No CLE

Sharpen your motion-practice skills and become a more effective and prepared advocate for your client by attending this practical session. Focusing on chapter 11 cases, panelists will discuss tips and practice pointers for motions for relief from stay, asset sales, post-petition financing, use of cash collateral, 2004 exams and more. Presentation of arguments and evidence will be discussed, and checklists and forms will be distributed.

Sharpen your motion-practice skills and become a more effective and prepared advocate for your client by attending this practical session. Focusing on chapter 11 cases, panelists will discuss tips and practice pointers for motions for relief from stay, asset sales, post-petition financing, use of cash collateral, 2004 exams and more. Presentation of arguments and evidence will be discussed, and checklists and forms will be distributed.

Experienced bankruptcy attorneys will argue cases before Judge Margaret Mann. She will preside, inquire and explain the analytic process leading to her decisions. The panelists will present topics such as new developments regarding the initial transferee defense to a preference allegation and the right of litigants to legal fees in bankruptcy litigation.

Calling all up-and-comers in the bankruptcy industry! Join us for this new, half-day program exclusively for emerging leaders attending the ABI Northeast Conference or Consumer Forum. We invite lawyers, financial advisors, bankers, etc. with less than 10 years of insolvency expertise, either consumer or business focus, to participate in an interactive program involving common insolvency issues facing junior insolvency professionals. Participants will break into small working groups led by emerging leader facilitators and bankruptcy judges to consider issues of substantive law as well as practical procedures for both the courtroom and boardroom. A reception for Emerging Leaders will immediately follow this program.

Technology has brought about radical changes in the energy industry, including the creation of new E&P companies, new cost structures and “just-in-time” revenue opportunities, and challenges to all companies in the production-to-consumer stream, including servicing and mid-stream. These changes, and the uncertainty regarding pricing and the evolution of new, unconventional competition, have led to a number of restructurings during the last cycle, as well as uncertainty on the appropriate capital structure and status for the industry going forward. As we transition from the last energy restructuring cycle of 2015-17, what is our takeaway from the key valuation and other issues that were faced? Does the industry require different thinking regarding the relative amounts of debt versus equity? What is the state of energy dealmaking and capital markets? Can we expect further industry restructuring and consolidation? What is the future of unconventional energy sources and traditional offshore sources? Our energy experts will examine these and other issues from a variety of different perspectives, including deal-making, judicial, legal, operations and financial.

As the retention of contingency counsel proliferates, stakeholders and their professionals need guidance and creativity in considering the financial arrangements that are negotiated. This panel will focus on ethics and professionalism issues that arise in these retentions, retaining counsel under § 328, how to negotiate and/or determine what compensation is appropriate (20 percent vs. 40 percent), compensation based on case status (e.g., settlement after initial motion practice vs. SJ), hybrid compensation, financing litigation (estate vs. contingency counsel vs. third party, Gawker), who should control settlement as contingency counsel’s stake grows, and when payment of contingency counsel can be contested.

Join the growing conversation about the intersection of race and socioeconomic barriers in bankruptcy. What are the facts? What can be done about reducing bias? What is our professional responsibility as bankruptcy professionals to overcome these barriers?

As fast-emerging technologies change the way we conceive of how we will practice law in the very near future, ethics rules will need to address this revolution. The panelists will discuss how to keep ahead of these developments and adapt our practices to best understand and address our developing ethical obligations.

This panel will explore key bankruptcy issues concerning the lawyer’s obligation to be “disinterested” and free from having adverse interests. How do these bankruptcy issues relate to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, including RPCs 1.6 (“Confidentiality of Information”), 1.7 (“Conflict of Interest: Current Clients”), 1.9 (“Duties to Former Clients”), 1.18 (“Duties to Prospective Clients”), 3.3 (“Candor Toward the Tribunal”) and 4.1 (“Truthfulness in Statements to Others”)? The panel will also address the current state of affairs with respect to the allowance of fees incurred in defending fee applications and the use of in-camera disclosures in conjunction with retention-related issues.

This panel will discuss the scope of mediation privilege, including waiving privilege with co-clients, privilege in regards to small firms, the "at issue" waiver doctrine, and ethics and privilege issues related to technology.