Illinois State Approved Sessions

This roundtable will provide updates from the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York (and surrounding areas) about court rules and practices, and discuss topics of general interest to the bar.

ABI's Business Reorganization and Commercial and Regulatory Law Committees ERISA/PBGC issues in bankruptcy/reorganization cases always raise interesting and challenging questions. Are you prepared to identify and handle them? Please join us for this special ABI-members-only webinar, during which the speakers will address both single-employer and multi-employer pension funding, termination and withdrawal-liability issues, other PBGC/ERISA-focused bankruptcy issues, and ERISA fiduciary issues that often arise in administering or terminating an ERISA-governed retirement plan in a bankruptcy/reorganization setting.

This panel will provide a lively discussion of valuation, liability management transactions, corporate governance, ethics and the bankruptcy process set against the backdrop of the Casears restructuring and chapter 11 case. The panelists, all of whom were intimately involved in the Caesars bankruptcy as principal, advisor or journalist, will offer their unique insights into this fascinating chapter 11 case and the lessons (legal, practical and ethical) it teaches for restructurings today.

Over the past decade, companies burdened with significant asbestos and other tort liability have utilized the so-called “Texas Two-Step” strategy to separate those tort liabilities from core assets and resolve them through the chapter 11 bankruptcy process. This session will cover isolating liabilities to preserve ongoing value with mass torts and corporate side changes, and subsequent bankruptcy issues, including venue, ongoing operations, valuations and third-party releases.

Sponsored by ABI's Real Estate Committee The private and for-profit college, university and school sector continues to be challenged due to decreasing enrollment, cost structures and increased competition from community colleges, area technical schools and online offerings that students turned to during the pandemic. It is estimated that there are hundreds of these real estate-heavy institutions, which can have campuses with substantial improvements having been made, or they can operate solely in leased space. This program will focus on how the real estate footprint of these institutions can be utilized in connection with other turnaround strategies to achieve a turnaround or restructuring. The discussion will include public/private partnerships for parking, dormitories and more, sale-leasebacks and bridge financing, lease restructurings, monetizing surplus real estate, developing owned real estate, and marketing closed campuses for repurposing or redevelopment.

Hosted by the Mediation Committee Mediators are akin to psychologists, using skills of diplomacy and psychology to attempt to bring divergent people to a consensus. At ABI's 2022 Annual Spring Meeting, Dr. Bruce Rabin discussed how nearly two years of remote work has taken a psychological toll on people. From the standpoint of legal practice in general and mediation in particular, this has impacted everything from how we do business and how we relate to legal adversaries to how both mediators and mediation parties interact with each other and make decisions. As a follow-up to Dr. Rabin’s presentation, this webinar will discuss further the impacts, pros and cons, of remote mediation, which has forced mediators to adapt their skills to an environment where the parties never get in the same room. What difficulties does remote mediation present? What observations have been made on how remote mediation has affected the decision-making process? Does remote mediation pose unique challenges to obtaining a settlement? What has been made easier using remote technologies? This webinar will also report on the results of a survey the Mediation Committee conducted regarding members' thoughts and comments about remote mediation, and whether it is here to stay in some hybrid fashion.

Hosted by the Financial Advisors and Investment Banking Committee Subchapter V cases often involve troubled small businesses with limited financial means to hire a financial advisor. One unique feature about subchapter V cases is that a case trustee is appointed in every case, and some of these trustees are experienced bankruptcy professionals with backgrounds in accounting and finance. This panel is comprised of nonlawyer subchapter V trustees who regularly serve as financial advisors and accountants in chapter 11 matters. The panelists will share their perspectives on how they have used their financial and accounting experience to help subchapter V debtors successfully negotiate and confirm plans where feasibility and valuation issues have been raised.

Industry experts from the past four decades will walk attendees down insolvency memory lane.

This panel of subchapter V experts will discuss the multitude of issues that have developed since the enactment of the statute, and how practitioners can best deal with these issues.

This session will cover the use of independent special committees/directors and will include a discussion on what independence entails, including extended family relationships/financial referral relationships, even if they are not formalized.