Illinois State Approved Sessions

This panel will focus on issues arising in larger chapter 11 cases, including third-party releases and Plan Support Agreements.

Third-party releases are a hot topic lately, with the recent district court opinions in the chapter 11 cases of Purdue Pharma and Ascena vacating bankruptcy court confirmation orders that approved plans providing for third-party releases. Learn what the laws in various circuits have to say about permissible third-party releases, whether bankruptcy courts are deemed to have subject-matter jurisdiction and statutory authority to approve third-party releases as part of confirmation orders approving plans of reorganization, and what standards are imposed by circuit courts to determine whether a third-party release should be approved.

This panel will focus on subchapter V eligibility, privileges and contested confirmation issues.

This follow-up session will focus on student loan strategies, tax issues, dealing with the chapter 7 trustee and violations of the discharge injunction, and will include an update on Taggart.

This panel will provide an update on the key technological issues facing practicing attorneys today, including cyberattacks, software needs, Zoom updates, electronic signatures, hybrid hearings and cryptotechnology, as well as decentralized autonomous organizations and tokenized assets (i.e., NFTs, metaverse and DeFi).

It has been more than a year since the new Dutch Act on court-sanctioning of private composition to avoid bankruptcy, the so-called WHOA or Dutch Scheme, entered into force. The new Dutch Scheme has received a lot of attention in the (international) market because it offers a flexible restructuring tool in the Netherlands, a jurisdiction that plays an important role in many international restructurings. Notably, the Dutch Scheme introduced debtor-in-possession proceedings, which aim to achieve debt-restructurings outside of formal Dutch bankruptcy processes. Join this panel of experts as they take a look at the Dutch Scheme and the similarities it has to U.S. chapter 11 and English scheme processes, and whether these similarities can also be seen in practice.

This panel will focus on alternative fees in bankruptcy and litigation financing, pursuing claims against third parties and derivative claims/reflective losses, the assignment of claims and court sanctioning.

This panel will be conducted in the format of the TV show “Crossfire” and will address three “hot” or “interesting” bankruptcy issues that are not being addressed in the other sessions. At the conclusion of each discussion, attendees will have an opportunity to vote on how they believe the issue should be resolved.

Post-confirmation trusts increasingly have become a popular means of obtaining plan confirmation and administering estate assets, pursuing litigation, and resolving a variety of disputes in chapter 11. While the use of post-confirmation trusts provides a host of benefits, it may provide traps for the unwary. This panel will explore issues and challenges that frequently arise in structuring and implementing post-confirmation liquidating and litigation trusts, including preservation and limitations of estate powers, analysis and pursuit of litigation, and practical challenges to winding down assets after former officers, directors and employees are no longer incentivized (or compensated) to cooperate. The panel will bring a wealth of nationwide experience to bear, along with the perspectives of post-confirmation fiduciaries, debtors and creditors alike.

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.