No CLE

This panel will discuss the ways that companies and their advisers can address issues relating to governmental agency investigations (SEC, FBI, IRS) of the debtor and its management, including nondebtor stays, exceptions to discharge and other issues.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be. But if you are a lender or borrower you need to avoid liability by adhering to policies, using checklists and knowing individual and institutional risks. Come explore the common and uncommon reasons why lenders face liability and ways to defend against and ways to prevent and minimize risks.

Nortel (two courts simultaneously trying allocation issues); Suntech, Barnet and subsequent bankruptcy court decisions on remand (recognition and § 109(a)); Fairfield Sentry Limited (sale of SIPA claims); enforcement of judgments (Argentina litigation, Madoff); filing of chapter 11 cases by foreign debtors (Alsacia); extraterritoriality issues regarding avoidance actions (Madoff decisions). Do Fairfield, Quimonda, and Madoff represent a retreat from the principle of comity set forth in chapter 15?

This is not Contracts 101, but rather a panel discussion of the critical aspects of drafting contract that attorneys often forget. The panel shall discuss rules of contract construction including the last antecedent rule and its grammatical corollary, judicially adopted rules of interpretation. The panel will discuss how to avoid redundancies and ambiguities (including undefined terms) that create uncertainty and lead to costly and avoidable disputes. The program will discuss nuanced concepts which lead to more effective contracts.

Preservation and realization of NOLs through plan structures (Capmark, WaMu, Fremont General); tax-sharing agreements and allocations of tax benefits (Edison Mission); OID (ResCap); excess loss account; fair market exchanges; transfer pricing (Nortel); trading restrictions and more.

This session will focus on a number of highly debated discharge objection issues, including responsibilities and culpability of debtors’ attorneys, procedures and criteria for settling or dismissing a § 727 objection to discharge in an adversary proceeding, and the “selling” of discharges.

This panel will address disclosure issues relating to disinterestedness, compensation and reimbursement requirements, compensation of fees incurred defending fee applications, and flat-fee arrangements between chapter 7 debtors and counsel, and other issues.

Well over a dozen Catholic dioceses and religious orders have filed chapter 11, from Tucson to the Arctic and from Portland to Milwaukee. A panel of attorneys involved in nearly all of these unique proceedings will provide updates on the cases and analyze the paths that have proved successful — and those that have not.