One must be prepared for a crisis – pre-court debt negotiations.

Practitioners from our law firm are making academic contributions. Legal counsel and restructuring advisor Maciej Stasiewicz gave a lecture on May 28, 2022, at the postgraduate course "Restructuring and Bankruptcy Law" organized by Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

The topic of the lecture was out-of-court forms of restructuring and standstill agreements with creditors (mainly banks) - how to negotiate amicable repayment of the debt, what the debtor should watch out for and what the creditor should watch out for, how a standstill agreement can help in negotiations and what comprises such an agreement. Successful negotiations avoid the need to open restructuring proceedings or declare bankruptcy. At our law firm, we advise companies facing crises and conduct the most difficult negotiations with creditors and debtors. We believe that it is worth trying to reach an agreement without the involvement of the court and official restructuring proceedings, which, however, sometimes cannot be avoided - if only when the debtor and the creditor cannot reach a satisfactory solution. Mistakes made during the talks affect the course of the entire restructuring and can disrupt the plan to rescue the company. On the other hand, even ultimately unsuccessful negotiations, but conducted in the right way, help restore creditors' confidence in the success of the restructuring, which is essential to saving the business. In addition to the way, negotiations are conducted, when they are undertaken is also important - the earlier the symptoms of a crisis in a company are detected, the easier it is to mitigate its symptoms. One must be prepared for a crisis.