Maine State Approved Sessions

This panel of Chapter 9 specialists will discuss the Chapter 9 bankruptcy process including eligibility under Chapter 9, the authority of the bankruptcy court, powers of the municipal debtor, the role of creditors, the automatic stay, issues peculiar to certain types of Chapter 9 debtors such as hospitals and cities and the recent developments in chapter 9.

Class action lawsuits in both business and consumer cases are becoming more prevalent. Are you wondering whether your clients’ WARN Act claims would be better pursued against a debtor company in a class action adversary proceeding or in a class proof of claim, or both? If your client has been sued in a debtor’s consumer class action adversary proceeding, do you know the best defenses against class certification? ABI’s panel of experts will explore the potential benefits and pitfalls of class actions by creditors against debtor companies and by debtors/trustees against creditors and others by highlighting recent appellate and bankruptcy court decisions.

Conflicting ethics and professionalism under different jurisdictions; required disclosures; duties to the various courts; duties to your client; different fiduciary duties; the ethics of insolvency planning and COMI-shifting.

Recent decades have seen substantial expansion in exemptions from the Bankruptcy Code’s provisions with respect to repurchase agreements, or “repos.” These agreements, which are equivalent to very-short-term (often one-day) secured loans, are exempt from such core bankruptcy provisions as the automatic stay, the avoidability of fraudulent transfers and the avoidability of preferences. Recent scholarship has questioned whether these exemptions are justified for mortgage-backed securities and other securities that could prove illiquid or unable to realize their long-term value in the event of the kind of panic experienced during the financial crisis of 2007-09. This panel will explore the arguments for and against revising the Bankruptcy Code’s existing treatment of these agreements.

Major cases filed in New York may follow that state’s laws because of the location of the forum, contractual designation or some other reason. But New York law on debtors/creditors, fraudulent transfer, partnership and other areas may be out of date or may depart from the laws of other jurisdictions. Discussion of New York State law issues and recent cases certified to the New York State Court of Appeals, including rent-controlled leaseholds as property rights.

Do directors’ duties or decision processes change when the company’s conditions worsen? Is there still any implication to a “zone of insolvency”? How do directors’ duties change in bankruptcy? What duties are there to secured and unsecured creditors? Are there duties to controlled affiliates or their constituencies? Are there process protections? Quadrant (Delaware decision on board action).

Topics may include selection of comparable companies; liquidity and marketability discounts; discounts for size and reorganization risk; determining a discount rate; option-based valuation methodologies (note that the panelists will discuss and highlight different positions that may be taken, but will leave it to you to decide which positions have more merit).

A detailed analysis of the many aspects of this important bankruptcy court decision.

NO CLE Credit Available - Free Session. Join in a dialogue led by former ABI Presidents: Richardo I. Kilpatrick Kilpatrick & Associates, PC; Auburn Hills, Mich. Melissa Kibler Knoll Mesirow Financial Consulting, LLC; Chicago Michael P. Richman Hunton & Williams LLP; New York