Online Event Series: ‘Supporting Distressed Businesses in the COVID-19 Crisis’—The View from France

Over the past 15 months, policymakers around the globe have scrambled to intervene in response to an anticipated wave of business bankruptcies flowing from COVID-19 trading disruption. A range of policies have been experimented with, including the modification of pre-pandemic enforcement rights, the extensionof bail-outs, and the introduction of new bankruptcy processes. Have these policies achieved their stated goals? In what ways might these policy interventions permanently modify pre-pandemic commercial law, and are these changes for the better?

In this online event, three speakers will reflect on these questions from a French perspective, offering their reflections on the French policy response to COVID-19 related insolvency. The speakers are: 

• Professor Nicolas Borga, University of Lyon
• Hélène Bourbouloux, FHB
• Saam Golshani, White & Case

The event will be chaired by Prof. Geneviève Helleringer (University of Oxford; Essec Business School). 
The event is the third in a series considering the policy response to COVID-19 business distress in a number of jurisdictions. The series is part of a wider project (led by Kristin van Zwieten, Horst Eidenmüller and Oren Sussman), COVID-19, public policy and commercial law, that is funded by Oxford University’s COVID-19Research Response Fund. Kristin van Zwieten will offer an introduction to the project at the start of this event.

The event will take place on Wednesday 1 September 2021 (5pm-6.30pm London time / 6pm-7.30pm Paris time). The event is open to the public and there is no registration fee, but places are limited. Register here.

A recording of the first event in this series, on the policy response in Germany, is available here. The second, on the policy response in the UK, is available here.