Louisiana State Approved Sessions

A panel of judges will discuss best practices in oral and written advocacy.

ABI Past-Presidents Panel on Current Developments in the News

This panel will discuss the historic significance of the General Motors bankruptcy case with an in-depth discussion about the issuance of public units in a major bankruptcy. The session will also include the challenges addressed by the team and the value of a freely traded unit.

This panel will focus on the continuing role of creditors’ committees in the current chapter 11 environment. As the fulcrum of security moves up the balance sheet, the utility of committees has been coming under attack. Although historically committees have consisted primarily of trade creditors, they now regularly include bondholders, indenture trustees, the PBGC and unions. Learn about the challenges for professionals representing committees and the way committee members evaluate how to fulfill their fiduciary duties.

Your pleadings and briefs are the first, often the last and typically the most comprehensive opportunity you have to persuade a court. This panel will provide you with essential guidance for effective and persuasive written advocacy at both the trial and appellate levels.

Following an introductory video clip about the dangers of social networking in litigation, a panel featuring a judge, a trustee and a practitioner will lead a discussion on the inherent risks in using social networking, some of the ethical issues involved, and suggestions for how to manage these business and ethical risks that are associated with the ever-changing world of social networking.

This panel will discuss a variety of issues surrounding the use of plan-support agreements, including their structure, goals and benefits, their impact on non-signatories, disclosure and solicitation issues, lessons learned from recent cases (Innkeepers and Indianapolis Downs), and the applicability of plan-support agreements in middle-market cases.

Two litigants will argue plan confirmation issues before a panel of three judges. These issues may include treatment of make-whole premiums, cure and reinstatement to avoid payment of default interest, plan releases and exculpation, whether multiple debtors must each satisfy § 1129 requirements in a nonsubstantively consolidated plan, plan settlements, post-petition lock-up agreements, the dischargeability of unknown claims, death traps and gifting.

This panel will discuss the variety of issues that can arise in an individual chapter 11 case and will cover the issue of limited representation — the subject that the Ethics Task Force report presented at this year’s Annual Spring Meeting. This session will also be of interest to counsel representing lenders, who are often just as befuddled when it comes to handling individual chapter 11 cases.