Illinois State Approved Sessions

This session will walk attendees through various cybersecurity issues, focusing on the implications for and obligations of attorneys representing companies in chapter 11 when a security incident/data-privacy event occurs.

Join ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle as he hosts a panel of bankruptcy judges to discuss circuit splits and hot topics on important bankruptcy issues. Back again from the Winter Leadership Conference, this attendee-favorite panel will be presented in a fun game show format, where judges will vote to resolve the issues before they reach the Supreme Court.

Section 506(c) and 552(b) waivers have become a staple in the pre-petition-lender-turned-DIP-lender toolbox. But what are the unsecured creditor’s tools for pushing back, and the arguments for why value that accrued post-petition might properly be reserved for junior creditors? Apart from collateral battles, this panel will explore the types of securities or other considerations that some plans have distributed to the class junior to the fulcrum security in acknowledgment of the potential asset appreciation not fully realized at the time of plan negotiation, as well as the ABI Commission’s recommendation to implement a “Redemption Option Value” — and the challenges that such structures pose.

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

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.

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.

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.