ABI Podcast

Legislative measures throughout 2020 were aimed at providing economic stability to meet the challenges of the financial distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and December saw a flurry of activity that resulted in the Combined Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The $2.3 trillion spending bill combined $900 billion in stimulus relief for the COVID-19 pandemic with a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill for the 2021 federal fiscal year. The bill passed both chambers of Congress on Dec. 21 and was signed into law by the President on December 27. Within the nearly 5,600 pages of this bill were important changes to the Bankruptcy Code. In this podcast, ABI Consumer Committee Co-Chair Christopher L. Hawkins of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP (Birmingham, Ala.) discusses the changes with Charissa Potts of Freedom Law, PC (Eastpointe, Mich.) and John Rao of the National Consumer Law Center (Boston).

Legislative measures throughout 2020 were aimed at providing economic stability to meet the challenges of the financial distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and December saw a flurry of activity that resulted in the Combined Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The $2.3 trillion spending bill combined $900 billion in stimulus relief for the COVID-19 pandemic with a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill for the 2021 federal fiscal year. The bill passed both chambers of Congress on Dec. 21 and was signed into law by the President on December 27. Within the nearly 5,600 pages of this bill were important changes to the Bankruptcy Code. In this podcast, ABI Legislation Committee Co-Chair Ferve Khan of BakerHostetler (New York) discusses the changes with Tiffany Payne Geyer of BakerHostetler (Orlando) and Tom Salerno of Stinson LLP (Phoenix).

ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle talks with Susan N.K. Gummow of Foran Glennon (Chicago) about key issues confronting bankruptcy and insurance jurisprudence. Gummow is the author of the recently released Bankruptcy and Insurance Law Manual, Fourth Edition, and discusses key scenarios, strategies and cases at the intersection of bankruptcy and insurance law.

ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle spoke with experts about the June 1 decision by the Supreme Court that the appointment of the Puerto Rico Oversight Board did not violate the Appointments Clause. Prof. Stephen Lubben, the Harvey Washington Wiley Chair in Corporate Governance & Business Ethics at Seton Hall (Newark, N.J.); Prof. Juliet Moringiello, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Professor of Law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School (Harrisburg, Pa.); and Zachary Smith of Moore & Van Allen (Charlotte, N.C.), who has been involved in restructuring matters pertaining to Puerto Rico, joined Rochelle to examine the decision.

The latest ABI Podcast features an engaging discussion between Stinson LLP's Tom Salerno and ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle. Salerno reviews some of the predictions he provided in a commentary in March about the financial crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and discusses how his recent publications (Pre-Bankruptcy Planning for the Commercial Reorganization, 3rd Edition and Acquisitions from Financially Distressed Companies) can assist practitioners during these uncertain times.

ABI's latest podcast features members of ABI's Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy discussing recommendations from the Final Report to expand chapter 13’s debt limit and create a chapter 13 reserve fund. Commissioner and chapter 13 trustee Henry Hildebrand (Nashville, Tenn.) moderates the discussion with Jenny L. Doling of J. Doling Law, PC (Palm Desert, Calif.) and Prof. Angela Littwin of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, who were both members of the Commission's Chapter 13 Advisory Committee.

ABI Executive Director Sam Gerdano talks with Prof. Anne Fleming of Georgetown University Law (Washington, D.C.), author of City of Debtors: A Century of Fringe Finance. In City of Debtors, Prof. Fleming explores the origins, growth and regulation of small-dollar lending institutions in the U.S. over the twentieth century. Listen to the discussion about the book and issues surrounding small-dollar loans.

ABI Endowment-Funded Research that Found Individuals with Gap in Medical Coverage More Than Twice as Likely to File for Bankruptcy - Ep. 234.
ABI Consumer Committee Co-Chair Jon Jay Lieberman of Sottile & Barile LLC (Loveland, Ohio) talks with Profs. Brook E. Gotberg of the University of Missouri School of Law (Columbia, Mo.) and Michael D. Sousa of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law (Denver) about their research finding that individuals who experienced a gap in medical care coverage over a two-year period were roughly twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as those who retained continuous coverage. Their research appeared in the Summer 2019 edition of the ABI Law Review and was funded in 2016 by ABI's Anthony H.N. Schnelling Endowment. Profs. Gotberg and Sousa detail their research, which examined data from a national survey of adults from 2004 through 2014 that indicates that the principal predictor of consumer bankruptcy is a lapse in medical insurance coverage.