Successor Liability in Business Transactions
Even in periods of economic distress and growing business failures there are often substantial opportunities to acquire valuable assets at distressed prices. The problem is that those assets are often lodged in business entities that are hobbled with substantial other liabilities. Therefore, the challenge for asset buyers is to acquire the value without also becoming subject to the substantial liabilities attaching to the larger business. This program will provide you a real world guide to successor liability issues at common law, under bankruptcy law and other statutory sources. The program will also discuss practical techniques for acquiring value without business liabilities.
- Common law and bankruptcy theories of successor liability
- De facto mergers, continuation theories, assumptions of liabilities
- Current v. future claims
- Section 363 bankruptcy sales issues
- Avoiding fraud and other practice pointers
Lawrence A. Katz is a senior partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Venable, LLP, where his practice focuses on complex Chapter 11 proceedings, workouts, business restructurings, and commercial litigation. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and many U.S. Courts of Appeal nationwide. He is an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and serves as the President-Elect and a Director of the Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Association. Mr. Katz is a member of the American Bar Association, the bar associations of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, and the Northern Virginia Bankruptcy Bar Association. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law, 2006 and 2007 editions, and lectures and writes on bankruptcy topics for organizations nationwide. Mr. Katz received his B.A., magna cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
