To our clients and friends

Welcome to the Q2 2021 edition of the International Restructuring Newswire. Before turning to the contents of this issue, I want to personally invite each of you to the INSOL International Virtual 2021 conference. Consisting of more than 40 speakers, the international event will be held over three days in June. I will be chairing a session on June 10 on the critical topic of "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Insolvency Profession". Joining me on the panel will be some preeminent practitioners in our field. We will discuss the results of a newly conducted survey by INSOL designed to gauge diversity among the senior ranks of the insolvency profession. After discussing the results of the survey, we will go on to assess what changes, if any, should be addressed by the profession. I hope many of you will be able to attend.

Now to this issue: We have articles surveying recent developments in no fewer than five countries. In the United States, on the 15^th anniversary of the enactment of the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency as Chapter 15, we present our annual survey of new case law in the US. These decisions have far-reaching influence in the more than 50 countries that have enacted the Model Law. In Canada, we look at developments in the use of a corporate "arrangement " as an alternative to the CCAA insolvency regime. Recent developments in new restructuring laws are examined in both Germany (under the StaRUG) and the Netherlands (under the WHOA). And, in focusing on the UK, we look at the first use of the cross-class cram-down under the CIGA. Acronyms anyone? Count them—four in this paragraph alone.

• Canada: Recent developments in third party releases under corporate plans of arrangement
• DeepOcean – The first UK cross-class cram-down case under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020
• Germany adopts its own restructuring scheme – Distressed M&A transactions in the context of Germany’s new StaRUG-scheme
• The Dutch scheme is tested and works
• Overview of the key Chapter 15 decisions in 2020 

Enjoy the issue.

Howard Seife
Global Head
Bankruptcy, Financial Restructuring and Insolvency