Business

Among the many issues that need to be negotiated between England and the EU for the Brexit to happen is the one dealing with restructuring and insolvency law. The U.K. has in recent years — due to its common membership in the European Insolvency Regulation regime — turned into a hotspot for foreign companies (and individuals) wanting to avail themselves of the English legal infrastructure for their recoveries. This scheme of arrangement — the companies’ voluntary arrangement in combination with the U.K.'s enormously efficient court system — has become highly attractive, since the decisions of English courts are generally recognized automatically throughout Europe. Brexit might change this and deprive other countries of what is currently a huge advantage (and source of income). It is also unclear what will happen with all those contracts under which non-U.K. parties have subjected themselves to English law; Brexit’s implications on them are likely to create enormous problems. This panel will discuss these complicated issues and more.

The recent insolvencies commenced by multiple shippers and oil and gas companies have raised several issues concerning the interplay of admiralty and insolvency law, especially in light of declining commodity prices and many shippers having either pulled their vessels out of service and/or decommissioned them. These issues include the adjudication of competing claims to assets that may be located either on the water, onboard the ships, or in containers, as well as the intersection of admiralty and insolvency law applicable to oil and gas insolvencies on the competing claims on the assets owned by these companies.

Learn the various successor liabilities rules and considerations both under common law and specialized statutes, such as ERISA, and how those successor liabilities rules may be impacted by and impact a bankruptcy proceeding.

In this round-and-round format, visit with leading judges (each at their own roundtables) to discuss and debate the nation’s most important recent business and consumer bankruptcy decisions.

Featuring the Judges of the 22nd Annual Rocky Mountain Bankruptcy Conference

Judges throughout the Mid-Atlantic region will square off to debate hot topics in insolvency.

The participating judges will respond to questions submitted from attendees in advance of the event.

This panel will provide updates on the most important governance and other similar issues faced by debtors, including how to advise equity owners.

Sir Ivan Rogers career in the U.K. civil service previously included work for British politicians Kenneth Clarke and Sir Leon Brittan, and he was chosen in 2003 to be Principal Private Secretary to then Prime Minister Tony Blair. From November 2013 to January 2017, Rogers took on the role of the U.K.’s Representative to the European Union in Brussels. Following the Brexit referendum in June 2016, Rogers resigned his position in January of this year to permit a smooth handover to his successor who would conduct the Brexit negotiations. His experience of the inner workings of the EU give him a unique insight into how the Brexit negotiations may play out and, coupled with his work in the Treasury and the City, he will be able to give our audience an intellectual view of how the land lies.