Business

Foreign representatives have begun using chapter 15 more creatively in seeking a broad array of relief; consequently, parties in the U.S. have increasingly been raising a number of challenges. In 2014, foreign representatives were presented with a number of objections to chapter 15 relief, including objections questioning the proper location of the foreign debtor’s center of main interests and the fairness of proceedings before the foreign court. This panel will discuss cases that address these issues, including In re Octaviar Admin. Pty Ltd., In re Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. and In re Rede Energia, S.A., and the steps the foreign representatives in those cases took to maximize their likelihood of obtaining relief in the U.S. The panel will also discuss whether chapter 15 recognition is a prerequisite to seeking relief in a U.S. court, and will analyze the split of authority on that issue.

Recent decades have seen substantial expansion in exemptions from the Bankruptcy Code’s provisions with respect to repurchase agreements, or “repos.” These agreements, which are equivalent to very-short-term (often one-day) secured loans, are exempt from such core bankruptcy provisions as the automatic stay, the avoidability of fraudulent transfers and the avoidability of preferences. Recent scholarship has questioned whether these exemptions are justified for mortgage-backed securities and other securities that could prove illiquid or unable to realize their long-term value in the event of the kind of panic experienced during the financial crisis of 2007-09. This panel will explore the arguments for and against revising the Bankruptcy Code’s existing treatment of these agreements.

Hear from a noted Supreme Court scholar and the Reporter to the ABI's Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11.

This panel, which includes a bankruptcy judge, experienced litigators, and an expert witness, will explore through a mock trial various evidentiary issues that routinely arise in trials in bankruptcy court.

Join a distinguished group of panelists involved in the hiring — and firing — of bankruptcy professionals. Hear how you can serve clients better and make them want to work with you.

Health care bankruptcy filings went up 38 percent between 2010-14. This panel will examine current issues facing the health care industry and the intersection of health care law and bankruptcy. Topics will include 363 sales, reorganization, issues related to provider agreements, regulatory issues and health care ombudsmen.

This panel will examine and discuss the rights of oversecured lenders to obtain recoveries that go beyond principal and ordinary interest and recent case law dealing. The panel will focus on the right of oversecured lenders to recover late fees, reimbursement of attorneys’ fees, make-whole provisions/pre-payment premiums, original issue discounts and default interest.

What is the difference between “market value” and “intrinsic value”?; what is market value, and how is it discerned?; how reliable are various indicia or tests of market value, including: (1) public (or private) bankruptcy trading prices of the debt or equity securities of a debtor, (2) outcome of the bankruptcy sale process and (3) credit-bidding, and when can “market tests” be wrong?; have bankruptcy courts allowed lay perceptions of discernible market value to replace expert testimony and other proofs relevant to § 506 determinations or cramdowns?; how can rights offerings be used and assessed as an indication of value?