Business

This session will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of restructuring under chapter 11 as opposed to under a foreign restructuring scheme. The panelists include a restructuring lawyer who is familiar with the popular European restructuring schemes.

This panel will discuss the state of retail and associated real estate markets across the U.S., U.K. and European markets with industry experts from these jurisdictions. The panelists will consider what is happening now, how is the market changing, and what might happen in the future.

Hosted by International & Asset Sales Committees Several U.S. bankruptcy courts recently have recognized CCAA reverse vesting orders in chapter 15 cases, but not without some reservations as to their breadth and effect. This panel will discuss the use of reverse vesting orders to effect asset sales in cross-border transactions.

Is the debtor always right? The Bankruptcy Code and its underlying policies are designed to give the debtor a fresh start and foster reorganization. However, committees and individual creditors are not always on board with a debtor’s restructuring efforts and at times prefer payment over compromise or even a going-forward business partner. This panel will cover the tools and strategies committees and individual creditors use to slow down a debtor’s restructuring efforts to address the collective demands of committees or the individual needs of creditors both big and small.

Bankruptcy practitioners are all familiar with the old adage “disclose, disclose, disclose” when it comes to disclosures of connections under Bankruptcy Rule 2014 in a retention application. But what exactly makes a disclosure meaningful, and how does one ensure that relevant information is disclosed? This panel will explore the gray areas between our ethical obligations as attorneys, the requirements imposed by the Bankruptcy Code and Rules, and practical limitations of bankruptcy disclosures for estate professionals.

In the 2022 and 2023 Supreme Court terms, there have been three or four bankruptcy cases on the docket in each term, as opposed to the more normal one case every year or even every other year. Cases have included both very significant issues that may have far-ranging effects, as in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P. (whether the Bankruptcy Code authorizes a court to approve, as part of a plan of reorganization under chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, a release that extinguishes claims held by nondebtors against nondebtor third parties without the claimants’ consent), and more discrete issues that could have limited impact, as in Office of the U.S. Trustee v. John Q. Hammons Fall 2006, LLC (whether to require the U.S. Trustee to issue refunds for the extra fees paid by debtors in certain districts to address the lack of uniformity identified in Siegel v. Fitzgerald). This panel will discuss these Supreme Court cases from the last two terms.

What is a “good faith” bankruptcy filing after LTL? Is there a “good faith” requirement at all, and is it subjective or objective? How much financial distress is necessary (if any), and how can a debtor know when it gets there? What lessons should smaller debtors take from large mass tort cases? Is there really a split in the circuits on these issues? Join this ABI/IWIRC panel for a lively and interactive discussion of good-faith (and bad-faith) filings.

Receiverships under state law have become an increasingly popular and meaningful alternative to bankruptcy, specifically when there are events of fraud, misappropriations of assets and related regulatory-body involvement. This panel will examine the basics of such receiverships and, given the current state of federal law (which excludes cannabis-related businesses from bankruptcy), will use the cannabis industry as an example to discuss the details, benefits and potential pitfalls of state court receiverships for highly regulated businesses. The panelists also will explore the Uniform Commercial Real Estate Receivership Act.

This panel will explore plan-confirmation considerations for chapter 11 debtors in small business cases compared to those debtors that have elected to proceed under subchapter V, with a focus on comparing the cramdown requirements and select plan-confirmation issues.