KTBS Law is proud to announce that Partner Samuel Kidder has been named a 2023 Top 40 Under 40 Restructuring Professional by the American Bankruptcy Institute. Mr. Kidder was selected by the ABI not only for his outstanding bankruptcy litigation practice, but also for his work teaching and mentoring the next generation of restructuring lawyers as a lecturer at UCLA Law.
On August 26, 2022, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana issued an opinion after a three-day evidentiary hearing in the In re Aearo Technologies LLC chapter 11 case denying the Aearo debtors’ request for a preliminary injunction to protect their solvent, non-debtor parent 3M Company. The prevailing objecting parties who opposed the motion are law firms representing plaintiffs with verdicts and claims against 3M and the Aearo debtors for personal injuries arising from the use of certain Combat Arms Earplugs manufactured, marketed, and sold by 3M and Aearo. KTBS Law LLP played an instrumental role in the briefing, discovery, and trial. The objecting parties were ultimately successful in persuading the bankruptcy judge to reject the injunction, permitting the plaintiffs’ lawsuits against non-debtor 3M to go forward in multi-district litigation pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The bankruptcy judge’s opinion, linked below, is the first denial of such a request in the recent wave of mass tort bankruptcy cases.
In a June 6 unanimous decision authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the U.S. Supreme Court in Siegel v. Fitzgerald addressed the question of “whether Congress’ enactment of a significant fee increase that exempted debtors in two states violated the uniformity requirement” of the Constitution.[1]
KTBS Law Case Alert by Sasha M. Gurvitz: In re Paragon Offshore, PLC, Case No.: 16-10386 (Bankr. D. Del. June 28, 2021)