Texas State Approved Sessions

This panel will discuss changes across the retail bankruptcy landscape over the last four to five years — before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The panelists will share their perspectives from the debtor, lender, landlord and judicial viewpoints, with a focus on the business, leverage, operational and legal causes and outcomes of retail bankruptcies during these unprecedented times.

This session considers developments in recent case law, including fraudulent transfers in the context of tax lien foreclosures and aggressive pre-bankruptcy planning, alternative noticing, fee issues involving bifurcation and disgorgement, and dischargeability issues. The panelists will provide their perspectives and analyses from the bench, bar and trustee system regarding these latest updates.

This panel will analyze several recent and potentially controversial issues, including current views of the courts, arising in connection with avoidance actions in business bankruptcies, including the extent of due diligence required prior to bringing such actions, the sale of rights in proceeds of avoidance actions and the actions themselves; current views on replacement liens and adequate-protection liens attaching to avoidance actions granted to secured creditors in connection with debtor-in-possession financing and adequate-protection liens; provisions of DIP-financing orders extinguishing the rights of unsecured creditors to pursue avoidance actions against secured creditors; the application of strong-arm statutes and extended reach-back provisions; and issues related to proving insolvency at trial.

This panel will analyze several recent and potentially controversial issues, including current views of the courts, arising in connection with avoidance actions in business bankruptcies, including the extent of due diligence required prior to bringing such actions, the sale of rights in proceeds of avoidance actions and the actions themselves; current views on replacement liens and adequate-protection liens attaching to avoidance actions granted to secured creditors in connection with debtor-in-possession financing and adequate-protection liens; provisions of DIP-financing orders extinguishing the rights of unsecured creditors to pursue avoidance actions against secured creditors; the application of strong-arm statutes and extended reach-back provisions; and issues related to proving insolvency at trial.

This panel will present a mock trial focusing on valuation, with the panelists serving as counsel arguing each side, and as a witness and a judge. The session will cover direct and cross-examination topics that come into play with valuations, including expert witness issues, applicable evidentiary rules and procedural aspects.

In Partnership with Epiq Year-over-year bankruptcy filings have shown solid increases across most chapters through the first six months of 2023. What trends have emerged this year in consumer and business filings? How do filings compare among different stakeholders and regions of the U.S., and will the trends continue for the second half of 2023? Join ABI and statistical partner Epiq Bankruptcy Analytics for a special abiLIVE webinar during which experts will discuss first-half filings, and in what direction bankruptcies may be headed.

New developments occur regularly in bankruptcy law, and this past year was no different. This session will provide you with an overview of important U.S. Supreme Court decisions that came down in the 2022-23 session that relate to bankruptcy, as well as the recent Purdue Pharma decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The panelists will review the facts and key holdings of each case, and how they may affect pending and future cases. Discussions will include the nondischargeability of debt due to fraud committed by a partner, the treatment of certain statutes as “jurisdictional” versus preconditions to relief, violations of the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause, whether Indian tribes have sovereign immunity from damages claims for violations of the automatic stay, the allowance of nonconsensual releases of creditors’ direct claims against non-debtors in the Purdue Pharma L.P. chapter 11 plan, and recent developments on the “solvent debtor” exception in chapter 11 cases.

Join ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle for this fun and informative session as he and several bankruptcy judges discuss circuit splits and hot topics on important bankruptcy issues. An attendee favorite!