Alaska State Approved Sessions

This session will explore key ethical issues facing bankruptcy practitioners and judges, including professional responsibility, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and duties to clients, creditors and the court. The panelists will examine recent case law, evolving ethical standards, and practical guidance for navigating complex situations in bankruptcy practice.

This session will cover pending pertinent U.S. Supreme Court and appellate cases, as well as recently decided cases.

This panel will provide an update on today’s retail restructuring landscape by discussing hot topics in retail bankruptcy cases, administrative solvency challenges, the “billing vs. accrual” approach in leases (Avianca Holdings), nondebtor releases and injunctions in sale orders, and chapter 15 and sales of U.S. assets “free and clear” (Goli). How far have we come over the years? What out-of-court solutions might work best?

CLE credit is not available for this session.This panel will review various macro issues that will likely impact the restructuring community in 2026, including trends associated with the private credit markets and the health care, retail and real estate sectors.

Resolved: The doctrine of in pari delicto should bar a trustee from recovering solely for the benefit of creditors.Resolved: The above transaction is an avoidable fraudulent conveyance, and the original lenders may recover more than via a general unsecured claim.A debtor engaged in an LME transaction in which the debtor received substantial liquidity by subordinating a debt secured by a first lien on the debtor’s principal assets to a new, more senior first lien. The debtor received desperately needed liquidity, but the subordination substantially impaired the recoveries received by the original first-lien lenders. A subsequent bankruptcy was filed within 18 months. Unsecured creditor recoveries will be 2%. The court determined that the subordination agreement violated the terms of the original loan agreements.

This panel canvasses practical tax-related considerations for consumer attorneys to help you avoid common pitfalls, including the impact of tax issues on the timing of filing, dischargeability, asset administration and exemptions; a survey of trust fund taxes, what they are, how they differ across the states, and what they mean for individual liability; the responsibilities of chapter 13 debtors from a tax perspective; and negotiating with taxing authorities.

This panel will focus on state court receiverships, federal court receiverships, involuntary bankruptcies, assignments for the benefit of creditors and other alternatives to traditional workouts, all from a creditor’s perspective.

This panel will break down last year’s Supreme Court bankruptcy cases, notable circuit court of appeals decisions, and growing circuit splits, and will discuss how developments in bankruptcy appellate law have impacted bankruptcy practice.

In today’s volatile commercial real estate market, the intersection of lease law and bankruptcy is more complex than ever. This panel dives into the real-world challenges landlords and tenants face when bankruptcy hits, using recent high-profile cases — including WeWork and a wave of "Chapter 22" retail filings — to examine the growing tensions among market realities, restructuring costs and the Bankruptcy Code.

Liability-management exercises (LMEs) have become common transactions in order for financially distressed companies to obtain financing secured by previously encumbered assets. From uptiers, drop-downs, double dips and pari plus transactions, courts have begun to analyze and rule on the enforceability of LMEs and, in certain instances, their limitations. This panel will analyze various examples of recent LMEs and discuss the repercussions of such transactions from both the borrower and lender perspective.