Arkansas State Approved Sessions

You learned about it in law school, but have never seen it since. In light of the COVID-19 effects on business operations, this panel will discuss the general applicability of force majeure provisions in contracts, how they excuse or suspend performance, and exceptions to a boilerplate contract provision that we rarely see enforced until recently. The panel will also discuss business interruption insurance in the context of the Pandemic.

Shutdown orders, shuttered industries and an uncertain future due to COVID-19 have left many municipalities with a diminishing revenue base and significantly increasing costs as they strive to protect the health and safety of their residents. The era of COVID-19 is also the era of protests and renewed demands for racial justice in small and larger cities, historic wildfires and weather events due to climate change, and economic-relief packages in Congress at a stalemate as we approach the November election. This panel will consider the potential impacts of these overlapping events on the financial future of our municipalities. Taking into account the lessons learned from Detroit, Puerto Rico and other municipal insolvencies, this expert panel will consider the hard questions facing community leaders, the municipal debt market, public service employees and retirees, private businesses and citizens, and potentially the courts in this unprecedented time.

Most office employees have been working from home throughout the pandemic, and businesses are increasingly realizing that office space is not as essential as once thought. In addition, retailers are closing their doors permanently or shifting exclusively to online sales. Can corporate real estate survive or reinvent itself?

This session will discuss the impact of extraordinary and unforeseen changes in the economy; feasibility in a COVID-19 world; the split between § 1141 analysis and traditional opt-in/opt-out provisions for third-party releases; the best-interest test in connection with third-party releases; the fate of Till and cramdown; valuation issues such as what happens when projections are totally wrong; exclusivity termination; attempts to put assets beyond the reach of lenders; plan voting/§ 1129(a)(10) and artificial impairment; and estimation for voting purposes.

This panel will discuss whether liens are available on unencumbered assets like avoidance actions, credit bidding issues, equitable subordination/ recharacterization concerns, committee challenges to liens and bidding procedures.

Presented by the Commercial and Regulatory Law & Financial Advisors and Investment Bankers Committees This panel will present a primer on the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, focusing on the typical capital structures of pharmaceutical/development companies versus in-pipeline companies. The panelists will examine the factors leading to the recent surge in pharmaceutical bankruptcy cases and their outcomes/resolutions, as well as § 363 sales of pharmaceutical companies’ assets and restructurings. Opiate bankruptcy cases such as Purdue and Mallinckrodt will be highlighted, as will ancillary issues that arise in pharmaceutical bankruptcy cases, such as product recalls, regulatory issues (such as with the FDA) and IP licensing issues.

Presented by the Young and New Members & Ethics and Professional Compensation Committees You work hard for the money, so let’s make sure you get it. This panel will discuss ethical considerations governing that all-important process: getting retained and paid by the bankruptcy estate. Aside from covering the basics of retention for young and new professionals, the panelists will address some of the myriad ethical issues governing retention and compensation that can arise, including connection disclosures, concurrent representations of insiders and expense reimbursement. The session will also discuss recent decisions that could fundamentally affect how professionals are retained — including the use of the so-called “Jay Alix Protocol” and whether nunc pro tunc is still viable.

Witness testimony at trial and in depositions is critical to winning. This panel of restructuring/insolvency litigators and expert witnesses will discuss how you prepare your fact and expert witnesses, including how to respond to direct examination, how to respond to personal attacks and lies, how to deal with an aggressive lawyer, how to prep a fact witness versus an expert witness, and how an expert witness should prep an attorney.

Presented by the Mediation and International Committees Through a mock mediation, this panel of experienced judges and cross-border mediators and practitioners will illustrate the pitfalls and benefits of using mediation to resolve cross-border insolvency disputes.

In this virtual variation on the in-person format, a nationwide group of distinguished judges will discuss current bankruptcy and practical skills issues in an innovative Zoom-style presentation. The judges will rotate to a new online “room,” allowing participants to maximize their time and gain valuable insights into best practices.