Vermont State Approved Sessions

This panel will discuss the ins and outs of mediating consumer bankruptcy issues, including the types of issues typically mediated, selecting a mediator, and special considerations involved.

Ponzi and other fraudulent schemes continue to proliferate. Many of these schemes, event if primarily targeted at Americans, operate using offshore entities in the Caribbean. As a result, resolving such schemes typically involves domestic receiverships or bankruptcy coupled with offshore liquidation proceedings. The victims’ recoveries may vary widely depending on whether the distribution of the scheme’s remaining assets is determined by U.S. bankruptcy law, U.S. common law or foreign law. This panel will explore the various ways in which U.S. and foreign laws implicate victims’ recoveries, as well as potential changes to those laws.

This unique, interactive panel will be presented as a mock trial where financial advisors will be cross-examined by attorneys on valuation issues, including liquidation value.

This panel will consider and discuss practice points, deployment of technology, and ethical considerations for attorneys following the COVID-19 pandemic.

This panel will identify the unique issues that come into play in health care asset sales, from hospitals to senior living facilities. The panelists will address closing challenges, regulatory issues, HIPPA/privacy issues, Opco/Propco issues and much more.

This panel will explore the basics of privilege and how it is used in bankruptcy litigation. Do members of an LLC have access to privileged info? Do former board members have rights to privileged info? Does a trustee of an individual debtor have rights to the individual debtor's privileged information? Is a trustee required to turn over his/her privileged information to the debtor after it retakes possession? Can mediation privilege be used to cloak an entire bankruptcy case so that all information is immune from discovery from non-mediation parties or its adversaries?

This panel will present a lively debate addressing current trends in DIP financing. Who are (and are not) DIP lenders these days? What opportunities and challenges arising from the amortization of Main Street lending programs should practitioners be aware of? How is DIP financing being used to buttress liability-management transactions? How big should a DIP loan be, and what issues arise in corporate governance when a company seeks a DIP? When do DIP protections go too far?

This panel will explore an as-yet-untested question: Can a domestic debtor use the law of another country to effect the restructuring of all or some of its debt, then commence a chapter 15 case and bind U.S. creditors to the terms of that foreign restructuring? Some think that this scenario is inevitable. The panelists will discuss how U.S. and foreign insolvency laws may be utilized by U.S. debtors, and the potential incentives, benefits and risks associated with this type of restructuring.

This panel will discuss a selection of cases that raise current substantive bankruptcy issues and litigation challenges, including how to convince a bankruptcy court to extend the automatic stay (or issue an injunction) to protect debtor-related (but nondebtor) entities from tort or other litigation that could interfere with the plan process (e.g., Robertshaw (S.D. Tex. 2024); Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Center (S.D.N.Y. 2023)); how best to present valuation evidence for unusual, complex and illiquid assets, including mortgage-backed securities, derivatives and crypto assets; and how to deal with evidentiary issues — particularly relating to damages — arising in “liability management” litigation. The panelists will conclude with a rapid-fire presentation of successful bankruptcy litigation tips.

This panel will explore how artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving, where it is likely headed, and how AI may aid in various aspects of legal practice both now and in the future. The panelists will focus on the uses and potential uses of AI in consumer cases, bankruptcy sales, creditor claims, research, first-day motions and legal arguments, among others, and briefly review ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI.