Free Sessions (no CLE)

A working understanding of cross-border restructuring principles has become a mainstay of contemporary practice. This panel will cover cross-border fundamentals, including the application of § 109 to foreign cases, the enforceability of foreign judgments and granting comity in a chapter 15 case involving third-party releases (In re Sino-Forest Corp. and Ad Hoc Group of Vitro Noteholders v. Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V. (In re Vitro S.A.B. de C.V.)).

This panel will discuss recent confirmation issues, including whether a plan that offers new value from an insider can be confirmed without an auction process (In re Castleton Plaza, LP); the effect of third-party guarantees (In re Loop 76); whether claims-purchasers must have “good cause” to change a plan vote (In re J.C. Householders Land Trust #1); and treatment of non-recourse claims under § 1111(b) (In re B.R. Brookfield Commons No. 1 LLC).

This panel is for participants who are either solo or small-firm practitioners and will include such topics as paperless offices, trust funds and accounting, managing workflow, and the implications on the office in the event of a natural disaster.

A panel of younger lawyers and financial professionals will talk about the issues and challenges of working for senior lawyers and will suggest ways to improve the working relationships between senior and junior lawyers.

This panel will provide helpful guidelines for creating clear client expectations, adequately defining work scope and managing fees when engaging FAs and expert witnesses. We have all had cases where clients were unhappy because work product didn’t meet expectations or fees were significantly higher than expected. This panel will help the practitioner learn how to use financial professionals more effectively to decrease the risk of having an unhappy client.

This panel of Midwestern judges will discuss some of the common mistakes that they are seeing in consumer cases, and how those mistakes can be avoided.

This panel will present the current trends in the industry, where the work is and isn’t, and where it may be in the future.

This panel will discuss what business development and office-management techniques have worked for them — with the understanding that everyone does things a little differently.

In a series of vignettes, two litigants will argue motions to compel before the bankruptcy court that are designed to explore the various types of evidentiary privileges that arise in bankruptcy practice — including attorney/client privilege, joint-defense/common interest privilege, Fifth Amendment and spousal privilege — and how such privileges may be inadvertently waived.

This panel will explain how to critically review tax returns and financial statements and address the issues and items a bankruptcy lawyer representing a debtor or creditor (both for consumer and business cases) should look for when reviewing financial statements and tax returns.