No CLE

Sponsored by the Unsecured Trade Creditors Committee Independent directors are taking on larger and more frequent roles in complex commercial cases. What role do official committees have in these cases, where special committees have often been appointed prepetition to consider and authorize transactions, or may be tasked post-petition with investigating transactions authorized before their appointment? This webinar will explore how the roles and incentives of independent directors/special committees differ from those of official committees; analyze the hurdles each type of entity faces when investigating and raising challenges to company transactions; and consider how each serves the estate—and whether there is room for cooperation.

Many higher-education institutions find that COVID-19 simply shined a harsh spotlight on what had already been a slow burn, ignited by demographics, debt, distress and denial. Join our panelists for a thoughtful conversation about how we got here, and which institutions are most at risk. A discussion of chapter 11 issues and alternatives for nonprofit colleges will follow, with time for questions at the end.

Join the ABI and SRS Acquiom for a webinar discussing the state of middle-market loans. This segment of the marketplace includes businesses that are too small to attract large bank financing and too large to qualify for small business loans. The event will feature industry experts discussing: current trends impacting the extension of loans; effects of COVID-19; and fresh challenges to the extension of credit facilities.

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.

Hosted by the Consumer Bankruptcy and Legislation Committees This panel will compare Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s bill with the ABI Consumer Commission’s Final Report, released in 2019, and will address consumer bankruptcy legislation that could be introduced this spring.

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