Alabama State Approved Sessions

This panel will discuss the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the travel and hospitality industry, including how airlines, cruise lines and hotels have managed through the crisis so far, what’s next for the industry once the pandemic becomes endemic (and hopefully milder), and the unique issues that arise in hotel property workouts and bankruptcies.

This panel will discuss notable chapter 15 and cross-border insolvency cases decided in the past year, including those involving the scope of discovery available to foreign representatives, § 109 eligibility, and the use of chapter 15 to bind creditors to confirmed plans. The panelists will also discuss logistical and practical solutions in running chapter 15 cases.

This panel will provide an update on cryptocurrency’s adoption and integration into the global financial system. The panelists will share practical approaches for bankruptcy practitioners to identify, take possession of and manage cryptocurrency in bankruptcy cases. The panelists will also discuss strategies for debtors in possession and bankruptcy trustees to preserve the value of crypto-estate property.

This interactive discussion will identify and discuss the issues that attorneys who practice in the insolvency area should comprehend and consider in the complicated interactions between director and officer liability insurance and bankruptcy law. The discussion will also include a review of recent decisions that have an impact in this developing area. The panelists will address the pitfalls and challenges in realizing value on D&O policies; effective approaches for challenging them, including how to interpret policies, what to look for in the policies, and strategies and solutions that address policy exclusions; unique bankruptcy issues; and differences among cases involving trustees and debtors in possession. Audience questions will be solicited in advance.

This panel will analyze and explore issues and obstacles faced by debtors, creditors and other interested parties in recent mass tort bankruptcy cases. Topics to be covered will include tort claimant committees and government plaintiffs, estimation and jury trials, and channeling injunctions and settlement trusts.

Bankruptcy work is highly stressful and intense, yet few insolvency professionals have ever received science-based training on how to improve their emotional well-being, mental health or cognitive functioning. No matter who we are or how successful we are, we can all make progress in reducing our stress, improving our happiness, and enhancing our cognitive functioning in our work. During this keynote presentation, you will learn about the neuroscientific, biochemical and physiological connections between stress and cognition. You also will be provided with a collection of tangible, science-based tools and techniques that you can put to use the very next day to reduce stress and enhance cognitive functioning in your career and life. Specific techniques of body, emotion and mind will be shared to help you unlock your fullest potential, optimize your resiliency, and achieve your highest form of success in your work. A happier and more successful version of you awaits!

The real estate sector is accounting for an increasing number of bankruptcy filings, and the pandemic has hit the hospitality industry particularly hard and is spurring restructuring activity in that area. Join this panel of experts as they discuss the rise in hospitality bankruptcies, challenges that are specific to this industry and the real estate sector, and restructuring opportunities that have emerged and will likely continue as part of the post-pandemic recovery.

This panel will discuss the recent BVI Court of Appeal decision of Net International Property Limited v. Erez (22 Feb. 2021), along with recent decisions in Hong Kong, Singapore, England and Wales. The panelists will also consider alternatives to recognition and assistance, and practical considerations when there are joint appointments with BVI liquidators.

This panel will discuss the current and post-pandemic view of the impact of mandatory vaccinations on post-acute care, including the relaxation of the three-day rule on quality of staffing, bracing for changes in the future of infection control, the effects of cost structures from PPE expenditures, the movement toward home health care, visitation limitations and their psychological effects on patients, patient care ombudsmen and their usefulness, the impact of COVID-19 on private equity and varying facets of post-acute care, and insolvency and exit strategies for health care providers.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP's Josh Sussberg will join Jessica Steinhagen and Ian Howland of Reorg's First Day team to provide an overview of 2021 chapter 11 filings data and trends, moderated by ABI Public Affairs Officer John Hartgen. They will also provide industry-level insights across various sectors and highlight key takeaways. Following 2020, the busiest year for chapter 11s on First Day record, 2021 was the slowest and is the first in at least six years to record fewer than 300 cases, with 275. All sectors recorded a drop in filings except for real estate and utilities. Real estate matched 2020’s total exactly, and utilities were up 57% because of Winter Storm Uri’s impact on power-producers in Texas. 2021 included five real estate chapter 11s with more than $1 billion in debt; the sector led all others with respect to filings.