Search Topics
Over 2,700 Hours of Free Content
Mountainside Chat: The Ethics of Getting Hired
This year’s mountainside chat will address recent developments in the requirements for employment of disinterestedness, disclosure and disqualification. It will focus on two recent decisions relating to the extent to which a lack of disinterestedness or the presence of an ethical conflict of one firm member is, or is not, imputed on others within the same firm, and whether there is a difference between the two. The discussion will also address different views expressed by courts on the impact of receipt of a retainer, outstanding obligations for pre-petition services, and the potential for avoidance of pre-petition payments.
International Aspects of U.S. Bankruptcy Cases: Is a U.S. Bankruptcy Court the Proverbial Roaring Deaf Lion in the International Forest?
This panel will explore the breadth and limitations of U.S. Bankruptcy Code and U.S. bankruptcy court reach in the international community. There will be no discussion of chapter 15; rather, the panel will cover such issues as whether it is possible for a debtor to create jurisdiction in the U.S., and if so, whether it can and should maintain that jurisdiction. The panel will use recent cases in the maritime industry, such as Excel Maritime, General Maritime and TMT Procurement, as well as in the hospitality industry, such as Baha Mar and Scrub Island, to explore the reach of U.S. jurisdiction and the practical limitations imposed on a debtor and a court when a subset of the creditors do not care, and have little reason to be concerned about, what the Bankruptcy Code or a U.S. bankruptcy court order says. The panel will also consider the practical limitations imposed by cross-border issues in cases where there is undeniably U.S. jurisdiction, including what “critical foreign vendor” relief might be available even in U.S. courts that reject the critical-vendor doctrine, whether it is possible for a chapter 7 trustee to realize value from offshore assets, and whether the automatic stay, avoidance powers and free-and-clear orders have any practical impact in the international arena.
Cutting-Edge Chapter 11 Plan Issues
This program will explore current hot-button topics relating to the drafting and confirmation of chapter 11 plans. The issues discussed will including drafting to accommodate, as well as to either encourage or discourage § 1111(b) elections, and the strategy of holders of secured claims in either making or not making that election. It will also include a discussion of third-party releases and injunctions, using recent cases in the First Circuit to illustrate when such releases are, and are not, appropriate. Finally, the panel will explore the tension between class-skipping carve-outs or “gifts” and the requirements of confirmation, how to deal with corporate debt defined by § 1141(d)(6) as being not dischargeable, compensation of committee members and the role of existing equity.
Claims Litigation in Bankruptcy
This session will cover a variety of topics related to litigating claims in bankruptcy. It will explore both strategic considerations behind and the mechanics of asserting and contesting claims. Starting with the necessity and wisdom, or lack thereof, of filing proofs of claim, the program will go on to discuss the need for and sufficiency of supporting documentation, the mechanics of objecting to claims, the initial and shifting burdens of proof when a claim is contested, and the best practices in litigating contested claims from both the claimant and the estate representatives’ perspectives. The program will also cover issues regarding limitations on a bankruptcy court’s authority to adjudicate claims, estimation of claims and/or temporary allowance of claims, and late-filed claims, including the overlay of other nonbankruptcy statutes on such claims, most notably the recent case law relating to the impact of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act on late or expired claims.
e-Learning Topics

Filter by Approved State
Most Popular Live Sessions
Join live sessions your peers are attending now.