Alabama State Approved Sessions

This panel will discuss the intricacies of getting retained as a professional in large chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, including handling disclosures and conflict issues that might arise. In addition, the panel will delve into the nuances of filing fee applications and avoiding pitfalls under the Jay Alix Protocol and Large Fee Case Guidelines.

This panel will take an in-depth look at chapter 15, focusing on the Judicial Insolvency Network's cross-border guidelines, as well as guidelines for communication and cooperation between courts in cross-border insolvency matters, and modalities of court-to-court communication.

The panelists will provide a practical checklist for preparing — and delivering — effective oral arguments, and will explore which strategies have worked best for them throughout the years, highlight pitfalls to avoid, and provide valuable reminders to practitioners at all levels of experience. Finally, the panelists will respond to questions and offer strategies to help young lawyers seek (and obtain) oral argument opportunities.

Appeal granted; decision reversed. This panel will offer practical advice and best practices and strategies related to preserving, presenting and winning bankruptcy appeals. The panelists will also discuss some of the most demanding legal and subject-matter challenges confronting appellants as they seek to reverse unfavorable bankruptcy court rulings.

There have been a number of recent bankruptcy filings by large and high profile healthcare providers, such as the filings of Verity Health System of California, Inc., in Los Angeles (the second largest hospital bankruptcy case in American history), Hospital Acquisition LLC and 25 related debtors d/b/a Promise Health and American Academic Health System (Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christopher Hospital in Philadelphia) in Wilmington, Delaware, and Astria Health in Yakima, Washington. Additionally, EmpowerHMS owned or helped manage a rural hospital empire that encompassed 18 facilities across eight states. After funding from a controversial lab-billing venture dried up, 12 of the hospitals entered bankruptcy and eight closed their doors. There has also been a steady stream of lower profile cases, including Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, Illinois, Penobscot Valley Hospital in Maine, and Springfield Hospital, Inc., in Vermont, and it appears that there are more filings in store. The webinar will discuss (i) the reasons for this growing trend of healthcare cases, (ii) the unique challenges in those cases, which involve not only the typical payment of creditor claims, but also the care of patients, (iii) the particular issues that arise uniquely in this class of cases, including jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid Programs, treatment of provider agreements, the intersection of nonprofit law and bankruptcy law, and treatment of medical malpractice claims, and (iv) whether this trend of healthcare filings will continue.