Business

Restructuring professionals deal daily with distressed transactions involving all industries, shapes and sizes. Distressed investors are critical drivers of the restructuring industry and the U.S. economy as a whole. What drives distressed investors? How do they evaluate potential distressed targets? This panel consists of distressed investors and professionals representing distressed investors who evaluate these assets and close these deals.

Developed for experienced bankruptcy practitioners, this webinar examines the Supreme Court's February 2018 decision in FTI Consulting v. Merit Management and the questions it has raised about what kinds of securities payments, trades, and M&A activity are still protected by the Bankruptcy Code's so-called "safe harbors" in the event of a bankruptcy filing. Our distinguished panel will review how the Bankruptcy Code protects certain financial activity from the automatic stay and "claw back" litigation, what the Supreme Court did (and did not) say in Merit Management, and how attorneys might structure trades and M&A deals going forward to maximize safe harbor protection.

Taking in the perspectives of the debtor and secured lenders, including the appropriateness to decline to support a filing in a jurisdiction that one believes is “unfavorable” in terms of permitted financing terms and covenants, how does a practitioner decide where to file? What goes into the decision? Why are the Sixth Circuit courts not as popular for selection? When should a venue be challenged?

The panel explores the challenges with foreign asset discovery in chapter 15 proceedings. Most foreign discovery is obtained either pursuant to Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 2004 or through the application of the Hague Convention. But how effective are these methods given the cumbersome and often complicated process of obtaining discovery? Are there more effective and efficient methods toward obtaining these results? Do other foreign jurisdictions have less cumbersome and more expedited processes to propound this type of discovery? The discussion includes commonly faced issues in obtaining discovery when locating and seizing assets, how to obtain records to determine the financial condition of the parties, and how foreign law may work to limit discovery.

This panel will focus on drafting skills for bankruptcy and restructuring attorneys. It is intended to provide a practical “how to” discussion and analysis of negotiating and drafting chapter 11 sale documents and pleadings, including asset-purchase agreements, bid-procedure motions and orders, sale motions and orders, and related documents. The session will also provide form documents and discuss heavily negotiated or scrutinized provisions.

There are two common scenarios in which the valuation of a company’s debt securities might need to be assessed. If the consideration under a bankruptcy plan includes debt, how do we determine whether that debt will trade at par, and what disclosure is required? If a buyer in a § 363 sale proposes to issue debt as payment, how should this be valued? Are the considerations the same in these two scenarios?

This session will focus on trucking and transportation, post-BAPCPA retail, the PG&E filing, agriculture, building products and home goods, and for-profit higher education.

Take a look forward as this panel predicts where the Code will be in the next 40 years. Will venue be mandated or constricted? How will student loans be handled? What technologies will be in the courtrooms of the future? Does current case law foreshadow what is to come? How will the international insolvency landscape change? Will there even be a need for bankruptcy?

In Czyzewski v. Jevic Holding Corp., the U.S. Supreme Court held that a bankruptcy court cannot approve a structured dismissal that provides for distributions outside the ordinary priority rules without the affected creditor's consent. This panel will discuss the survival of structured dismissals and class skipping settlements after Jevic. The panel will address how courts around the country have handled theses issues following the 2017 Jevic decision.