To the Extent That...

In this episode of the Business Bankruptcy Basics podcast, hosts Andrew Still and Miles Taylor sit down with Judge Elizabeth L. Gunn, the sole bankruptcy judge for the District of Columbia, to unpack one of the foundational concepts of bankruptcy law: the bankruptcy estate. Judge Gunn joins the conversation to share insights from the bench, her path into bankruptcy practice, and the nuances she has observed in how debtors and creditors approach the composition of the estate. Together, the group walks listeners through: • What the estate is and when it’s created, including how the estate differs across chapters and why timing matters, particularly between Chapter 7’s petition date snapshot and Chapter 11’s inclusion of postpetition acquisitions. • How “property” is defined under Section 541, with discussion of legal and equitable interests, examples from schedules, and real world illustrations ranging from intellectual property to cryptocurrency, livestock, and more. • Security interests and after acquired property, where the hosts and Judge Gunn explore how liens attach—or don’t—to postpetition proceeds, using accessible analogies like vehicle financing, insurance proceeds, and contract clauses that expand a creditor’s reach beyond the original collateral. This episode offers both newcomers and seasoned practitioners a clear, structured look at a core bankruptcy concept, enriched by Judge Gunn’s practical experience and the hosts’ thoughtful guidance. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of what really makes up the bankruptcy estate and why it matters. The content of the "Business Bankruptcy Basics" podcast, including any statements made by its hosts or guests, is provided for educational purposes only. This podcast is not intended to be, nor should it be relied upon as, legal advice. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts and guests and do not reflect the positions or opinions of their employers or any organizations with which they may be affiliated. For legal guidance, please consult a professional.

Host Gary J. Ross talks with Daniel DeWolf, Co-chair of the VC/EC practice at Mintz Levin and adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, about the practice of venture capital funds warehousing investments. Among the topics Gary and Daniel cover are the reasons fund managers warehouse investments; various structures used for warehousing; disclosure considerations; conflicts of interest; valuation issues; SEC guidance on warehousing and maintaining the venture capital fund adviser exemption for ERAs; and the impact of warehousing on eligibility for the qualified small business stock (QSBS) tax exemption.

In this latest episode of Boardroom to Courtroom, forensic accountants J.W. Verret and Chris Ekimoff unpack the story of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme — and how forensic accountants unraveled the mystery behind one of history's most audacious financial frauds.

In this episode, Judge Gunn is joined by attorneys Nick Miller and Mark Iammartino to discuss the unwinding of one of the largest check-kiting schemes in modern history. Najeeb Khan operated a successful payroll processing company in Indiana in the early 2000s. At some point around 2011, Khan began embezzling funds from his payroll processing company and using an elaborate check-kiting scheme to cover up the missing funds. Between 2011 and 2019, Khan embezzled an estimated $73 million from the scheme, which he used to purchase one of the largest classic car collections in the country (consisting of more than 250 cars including at least one that could also be used as a boat), several airplanes, and multiple luxury residences in Michigan, Florida, and Arizona. The scheme came crashing down in 2019, when Khan abruptly halted the musical chairs of worthless checks he was circulating, leaving Key Bank holding the bag for over $140 million in losses based on funds Khan had wired out of a Key Bank account based on provisional account credits issued against ultimately worthless checks. Mark Iammartino, the Chapter 7 trustee in one of the fifteen (15) bankruptcy cases that resulted from the scheme collapsing, discusses the venue fight that arose when the payroll processing company (and several related entities) filed bankruptcy in Michigan while Khan and a handful of affiliated management companies filed bankruptcy cases in Indiana shortly thereafter, the unusual steps taken to liquidation Khan’s massive classic car collection during the COVID-19 pandemic (which resulted in auction proceeds of over $40 million), and the other steps taken by the trustees and committees to marshal assets and attempt to compensate victims of Khan’s scheme. Khan later pled guilty to bank fraud and attempted tax evasion in a federal criminal case, and was sentenced to just over eight years in prison, and was ordered to pay $148 million in restitution and nearly $10 million in back taxes.

The Advocates Toolbox: Effective Advocacy Strategies for a Successful Mediation, is co-hosted by Mia Levi, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, CPR Dispute Resolution Services LLC, and Rachel Gupta, Mediator and Arbitrator at JAMS. This podcast will cover the skills business lawyers need to be successful advocates in mediation. Episode 6: The Mediation Wishlist. In the final episode of this series, experienced mediation practitioners will provide their “wishlist" for mediation from two distinct viewpoints: the client and the mediator. What circumstances create the optimal dynamic for a mediation? The speakers will explore key takeaways for the who, what, and how to maximize the chances of reaching an agreement in mediation. Speakers: Cindy Randall, Deputy General Counsel and Head of Litigation at Microsoft and Jeff Kichaven, Principal at Jeff Kichaven, Commercial Mediation.

In this gripping episode of Bad Boys of Bankruptcy, Judge Elizabeth Gunn is joined by Mark Albert, longtime chapter 7 and subchapter V trustee, and Bill Steinwedell, Deputy Advocacy Director for Homeownership Preservation at Maryland Legal Aid. Together, they unravel the story of Synergy Law, a supposed national law firm that preyed on vulnerable homeowners by promising foreclosure relief and bankruptcy help, while delivering none of it. The discussion tracks how Synergy's “business model” lured clients through misleading marketing, skimmed thousands in automatic credit card payments, and left desperate individuals, like Bill’s client Mr. McCarty, facing foreclosure after multiple failed pro se bankruptcies. Bill and Mark explain how they each came to expose the fraud, Bill through aggressive legal aid advocacy, and Mark through his work as chapter 7 trustee after Synergy’s collapse. This episode dives into how Synergy operated across numerous states for years. It also sheds light on how the bankruptcy system, legal aid, and the U.S. Trustee Program ultimately worked together to shut it down. A cautionary tale for lawyers, trustees, and consumers alike, this episode reminds us why bankruptcy oversight matters, and what can happen when bad actors try to use the courts to fuel a fraud.

Host Gary J. Ross talks with Ed Zimmerman, chair of the Emerging Companies & Venture Capital group at Lowenstein Sandler LLP, about founder breakups. Gary and Ed discuss common causes of founder fallouts, and various options to handle the departing founder’s equity. Ed reveals what he believes is the most important thing in a separation agreement. Ed also tells Gary a couple of war stories. Ed ends by giving some advice to legal counsel steering companies through founder breakups.

In this episode, Stuart Riback interviews John Coyle, UNC Law School, on the reasons to have a choice of forum clause; how the wording of clause will determine its scope; any restrictions on applicability of applicability of the clause; permissive versus mandatory forum selection; application of forum selection clauses to non-parties; and issues regarding constitutionality of non-party application.

In this episode we introduce the key players in bankruptcy proceedings. Host Ella Vincent and guests Aditi Paranjpye and Laurie Thornton of DBS Law walk you through debtors, creditors, committees, and the U.S. Trustee. We clarify the often-confused distinction between the U.S. Trustee and U.S. Attorney, and explore how case trustees' roles vary between Chapter 7 liquidations and Subchapter V small business cases. Throughout, we explain fiduciary duties and why they matter. This episode is perfect for law students and attorneys seeking to build their bankruptcy knowledge from the ground up! The content of the "Business Bankruptcy Basics" podcast, including any statements made by its hosts or guests, is provided for educational purposes only. This podcast is not intended to be, nor should it be relied upon as, legal advice. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts and guests and do not reflect the positions or opinions of their employers or any organizations with which they may be affiliated. For legal guidance, please consult a qualified attorney.

In this episode of Bad Boys of Bankruptcy, Judge Elizabeth Gunn is joined by Texas-based attorney Amber Carson to dive into the outrageous Chapter 7 saga of Darcy LaPier, a former model and reality TV personality best known for marrying a string of wealthy men, including Jean-Claude Van Damme and the founder of Hawaiian Tropic, and appearing on A&E’s Rodeo Girls. What began as a routine trustee representation turned into a high-stakes hunt for hidden assets and stunning fraud. Amber walks us through the investigation that exposed LaPier’s elaborate attempts to shield millions in luxury assets from creditors. The showstopper was a tip received about a hidden closet in her primary bedroom. This led to a covert, sealed operation with U.S. Marshals, ending in the dramatic recovery of jewelry she claimed didn't exist. The episode covers the legal maneuvers used to uncover and seize assets, the extravagant lifestyle that undercut LaPier’s “no asset” bankruptcy case, and the litigation that ultimately denied LaPier a bankruptcy discharge. It’s a tale of privilege, deception, and the extraordinary lengths trustee’s counsel must go to when fiction overtakes fact in bankruptcy court.

Our speakers will discuss commonly used techniques for impasse breaking in mediation, including but not limited to, bracketing and mediator’s proposal, and will examine when and how to use these tools effectively. Speakers: Noah Hanft, Arbitrator and Mediator at AcumenADR LLC and Jennifer Lupo, Lupo Law, Arbitration & Mediation.

Once upon a time we thought we had privacy. Then came credit cards, which captured the card owner's location and activity with each transaction. Then came the Internet, which made connecting all the dots easy and cheap, and the erosion of privacy accelerated. Large language models, LLMs, like the Generative AI system ChatGPT and its ilk have the potential to make the cost of connecting dots vanishingly small, thus eliminating even the illusion of privacy, especially because large databases are irresistible to LLM developers as training data for their models. In this episode we are fortunate to have as our guest Jane Horvath. Jane is comparatively unique in having earned academic degrees and practiced in both Computer Science and in Law. Before law school, she wrote software that may still be running on the International Space Station. Jane is further distinguished by having served as Apple's Chief Privacy Officer, Google's Global Privacy Counsel, and the DoJ's first Privacy Counsel and Civil Liberties Officer, among other roles.

In a first for the series, this episode of Bad Boys of Bankruptcy explores a decades-long dispute arising in North Carolina that was originally filed as a Chapter XII case under the Bankruptcy Act of 1898. Our host, Judge Elizabeth Gunn (Bankr. D.D.C.), is joined by Judge Joseph N. Callaway (Bankr. E.D.N.C.) and retired Judge J. Rich Leonard (Bankr. E.D.N.C.), who is now the dean of Campbell Law School. In a complicated scheme to defraud their limited partners, George Osserman and his confidant and girlfriend, Zan Galloway, formed an entity which acquired interests in four parcels of real property in North Carolina which were heavily mortgaged. Osserman then formed Tudor Associates Ltd. II, a Nebraska limited partnership, and appointed Galloway as the general partner. Tudor then acquired the properties from Osserman’s other entity, and gave the other entity a note secured by a wraparound deed of trust on all of the properties. In 1977, Tudor filed for bankruptcy under Chapter XII of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, and in 1979 proposed to sell the properties to an Ohio corporation that, unbeknownst to the bankruptcy court and other parties, was in fact controlled by Osserman. After learning that Osserman in fact controlled the purchaser, Tudor’s limited partners sued in 1983 to set aside the sale on the grounds of fraud. Although Section 511 of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 and Rule 60(b)(3) meant that the limited partners’ claim was time barred, the bankruptcy court employed a novel theory and avoided one half of the transfer of the notes, totaling $11.6 million, on the grounds of fraud on the court. Judge Callaway recalls the extensive litigation and appeals that were involved in his efforts to collect on this judgment (including a subsequent Chapter 11 case filed by one of the judgment debtors), where he served as the Chapter XII trustee in the Tudor bankruptcy case, and Judge Leonard recounts the novel issues presented in the subsequent Chapter 11 case, including issues related to the bankruptcy court’s “related to” jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1334.

In this episode, Stuart Riback, partner, Wilk Auslander, and John Coyle, UNC Law School, look at the reasons for having a choice of law clause, what cases would look like without one, what the permissible choices are, what sorts of issues the clause can cover, how different kinds of formulations of a clause can affect its scope, special considerations affecting cross-border transactions, and effect of public policy considerations.

The public has been fascinated by the experience of interacting with large language models, or LLMs, like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. In this episode we will look at current work with LLMs that plays to their strengths and involves a lower risk of inaccurate outputs. In particular we will look at the use of LLMs to translate between languages. Software teams generally operate in their native language. Once they have finished building their system, they often want to make it available in other languages to access other markets. The process of making a program that was originally written for one language usable by people who speak other languages is called internationalization. Historically internationalization has been a slow and expensive process. Today we will be talking with Archie McKenzie, the founder of a Silicon Valley startup that is offering internationalization services to software teams. Archie is atypical in various ways. A Briton, Archie came to the US to study Classics at Princeton. He ventured into a course taught by a famous computer scientist, Brian Kernighan, whose teaching inspired Archie to switch from Ancient Greek and Latin to Java, Python, and Typescript. After graduating from Princeton in 2024, Archie started a company called General Translation to develop and commercialize internationalization automation for software development projects.

Welcome to Business Bankruptcy Basics! In this first episode, we lay the foundation for understanding bankruptcy law. We cover essential concepts every practitioner should know, like balancing the debtor's fresh start and protecting creditor interests. We discuss some of the powerful tools available in bankruptcy proceedings and debunk common myths about the practice area, including why bankruptcy law is far from boring. Perfect for law students and attorneys looking to build their bankruptcy knowledge from the ground up. (The content of the "Business Bankruptcy Basics" podcast, including any statements made by its hosts or guests, is provided for educational purposes only. This podcast is not intended to be, nor should it be relied upon as, legal advice. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts and guests and do not reflect the positions or opinions of their employers or any organizations with which they may be affiliated. For legal guidance, please consult a qualified attorney.)

Host Gary J. Ross discusses the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program with Christopher Rossi, a partner at Troutman Pepper. Chris explains how SBICs function as privately managed funds that access SBA-backed leverage. Chris walks listeners through how SBICs are structured, and how SBA-backed leverage can multiply a sponsor’s private capital. He outlines the detailed and technical SBIC licensing process, and the ongoing oversight SBICs face. Chris also explains to Gary that “small business” does not necessarily mean mom-and pop stores. Chris closes by offering practical guidance for lawyers and fund sponsors considering the program.

The Advocates Toolbox: Effective Advocacy Strategies for a Successful Mediation, is co-hosted by Mia Levi, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, CPR Dispute Resolution Services LLC, and Rachel Gupta, Mediator and Arbitrator at JAMS. This podcast will cover the skills business lawyers need to be successful advocates in mediation. Episode 4: Effective Mediation Advocacy. This session will cover the types of attorney behaviors that are productive (and those that are counterproductive) in the mediation session, as well as practical tips from mediators for getting your adversary to move their position and how to keep building momentum. Speakers: L. Tyrone Holt, Managing Principal at The Holt Group LLC, and Theo Chang, Arbitrator and Mediator at ADR Office of Theo Cheng LLC.

Join us to celebrate the federal trial bench and to hear from Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, as she describes her path from prosecuting street crime in the District of Columbia US Attorney’s Office, to prosecuting hate crimes at the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, to prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, to serving as Chief Hearing Officer at the New York Stock Exchange and General Counsel of New York City’s Office of Administrative Trials and hearings, and more. Judge Kuo reflects on how each of these positions prepared her for the next, and her practical perspective on how every day can be a good day in court.

The Advocates Toolbox: Effective Advocacy Strategies for a Successful Mediation, is co-hosted by Mia Levi, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, CPR Dispute Resolution Services LLC, and Rachel Gupta, Mediator and Arbitrator at JAMS. This podcast will cover the skills business lawyers need to be successful advocates in mediation. Episode 3: Anchoring Strategy and Messaging in Mediation. Distributive bargaining is a competitive negotiation strategy that is used to decide how to allocate available funds in mediations. The speakers will guide us in developing your anchor, your target settlement range, and the strategy and messaging for achieving it. Speakers: Joan Stearns Johnsen, Mediator at JSJ-ADR and Adrienne Publicover, Mediator at JAMS.