2022 Bankruptcy Battleground West

This panel will be conducted in the format of the TV show “Crossfire” and will address three “hot” or “interesting” bankruptcy issues that are not being addressed in the other sessions. At the conclusion of each discussion, attendees will have an opportunity to vote on how they believe the issue should be resolved.

Post-confirmation trusts increasingly have become a popular means of obtaining plan confirmation and administering estate assets, pursuing litigation, and resolving a variety of disputes in chapter 11. While the use of post-confirmation trusts provides a host of benefits, it may provide traps for the unwary. This panel will explore issues and challenges that frequently arise in structuring and implementing post-confirmation liquidating and litigation trusts, including preservation and limitations of estate powers, analysis and pursuit of litigation, and practical challenges to winding down assets after former officers, directors and employees are no longer incentivized (or compensated) to cooperate. The panel will bring a wealth of nationwide experience to bear, along with the perspectives of post-confirmation fiduciaries, debtors and creditors alike.

This panel will analyze and explore issues and obstacles faced by debtors, creditors and other interested parties in recent mass tort bankruptcy cases. Topics to be covered will include tort claimant committees and government plaintiffs, estimation and jury trials, and channeling injunctions and settlement trusts.

Bankruptcy work is highly stressful and intense, yet few insolvency professionals have ever received science-based training on how to improve their emotional well-being, mental health or cognitive functioning. No matter who we are or how successful we are, we can all make progress in reducing our stress, improving our happiness, and enhancing our cognitive functioning in our work. During this keynote presentation, you will learn about the neuroscientific, biochemical and physiological connections between stress and cognition. You also will be provided with a collection of tangible, science-based tools and techniques that you can put to use the very next day to reduce stress and enhance cognitive functioning in your career and life. Specific techniques of body, emotion and mind will be shared to help you unlock your fullest potential, optimize your resiliency, and achieve your highest form of success in your work. A happier and more successful version of you awaits!

The real estate sector is accounting for an increasing number of bankruptcy filings, and the pandemic has hit the hospitality industry particularly hard and is spurring restructuring activity in that area. Join this panel of experts as they discuss the rise in hospitality bankruptcies, challenges that are specific to this industry and the real estate sector, and restructuring opportunities that have emerged and will likely continue as part of the post-pandemic recovery.

This interactive discussion will identify and discuss the issues that attorneys who practice in the insolvency area should comprehend and consider in the complicated interactions between director and officer liability insurance and bankruptcy law. The discussion will also include a review of recent decisions that have an impact in this developing area. The panelists will address the pitfalls and challenges in realizing value on D&O policies; effective approaches for challenging them, including how to interpret policies, what to look for in the policies, and strategies and solutions that address policy exclusions; unique bankruptcy issues; and differences among cases involving trustees and debtors in possession. Audience questions will be solicited in advance.

The goal of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has been a frequent point of discussion over the last few years, including at last year’s conference. This panel will focus on how DEI is now being implemented in the legal world generally and in the insolvency space specifically. The panelists also will discuss how they have integrated DEI talking points into their daily practice.