Christopher Cahill's article, "Commodity Supply Agreements Are Swap Agreements: A Counter-Intuitive But Quite Real Safe Harbor From Preference Avoidance,” has been published in International Corporate Rescue and analyzes a defense for commodity suppliers against the avoidance and recovery of transfers to such suppliers from debtors under the Bankruptcy Code.

Section 546(g) of the Bankruptcy Code exempts from preference or constructive fraudulent transfer the avoidance of any transfer made pursuant to a swap agreement with the Debtor. The Code's financial derivative safe harbor provisions and related definitions are broadly-worded. The Code's definition of "swap agreement" includes "commodity forward agreement." A "commodity forward agreement" is, for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and other courts, a commodity supply agreement for future physical deliveries, which is used as a hedge.

Thus, creditors of United States bankruptcy debtors who supply or receive oil, natural gas, steel, polypropylene or any other commodity may do so pursuant to a contract that can be construed as a "swap agreement" that supports a total defense to avoidance of transfers received from the debtor. Implications with respect to other safe harbor provisions of the inclusion of "commodity forward agreement" within the definition of "swap agreement" will be the subject of a future paper.

This article first appeared in International Corporate Rescue (Volume 8, issue 4) and is reproduced with the kind permission of Chase Cambria Company (Publishing) Limited.

Click here to view article

Rob Smeltzer been asked by the Northeast Circuit Clerks Association to give a speech at their 2012 Educational Conference, "Social Media Use from the Employer's Perspective - What are your legal rights?"

Click here for more information

Lowis & Gellen LLP was selected as a winner in the DealMakers Global Awards 2012 campaign.

The DealMakers Global Awards 2012 recognize a select number of leading professional firms, across the globe, for their individual areas of specialization, within their geographical location.

For more information please visit

www.dealmakers-monthly.com

Chicago Lawyer: The premier publication has selected Lowis & Gellen partner Gerald Haberkorn as one of 2011’s

“Leading Civil Defense Lawyers” & “Leading Commercial Litigation Lawyers”

LOWIS & GELLEN LLP OFFERS CONTINUING EDUCATION SEMINARS TO HOSPITAL CLIENTS

Lowis & Gellen has a tradition of providing continuing education seminars to hospital clients. Recently, Ms. Megan DeZutti has continued this tradition by presenting continuing education seminars for nurses at Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital and Ingalls Memorial Hospital. In the Spring of 2011, Ms. DeZutti presented three seminars for nurses from all hospital departments at Gottlieb Loyola Medical Center and was asked to return in November to speak to surgical staff on the JHCOA “time out” requirements to prevent medical mistakes during surgery. In the Fall of 2011, Ms. DeZutti presented a seminar for Ingalls Memorial Hospital which was video-taped in order to provide education for new nurses during their orientation. These seminars have included topics ranging from general medical liability, electronic and paper charting, chain-of-command, communication, and medication errors. Ms. DeZutti has also lectured residents from UIC Hospital during monthly grand rounds.