Business

Sponsored by Business Reorganization Committee Over the past decade, companies burdened with significant asbestos and other tort liability have utilized the so-called “Texas Two-Step” strategy to separate those tort liabilities from core assets and resolve them through the chapter 11 bankruptcy process. The “Texas Two-Step” involves a “divisional merger” permitted under the Texas Business Organizations Code and has garnered renewed national attention when it was used by Johnson & Johnson last month as the means to address tort liability arising from its talc products. Please join us for a webinar where our esteemed panelists will provide an overview of the Texas Two-Step, including key rulings, as well as important features and considerations in large tort bankruptcy cases generally, and discuss their reactions to and predictions for the J&J bankruptcy cases.

Short- and long-term governmental goals linked to zero-carbon electricity-generation have fostered the increased deployment of renewable energy sources and improved transmission and storage distribution. In turn, renewable and alternative energy sources — in tandem with systemic lower natural gas prices and lower electricity demand — have and will continue to cause distress in the merchant power sector, notwithstanding random black swan events like February’s storm in Texas. No doubt the road ahead will be ridden by complexity, not just in relation to market, environmental and economic dynamics, but because of the outsized role Federal law plays in the industry, including the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, the Federal Power Act and the Bankruptcy Code. This session’s panelists, all of whom have experience in the renewable energy and power sectors, will discuss valuation and other relevant issues in the context of expanding alternative and renewable energy sources, and the pressures this expansion will have on the merchant power sector.

James Fama, former vice president of energy delivery for the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), will provide an overview of current issues in cybersecurity from a national perspective, as well as planning opportunities for businesses.

This panel will discuss the challenges the industry faces post-pandemic, including how to get supplies, staff and other key ingredients to make the business aspect of health care work.

Bifurcated fee arrangements involve splitting the consumer chapter 7 engagement into pre-petition and post-petition fee arrangements that require little or no money down for the work required to finish the case. In several jurisdictions across the nation, however, bifurcated fee arrangements in chapter 7 cases are being challenged. This panel will review the complex issues related to these fee arrangements.

The panelists will discuss in-court and out-of-court options for distressed businesses, as well as alternatives both pre- and post-COVID-19, drawing upon their experiences and what they see in the market going forward. Sponsored by Ballard Spahr LLP

This panel will focus on issues regarding gender, race, diversity and belonging, and how to build a resilient workplace.

The global coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the global economy for more than a year creating winners and losers across countries, industries and socio-economic groups. Among the most impacted industries continue to be hospitality, leisure and real estate industries where, despite progress made in vaccinations towards herd immunity, there is no clear recovery timetable in evidence. This roundtable of investors and advisors will explore Covid-19’s impact on valuation and restructuring, including how companies and their stakeholders address liquidity to bridge a distressed company to its pre-pandemic performance levels and the how creditors and equity sponsors navigate these fluid dynamics to maximize their recovery.

This panel will discuss the impact of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 on bankruptcy cases, the latest automatic stay cases, employment of professionals and fee applications, and § 363 sales in the Zoom era.

"Hosted by the Asset Sales and Bankruptcy Litigation Committees This panel will discuss the most cautionary of tales in the asset sales realm, most notably Neiman Marcus (collusion), and regulatory and ownership issues that arise in asset sales that can lead to litigation.