Business

This year, the WLC opens with ABI Talks, one of our highest-rated programs ever! Based on the incredibly popular “TED Talks” format, ABI Talks address diverse and interesting topics. If you consider yourself a bankruptcy guru, or just want to be one, you will not want to miss this featured program!

This annual favorite will cover all recent bankruptcy law decisions and current consumer bankruptcy law issues, and is a must-attend for professionals to stay current on consumer bankruptcy law issues.

This panel will explore the nuts and bolts of bankruptcy appeals, taking into account the needs of one’s clients, examining the do’s and don’ts for an effective appeal, discussing the differences of appealing to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel versus electing to proceed before the district court, the limits of appellate jurisdiction over interlocutory appeals, and addressing strategies for a successful appeal.

“Proceed” With Caution: Navigating 11 U.S.C. § 552’s effect on prepetition security interests in proceeds of various assets

Learn from others’ mistakes and experiences. The panel will share tips and painful lessons on anticipating and avoiding ethical and legal problems in business restructuring cases.

This session will focus on the increasing number of senior citizens filing for bankruptcy. Why are so many elders now filing? What unique challenges do they present? Do their Social Security benefits and pension incomes become available to fund chapter 13 plans? How are reverse mortgages treated in chapters 7 and 13? What happens when an elderly debtor passes away during a chapter 7, 11 or 13 bankruptcy case? What if there is a surviving spouse who is also a joint debtor?

What issues are likely to be raised by tough clients, and how do you best address them? Join the panelists as they help you weave your way through this and other ethical minefields.

This session will feature a “speed-dating-style” of roundtable discussion of current bankruptcy and practical skills issues with regional judges and trustees changing tables every 15-20 minutes.

This panel will present a fraudulent transfer update and discussion regarding the split over § 546(e) safe harbors (Physiotherapy, Tribune, Madoff, Meritt Management), 10-year reach-back periods (Kipnis), the reinstatement of unsecured creditors’ intentional fraudulent conveyance claims and the ruling that the intent of the CEO can be imputed to the company (Lyondell), the finding that substantive consolidation does not augment the trustee’s § 544(b) avoiding powers by allowing the trustee to rely on predicate creditors from another estate (Petters), and the ruling that access to a credit line rebuts unreasonably small capital claims (SemCrude). The session will also feature an update on the Trust Indenture Act, including discussion of the recent Second Circuit decision in Chesapeake Energy and its implications regarding the finality of bankruptcy court orders, and an update on the litigation of feasibility issues (Paragon).

This panel will discuss the best practices for drafting motions and briefs and presenting those filings to the court when they are contested and uncontested. The panelists also will discuss the pitfalls to avoid when drafting motions and briefs and presenting those pleadings to the court.