Jim Millar Discusses Judicial Mediation in Latest Creditor Rights Coalition Contributor Feature

Finance and restructuring partner and leader of the firm’s corporate restructuring team, Jim Millar, offered insights in the Creditor Rights Coalition’s latest contributor feature titled “Should Bankruptcy Judges Mediate Cases Pending Before Them?” 

Millar asserted that judges should maintain a clear separation between mediation and adjudication to preserve both meaningful settlement negotiations and judicial impartiality.

“In my view, the two processes are fundamentally inconsistent. A proper mediation – that is, one conducted with full candor about the strengths and weaknesses of a party’s position – would, necessarily, ‘infect’ the litigation process. And a mediation process that tries to avoid that result through overly careful shepherding of bad facts or law is less likely to be successful,” Millar explained.