No CLE

Bill Rochelle will review the cases creating a bankruptcy buzz that practitioners should be aware of.

This panel will discuss current trends in energy, from gas production to the coal market to alternative forms. What will the industry look like 10 years from now? Do we need coal? Updates of current markets, as well as recent bankruptcy cases and issues, will be addressed, including the rejection of gathering agreements and the upward trend in requests for equity committees in commodity cases (Breitburn, Penn Virginia, Energy XXI, Horsehead, SandRidge, C&J, Peabody).

Amazon PRIME is great for consumers, but is it killing merchants that have physical stores, along with the mall owners that house those stores? Join our panelists as they review the key issues in recent merchant and mall owner bankruptcies and restructurings, and find out what the future holds for these troubled industries.

In many bankruptcy cases, unhappy creditors look for someone to blame — and for a source of recovery when the debtors’ assets are not sufficient. Claims against directors and officers — often alleging conflicts of interest or second-guessing business judgments — can serve both purposes, and the existence of insurance coverage makes these claims even more attractive. This panel will discuss D&O claims from both the estates' and defendants’ perspectives, and will review recent case law you need to know about if you are involved in a D&O litigation.

The Frank W. Koger Lecture was established by Frank W. Koger, UMKC JD '53, and Mrs. Jeanine Koger to enhance the understanding of commercial and bankruptcy law among students at the UMKC School of Law. Judge Koger was appointed as a bankruptcy judge for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri in 1986. In 1996, he was appointed to the newly formed Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit, and served as its first Chief Judge until his death in 2003.

This panel will analyze the impact of recent decisions on investment strategy, including the use of restructuring support agreements and federal and state law remedies, as well as the litigation risk of recoveries absent a bankruptcy filing; the acceleration of debt maturities and redemption/“make whole” premiums; and the scope of § 546(e) “safe harbor” provisions.

The panelists will discuss the various issues that have been raised in the Energy Future Holdings bankruptcy, including make-wholes, the unimpairment opinion, the pre-plan settlement appeal, and interaction with state regulators and the bankruptcy court.

Poker players look for tells. Polygraphs measure physiological indicators. Movies suggest that there is some magic to looking somebody in the eye. In court, though, judges and lawyers are left to their own devices to determine whether a witness is lying. A clinical psychologist and a former attorney general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will join experienced trial lawyers and judges to discuss lying and the limits of detecting lying, including verbal and nonverbal cues that aid in assessing the credibility of statements.

This panel will focus on the uses and limits of Bankruptcy Rule 2004 discovery, including e-discovery pointers, the impact of the latest amendments, jurisdictional and scope (“fishing expedition”) limits on discovery, keeping results confidential, using Rule 2004 examination transcripts in later proceedings, and various “nuts and bolts” practice points. The discussion will be based on a fact pattern presenting these various issues.