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Business

Transactions: Closely Held Businesses

This panel will consider how to plan for and resolve disputes in family businesses/closely held partnerships/limited liability companies when there is a deadlock or unplanned event. What happens when the business is in financial distress, senior management suddenly dies, or ownership/management are in disagreement on the next steps for the business? The panelists will debate from various perspectives how best to navigate the corporate form to keep a good business model as a going concern. Issues may arise when the company’s president dies/walks away without a succession plan. How can the company continue? What about where the entity is a single-purpose one and commencing bankruptcy requires unanimity — are there fiduciary duties to consider? Different factual scenarios will be explored from the perspective of both secured lenders and company counsel, ranging from governance issues to enforcement issues (e.g., no succession plan, deadlocks on voting, no life insurance on president, and lender’s collateral). The panel will focus on considerations on voting, transactional and other governance issues both in and out of court.

Unlike Death and Taxes: A Review of Important Recent Cases and Trends

Join this panel of experts from across the country as they discuss and analyze the latest issues and recent important bankruptcy and insolvency decisions from the Supreme Court, circuit courts of appeals and lower courts, and what issues could soon be addressed by the appellate courts.

Update on Avoidance Actions

Speakers and attendees will cover such topics as the 10-year look-back period, valuation of a constructive fraudulent transfer, objective vs. subjective valuation, the § 546(e) defense and issues involving deposit accounts.

Update Regarding Automatic Stay and Discharge Issues

This panel will discuss automatic stay and discharge injunction violations arising from withholding property to collect, statutes of limitations, and exceptions to discharge after Husky.
1 hour 14 minutes 58 seconds

VALCON Talks: “What I’d Change About the Corporate Bankruptcy System”

Based on the incredibly popular “TED Talks” format, VALCON Talks will give four seasoned experts the opportunity to discuss changes they would make to the corporate bankruptcy system. If you consider yourself a bankruptcy guru or just want to be one, you won’t want to miss this program!

Valuations – Art or Science? Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

This lively session is intended to trace the trends in the application of the technical approaches to business and securities valuations, and to examine the direction the valuation profession is heading in. Are we becoming more of a science or an art, and how will the direction of the profession affect our work and its reliability?

Very Good Debates: Judicial Debate

Resolved: Hiring an independent CRO displaces the need for the appointment of a chapter 11 trustee under § 1104(e) of the Bankruptcy Code. Resolved: Holders of acquired claims should be required to disclose the basis in such a claim as a condition for seeking relief in a bankruptcy case. Resolved: Holders of acquired claims should be required to disclose the basis in such a claim as a condition for seeking relief in a bankruptcy case.
1 hour 20 minutes 31 seconds

Westinghouse, a Truly International Chapter 11: From Atomic Start to Smashing Success in Only 363 Days

This panel will discuss (a) the strained relationship between the international parent and the subsidiary (including the fact that foreign operations were in different silos — i.e., there was no single C-suite per se); (b) the impact of the independent directors and the company's corporate governance best practices; (c) the international M&A process; (d) the unique (i.e., really unheard of) claims-trading activity that took place; and (e) the importance of timing (including a very difficult audit environment in the midst of an investigation).