule now provides that the amount of governmental unit’s secured claim can only be determined by motion or claim objection after the governmental unit has either filed a proof of claim or the time for doing so has expired.
  • Rule 7001 has been revised to reflect the changes made to Rule 3012.
  • Rule 9009 now more clearly requires the use of Official Forms and limits the types of acceptable alterations, essentially to only minor revisions to expand or delete spaces or delete items checked with “no” or “none.”

Evidence Please. Two Federal Rules of Evidence have been amended as well. First, the “ancient document” hearsay exception in Rule 803(16) has been changed to remove the “at least 20 years old” language and insert insert “prior to January 1, 1998.” The Advisory Committee’s concern is that going forward the old language could be used to admit “vast amounts of unreliable electronically stored information.” Other revisions, to Federal Rules of Evidence 902(13) and 902(14), create procedures for establishing the authenticity of electronic records without a testifying witness.

Did Someone Mention A Redline? Everybody loves to see a redline, so follow the link in this sentence for the complete set of rule changes, including redlines showing the revisions made, as well as the Advisory Committee’s explanations for each amendment.

Get Ready. The amendments take effect on December 1, 2017 so read up now and be ready for the changes taking effect in business bankruptcy cases in just a few weeks.

The Financially Troubled Company

The Venture-Backed Company Running Out Of Cash: Fiduciary Duties And Wind Down Options

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Many start-up companies backed by venture capital financing, especially those still in the development phase or which otherwise are not cash flow breakeven, at some point may face the prospect of running out of cash. Although many will timely close another round of financing, others may not. This post focuses on options available to companies when investors have decided not to fund and the company needs to consider a wind down.

Fiduciary Duties And Maximizing Value. Let’s start with a refresher on the fiduciary duties of directors and officers of a Delaware corporation in financial distress. Please note that this high-level overview is no substitute for actual legal advice on a company’s specific situation.

  • Under Delaware law, directors and officers owe fiduciary duties of due care and loyalty. The duty of due care requires directors and officers to make fully-informed, good faith decisions in the best interests of the company. The duty of loyalty imposes on directors and officers the obligation not to engage in self-dealing and instead to put the interests of the company ahead of their own.
  • When a company is solvent, the directors and officers owe their fiduciary duties of due care and loyalty to the corporation and its stockholders. That remains true even if the company is in the so-called “zone of insolvency.”
  • When a company is insolvent and will not be able to pay its creditors in full, the directors and officers still owe their fiduciary duties of due care and loyalty to the corporation. However, upon insolvency, the creditors have the right to bring derivative (but not direct) claims for breach of fiduciary duty against directors and officers.
  • Follow this link for more on the key Delaware decision discussing the fiduciary duties of directors and officers in the insolvency context.
  • Remember, it can be challenging to determine whether a company is just in the zone of insolvency (meaning still solvent but approaching insolvency) or whether it has crossed the line into actual insolvency.
  • Discharging fiduciary duties when a company is insolvent means a focus on maximizing enterprise value. This is a highly fact-dependent exercise with no one-size-fits-all approach. In some cases, maximizing value may mean continuing operations — even though that burns dwindling cash — to allow the company to complete a sale that the directors believe is likely to close and produce significant value for creditors. In other cases, it may mean winding down (or even shutting down) operations quickly to conserve cash, especially if any asset sale is not expected to generate more than the cash required to pursue it.
  • These complexities make it critical for directors and officers of a company in financial distress to get legal advice tailored to the specific facts and circumstances at hand.

Legal Options For A Wind Down. When the board decides that the company needs to wind down, options range from an informal approach all the way to a public bankruptcy filing. Note that if the company owes money to a bank or other secured creditor, the lender’s right to foreclose on the company’s assets could become a paramount consideration and affect how the wind down is accomplished. Although beyond the scope of this post to analyze each wind down option in detail, the following is a brief overview of different approaches, together with links giving more information.

  • Informal wind down: In an informal wind down, the company typically tries to find a buyer for its assets, eventually lays off its employees, and shuts down any unsold business operations, but does not complete a formal end to the corporate existence. This lack of finality can leave legal loose ends, so alternatives should be carefully considered.
  • Corporate dissolution: A corporate dissolution is a formal process under Delaware law, typically managed by a company officer, for winding up the affairs of the corporation, liquidating assets, and ending the company’s legal existence. A company may choose to do a corporate dissolution when it doesn’t need bankruptcy protection (and prefers not to file bankruptcy) but wants a formal, legal wind down of the corporate entity. Follow this link for more details on corporate dissolution.
  • Assignment for the benefit of creditors: Many states, notably including California and Delaware, recognize a formal process through which a company can hire a professional fiduciary and make a general assignment of the company’s assets and liabilities to that fiduciary, known as the Assignee. In California, no court filing is involved. The Assignee in turn is charged with liquidating the company’s assets for the benefit of creditors, who are notified of the ABC process and instructed to submit claims to the Assignee. If a buyer has been identified, an Assignee may be able to close an asset sale soon after the ABC is made. Follow this link for a an in-depth look at the ABC process.
  • Chapter 7 bankruptcy: A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a public filing with the United States Bankruptcy Court. A bankruptcy trustee is appointed to take control of all of the company’s assets, including the company’s attorney-client privilege, and the directors and officers no longer have any decision-making authority over the company or its assets. A Chapter 7 trustee rarely operates the business and instead typically terminates any remaining employees and liquidates all assets of the company. The filing triggers the bankruptcy automatic stay, which prevents secured creditors from foreclosing on the company’s assets and creditors from pursuing or continuing lawsuits. The trustee has authority to bring litigation claims on behalf of the corporation, often to recover preferential transfers but sometimes asserting breach of fiduciary duty claims against directors or officers. Unlike a dissolution or an ABC, the bankruptcy trustee in charge of the liquidation process is not chosen by the company.
  • Chapter 11 bankruptcy: A Chapter 11 bankruptcy is also a public filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and it similarly triggers the bankruptcy automatic stay. Unlike a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in Chapter 11 — often known as a reorganization bankruptcy — the board and management remain in control of the company’s assets (at least initially) as a “debtor in possession” or DIP. Business operations often continue and funding them and the higher cost of the Chapter 11 process require DIP financing and/or use of a lender’s cash collateral. One primary use of Chapter 11 by a venture-backed company is to sell assets “free and clear” of liens, claims and interests through a Bankruptcy Court-approved sale process under Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. Follow this link for a discussion of how a Section 363 bankruptcy sale in the right circumstances can maximize value for creditors and shareholders.

Conclusion. When a company’s cash is running out and investors have decided not to provide additional financing, the board may conclude that a wind down is required to fulfill fiduciary duties and maximize value. The discussion above is a general description of certain wind down options. Determining whether any of these paths is best for a particular company is fact-specific and dependent on many factors. Be sure to get advice from experienced corporate and insolvency counsel when considering wind down or other restructuring options.

Business Bankruptcy Issues Recent Developments

Major Overhaul Of Federal Bankruptcy Forms, Plus An Accompanying Rule Amendment, To Take Effect December 1, 2015

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Almost every year, changes are made to the set of rules that govern how bankruptcy cases are managed — the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. The changes address issues identified by an Advisory Committee made up of federal judges, bankruptcy attorneys, and others. Often there are revisions to the official bankruptcy forms as well.

One Little Rule Amendment? This year’s amendments impact only one rule, Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 1007. On the surface, the change is only a small revision to a reference to one of the official bankruptcy schedules. A link to a copy of the amendment, including the transmittal correspondence and a clean and redline version, can be found using the link in this sentence (and if you keep reading you will get the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as a bonus).

Big Changes Are Coming To The Bankruptcy Forms. Don’t let the minor rule amendment fool you. As one presidential candidate these days might put it, the changes coming to the official bankruptcy forms are “huge.”

  • As part of a modernizing of the official forms, virtually every bankruptcy form is being substantially revised.
  • Many forms, including the bankruptcy petition, list of 20 largest creditors, bankruptcy schedules, and statement of financial affairs, will now have customized versions for cases involving individual and non-individual debtors. The non-individual voluntary petition form pictured at the beginning of this post gives you an idea of how different the new forms look.
  • Going forward, business bankruptcy cases filed by corporations, LLCs, and partnerships will use a set of forms designed specifically for businesses instead of having to respond to questions meant for individuals.
  • The numbering system for the official bankruptcy forms is also changing. For example, forms bearing numbers in the 100 sequence will be reserved for individual debtors while those in the 200 sequence will apply to non-individual and business debtors.

Read All About It: Access The Revised Bankruptcy Forms. The U.S. Courts system has made the revised bankruptcy forms available now so you can get ready for the changes.

Get Ready. These major changes go into effect December 1st so bankruptcy attorneys and others should take the time now to review the new forms and get ready to use them.

Business Bankruptcy Issues Recent Developments

Amendments To The Federal Rules Of Bankruptcy Procedure, Including One Shortening The Time For Serving A Summons, Take Effect December 1, 2014

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Almost every year, changes are made to the set of rules that govern how bankruptcy cases are managed — the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. The changes address issues identified by an Advisory Committee made up of federal judges, bankruptcy attorneys, and others.

Rule Amendments. This year the rule amendments, which go into effect on December 1, 2014, mainly address bankruptcy appeals, as well as an important one on service of a summons (discussed below).

  • Follow this link for a copy of the amendments, in both clean and redline, together with the transmittal letters and helpful Advisory Committee comments.  
  • This year’s rule changes include revisions to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure governing bankruptcy appeals, including direct appeals from a district court exercising bankruptcy jurisdiction, rule and form revisions regarding elections to appeal to a bankruptcy appellate panel or a district court, rules favoring the use of electronic notice in bankruptcy appeals, the impact on a bankruptcy appeal of a post-judgment motion for a new trial or to amend a judgment, and technical amendments to implement these revisions. 

No Waiting On Service Of A Summons. Aside from the appeals-related amendments, one rule change will impact every bankruptcy lawyer that files an adversary proceeding, the bankruptcy term for a lawsuit filed within a bankruptcy case.

  • Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7004(e) has been revised to require service of a summons in an adversary proceeding within seven days of its issuance, cutting in half the fourteen day time period that had previously been permitted.
  • Although nationwide service of process via U.S. mail is still allowed as before, the summons and complaint will need to be served promptly after issuance of the summons. Otherwise, the originally issued summons will become “stale” — meaning ineffective — and a new summons will have to be issued and promptly served.
  • Why the change? In adversary proceedings, Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 7012(a) provides that a defendant has 30 days from the date the summons is issued to respond, not from the date of service. The rule change will give defendants an extra week, give or take depending on the mail, to respond to a complaint.

Revised Bankruptcy Forms And Fees. To implement the rule amendments, several national bankruptcy forms will also be revised. Copies of the revised bankruptcy forms are available at the link in this sentence, and you should also check your local bankruptcy court’s website for local rule and form revisions. There are also fee changes, specifically, the fee for direct appeals from the bankruptcy court to the court of appeals goes up, and a new $25 fee kicks in for redacting documents previously filed in a bankruptcy case.

Business Bankruptcy Issues

Why Creditors Can’t Afford To Ignore Objections To Bankruptcy Claims

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It’s been several years since I last posted about objections to bankruptcy claims, and the topic is so important to creditors that it’s time to revisit it.

File And Forget? When a customer or other party with which you do business files bankruptcy, it’s important to file a proof of claim on time by the deadline (also known as a “bar date”) set in the case. Once you do, however, months or even years can go by before you hear anything more about your claim from the debtor, bankruptcy trustee, or other party responsible for reviewing claims and ultimately distributing money to creditors. In fact, the only thing you may hear about your claim for quite some time is an offer to purchase it made by one or more claims buyers.

No News Is Not Necessarily Good News About Your Claim. Unfortunately, the passage of time may lull you into thinking that no objection will ever be filed to your claim. However, the urgency of reorganizing a debtor’s business or liquidating its assets means that the claim objection process is typically left until near the end of the bankruptcy case, often after a plan of reorganization has been confirmed in a Chapter 11 case. Likewise, a Chapter 7 trustee may put off filing claim objections until it’s clear there will be money to distribute to unsecured creditors. As a result, an objection to your claim may be brought long after you filed it, often years later.

Is That An Objection To My Claim? When an objection is filed, it may not always be obvious at first that it applies to your claim. In smaller cases the title of a claim objection may list your name as the target of the objection, but don’t count on that in larger cases. In cases with hundreds or thousands of claims, the debtor or other estate representative will almost certainly combine an objection to your claim with others. Instead of a pleading specifically mentioning your name in its title or text, the objection will likely have the word “omnibus” in it and may have a name such as “Notice of Debtors’ One Hundred Fifteenth Omnibus Objection To Claims (No Liability)” or some similarly titled document.

  • Be careful: the format of these objections can be a trap for the unwary. Buried within the objection’s many pages of text and attached exhibits may be just a few lines, often only in a list or chart, identifying your claim as one of dozens to which an objection has been filed.
  • Given the passage of time, the debtor may have sold — and changed — its name, so the name of the debtor listed on the objection may not even be familiar to you (although the old name should appear near the new one).
  • When filed, the objection may assert (1) your claim should be zero, (2) the amount doesn’t square with the debtor’s books and records and should be less, or (3) your claim should be reclassified as some lower priority claim (for example, from a priority claim to a general unsecured claim).
  • Whatever the objection’s name or format, the point is the same: ignore it at your peril. If you don’t file a formal response with the bankruptcy court by the deadline set in the objection (and there’s always a deadline) your claim could be disallowed in its entirety. If that happens, you will recover absolutely nothing from the bankruptcy estate.

Stay Vigilant To Protect Your Rights. Protecting your rights in a bankruptcy case requires diligence and timely action — often no easy task. In mega bankruptcy cases, literally thousands of pleadings can be filed during the course of a case. Many will be served, whether in paper or electronic form, and yet only a few may be directly relevant to you or your claim. For this reason, it’s critical that you or your attorney keep track of the pleadings served in a bankruptcy case. The bottom line is, if you see anything that looks like a claim objection, review all of the pages carefully, including the exhibits. If an objection to your claim is filed, you have to respond on time and defend your claim. Otherwise, despite your efforts earlier in the case to file a timely proof of claim, you may well find yourself with a disallowed, and worthless, claim.

Image Courtesy of Flickr by Sam Howzit

Business Bankruptcy Issues Recent Developments

What The U.S. Supreme Court’s Unamimous Decision In A Homestead Exemption Case Says About The Power Of Bankruptcy Courts In Business Cases

 

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It seems that most bankruptcy decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court involve individual debtors, and the Supreme Court’s latest opinion is no exception. Even though the decision is not in a business bankruptcy case, it examines the bankruptcy court’s powers under Section 105(a) of the Bankruptcy Code. Section 105(a) is commonly invoked in business bankruptcy cases to prevent business disruption through “first day” motions and orders, as part of a Section 363 sale of assets free and clear of liens, and in granting other relief to facilitate a debtor’s reorganization. This fact makes the Supreme Court’s most recent decision, discussed below, of interest for both individual and business bankruptcy cases.

The Key Holding: Exempt Property Really Is Exempt. In an unamimous decision issued on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 in Law v. Siegel (click on the link for a copy of the opinion), the Supreme Court held that a bankruptcy court cannot surcharge a debtor’s homestead exemption to pay for the Chapter 7 trustee’s administrative expenses, even if those expenses were incurred as a result of the debtor’s fraudulent misrepresentations.

  • The bankruptcy court had surcharged the debtor’s $75,000 California homestead exemption to cover the trustee’s fees and costs, but the Supreme Court reversed. It held that Bankruptcy Code Section 522(k)’s explicit language that a debtor’s exempt property “is not liable for payment of any administrative expense” (other than in inapplicable and specific circumstances detailed in that section), precludes a bankruptcy court from invoking either its authority under Section 105(a) to issue orders to “carry out” the provisions of the Bankruptcy Code, or its inherent sanctioning powers, to surcharge the debtor’s homestead exemption.
  • In short, where Congress has declared a debtor’s exempt property off limits, a bankruptcy court cannot not use Section 105(a) to override that specific statutory limitation.

Implications For Business Bankruptcy Cases?  As a business bankruptcy blog, the focus here is on whether the Supreme Court’s decision tells us anything about a bankruptcy court’s powers outside the exempt property context (especially since corporate debtors cannot claim exemptions). At first blush, the Supreme Court’s decision is, of course, a direct rejection of the use of Section 105(a), at least to impose a surcharge on exempt property. But does the decision otherwise weaken a bankruptcy court’s powers under Section 105(a) and its inherent powers?

An insight into the answer seems to come at the very end of the decision. After acknowledging that its holding imposes a heavy financial burden on the Chapter 7 trustee, and could lead to inequitable results in other cases, the Supreme Court addressed what else a bankruptcy court could do to respond to a debtor’s misconduct:

Our decision today does not denude bankruptcy courts of the essential “authority to respond to debtor misconduct with meaningful sanctions.” Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 17. There is ample authority to deny the dishonest debtor a discharge. See §727(a)(2)–(6). (That sanction lacks bite here, since by reason of a postpetition settlement between Siegel and Law’s major creditor, Law has no debts left to discharge; but that will not often be the case.) In addition, Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Pro­cedure 9011—bankruptcy’s analogue to Civil Rule 11—authorizes the court to impose sanctions for bad-faith litigation conduct, which may include “an order directing payment. . . of some or all of the reasonable attorneys’ fees and other expenses incurred as a direct result of the viola­tion.” Fed. Rule Bkrtcy. Proc. 9011(c)(2). The court may also possess further sanctioning authority under either §105(a) or its inherent powers. Cf. Chambers, 501 U. S., at 45–49. And because it arises postpetition, a bankruptcy court’s monetary sanction survives the bankruptcy case and is thereafter enforceable through the normal proce­dures for collecting money judgments. See §727(b). Fraud­ulent conduct in a bankruptcy case may also subject a debtor to criminal prosecution under 18 U. S. C. §152, which carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.

But whatever other sanctions a bankruptcy court may impose on a dishonest debtor, it may not contravene express provisions of the Bankruptcy Code by ordering that the debtor’s exempt property be used to pay debts and expenses for which that property is not liable under the Code.

Conclusion. The Supreme Court’s discussion of the range of actions a bankruptcy court could take to address debtor misconduct helped narrow the decision to situations where a bankruptcy court uses Section 105(a) in contravention of express statutory language. The Supreme Court’s effort to make clear that, outside of those settings, bankruptcy courts possess a broad range of authority, specifically including under Section 105(a), Bankruptcy Rule 9011, and its inherent powers, seems to reinforce, rather than weaken, the power of bankruptcy courts. That makes this decision important for individual — and business — bankruptcy cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Kyle Rush

Business Bankruptcy Issues The Financially Troubled Company

The Privilege Is All Mine: What Happens To A Corporation’s Attorney-Client Privilege In Bankruptcy?

It’s well-established that a corporation has an attorney-client privilege and can assert it to keep communications between the corporation and its attorneys confidential. When a corporation is solvent, its officers and directors maintain the right to assert — or waive — the attorney-client privilege on behalf of the corporation, and control who has access to privileged communications.

The Attorney-Client Privilege In Bankruptcy. This raises a question: what happens if the corporation files bankruptcy? The answer depends on the type of bankruptcy filed and whether a bankruptcy trustee is appointed.

  • Chapter 11 Case. In a Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy, the corporation generally remains as a "debtor in possession," unless a trustee is appointed. As a debtor in possession, the corporation’s board of directors and management remain in control — literally "in possession" — of the company’s assets. Courts have held that this control extends to the continued right to assert, or waive, the corporation’s attorney-client privilege.
  • Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. In a Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy, a Chapter 7 trustee is appointed and the debtor corporation’s board and management is removed from control. The U.S. Supreme Court held in CFTC v. Weintraub, 471 U.S. 373 (1985), that it’s the Chapter 7 trustee alone who controls the ability to assert, or waive, the corporation’s attorney-client privilege. This means that the Chapter 7 trustee is given access to all of the corporation’s attorney-client privileged communications prior to bankruptcy.
  • Chapter 11 Trustee. The answer is less clear in the relatively few Chapter 11 cases in which the court appoints a Chapter 11 trustee. Several courts, however, have extended the Supreme Court’s decision in Weintraub and held that the appointed Chapter 11 trustee, like a Chapter 7 trustee, takes control of the debtor’s assets and therefore has authority to assert or waive the corporation’s attorney-client privilege and to access privileged communications.

Access To Attorney-Client Privileged Communications. It’s important for officers, directors, and attorneys for corporations to remember that the attorney-client privilege belongs to the corporation. Anyone who later gains control of the corporation will have access to its attorney-client privileged communications.

  • While nothing new, for solvent companies this means that, for example, future officers and directors will have access to attorney-client communications that took place in the past between corporate counsel and former officers and directors. The same is true when a corporation is acquired through a merger; the new ownership and management takes control of the corporation — and also of its past and present attorney-client privileged communications.
  • Likewise, when a corporation files bankruptcy, a bankruptcy trustee, certainly a Chapter 7  trustee and probably a Chapter 11 trustee, will be given similar access to the corporation’s attorney-client communications. This is true even if the trustee wants access to use previously privileged communications, as they sometimes will do, to bring causes of action against former officers and directors or others.

Conclusion. The attorney-client privilege is an essential part of the attorney-client relationship, fostering the ability of a corporation to get the full benefit of its counsel’s legal advice. While not always obvious, the privilege is held by the corporation, not specific officers or directors. Companies that file Chapter 11 bankruptcy and remain as a debtor in possession generally do not turn over the corporation’s attorney-client privilege to a third party. However, if the corporation files or ends up in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, or perhaps has a Chapter 11 trustee appointed, control of the corporation, and its attorney-client privileged communications, may well end up in the hands of the bankruptcy trustee.