No CLE

This panel includes practitioners and a distinguished bankruptcy judge who will survey current business bankruptcy developments, including a wide range of issues from bankruptcy courts’ jurisdiction, venue and constitutional authority to other practical issues affecting estate professionals, plan confirmation and enforcement, avoidance actions and other bankruptcy-related litigation.

Financial Advisors Track: Current Issues for Financial Advisors in Bankruptcy Cases This panel will discuss the various governance, operational and quasi-legal issues that financial advisors deal with on a day-to-day basis before, during and after the commencement of a chapter 11 case. Topics will include addressing management fraud, dealing with ERISA/labor/WARN Act/union issues, navigating corporate governance issues, Dodd-Frank compliance, and the state of the law on pursuit of accounting and securities fraud claims.

Litigation claims are often the most valuable estate assets especially in our growing trend toward liquidating cases. This panel will explore litigation trends, strategies and alternative theories of recovery reflective of the need to focus on litigation in the absence of traditional reorganization. Pick up some helpful trial tips and practice pointers ranging from identifying causes of action, choosing your jurisdiction, engaging professionals, preparing experts and readying yourself for trial.

As social media gain a foothold in all communications, attorneys are using the platform for both business and personal use. The panel will identify the ethical dangers and professionalism concerns that are raised when attorneys use Facebook, LinkedIn, and other forms of social media. The panel will discuss, among other issues, ethics opinions from various jurisdictions dealing with social networking, the minimum standard of attorney “competence,” confidentiality, problems affecting the attorney-client privilege, using social media for investigations, locator platforms and other recent advancements, and best practices for social networking by attorneys. Non CLE.

Unlike most 363 sale programs, this program will not involve the aspects of the sale that are the focus of court proceedings, but will take an in-depth look at the transaction documents that get the deal done. The primary document discussed with be the APA-what does that document need to accomplish, what provisions should be included, how do APAs used in 363 sales differ from other APAs, what to do about reps and warranties and why and, what are the points of negotiation? Experienced deal-side practitioners will identify the elements of an asset purchase agreement that are important, and the respective views of the buyer and the seller as to those provisions.

How to manage the public side of a chapter 11 case, dealing with customers, vendors, employees, union members, press, shareholders, etc.; use of websites and public relations firms; FAQs; comfort orders and confidentiality restrictions

Recent cases have evidenced one form of jurisdictional migration and two forms of venue migration. As to the jurisdictional migration, international companies with virtually no U.S. connection seek to, and generally succeed at, establishing a sufficient U.S. presence to file a Chapter 11 in the United States because, if there are reorganization proceedings in the countries that are their COMIs, they are perceived as inadequate (Marco Polo, Omega, GenMar). What has worked for non-U.S. companies seeking to invoke U.S. Bankruptcy Court jurisdiction, and what is the legal authority? Venue migration is nothing new--debtors file in their place of incorporation rather than the venue in which their headquarters or primary operations are. What are the factors that go into that decision? Finally, sometimes debtors are forced to migrate back. What factors have resulted in a change of venue? (Houghton Mifflin and Patriot Coal).

The transformation rule/negative equity, deficiency claims upon surrender of collateral, the applicable commitment period, contract interest, § 1322(b)(1) as it involves fixtures and personal property, and assignments of rent, § 1322(b)(2) as it involves the timing of the analysis.