In early October 2018, Bahrain enacted a new bankruptcy law. Based upon Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the new law makes possible the reorganization of insolvent firms. CLDP provided technical assistance to Bahrain as it was drafting the new law, the main purpose of which is to foster SME development.

In the U.S., United States Trustees play a key role in administration of bankruptcy cases. Their mission is to promote the integrity and efficiency of the bankruptcy system for the benefit of all stakeholders–debtors, creditors. They have broad administrative, regulatory, and litigation/enforcement authority to do so.  To ensure the proper implementation of its new law, Bahrain now needs to have competent Insolvency Trustees.

To address this need, on December 3-4, in Manama, Bahrain, CLDP, in coordination with the country’s Supreme Judicial Council and the Judicial and Legal Studies Institute, conducted a workshop on Bahrain’s new bankruptcy law for 55 Insolvency Trustee candidates. Under the new law, they will play a key role to facilitate restructuring plans and liquidation proceedings. CLDP experts included the Hon. Michael Williamson, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Middle District of Florida and Andy Vara, Acting U.S. Trustee (Region 3) of the Department of Justice. The experts focused on reorganization case studies and shared their practical experience from the management of bankruptcy cases in the U.S. system. Specifically, participants acquired practical knowledge in three main areas: a) how to address debtor misconduct, including potential conflicts of interest and associated rules; b) asset valuation; and, c) how to determine the merits of reorganization versus liquidation on a case-by-case basis.