West Virginia State Approved Sessions

Is the legal profession’s vision for the law firm of the future already outdated? Can the law firm of today cope with the incredibly dynamic and changing competitive legal services environment, or will it go the way of the dinosaur? Greater and new competition in the forms of artificial intelligence, disruptive technology, the Big Four accounting firms, enlarged in-house legal staffs, and alternative legal service providers are eating law firms’ lunch. Clients are demanding service, efficiency and transparency in a way that puts tremendous pressure on the traditional law firm model. On top of that, the battle for the best talent is intensifying while the very nature of that talent is transforming as millennials start to dominate the talent pool. Our panel will discuss what a law firm must do to evolve and survive and how it potentially can thrive in a rapidly changing legal market.

This panel will review and debate issues regarding the new official form for chapter 13 plans, including how courts are tinkering with Rule 3015.1 — and why courts think they have the ability to do so.

This session will discuss the implications of this Supreme Court decision, whether gifting is over, alternative avenues of distributions outside of a plan (e.g., pursuant to DIP order, Short Bark), and remand issues in Jevic.

As the retention of contingency counsel proliferates, stakeholders and their professionals need guidance and creativity in considering the financial arrangements that are negotiated. This panel will focus on ethics and professionalism issues that arise in these retentions, retaining counsel under § 328, how to negotiate and/or determine what compensation is appropriate (20 percent vs. 40 percent), compensation based on case status (e.g., settlement after initial motion practice vs. SJ), hybrid compensation, financing litigation (estate vs. contingency counsel vs. third party, Gawker), who should control settlement as contingency counsel’s stake grows, and when payment of contingency counsel can be contested.

This session will explore the following questions: Should all similarly situated creditors have the right to participate in rights offerings, financings, etc.? Does it violate Bankruptcy Code provisions or policy to allow a subset of creditors to receive fees and increase their recovery at the expense of similarly situated creditors? Is mandatory market-testing a viable solution?

Join in on this discussion of significant insolvency-related developments in Venezuela.

This panel will discuss an update on § 546(e) safe harbors, preemption issues, the cap on recovery under § 550, and Merit Management, Tribune, Physiotherapy and Lyondell.

Interested in mediation? Attend this session to experience a mock mediation and discuss mediation’s benefits and pitfalls. The panel will also examine plan mediation vs. targeted specific issues, as well as material nonpublic information concerns.

What is consent, and how do you infer consent? This panel will discuss jurisdictional issues with third-party releases, as well as recent cases (Millennium Health, Gawker, SunEdison).

In this session, the panel will delve into recent chapter 15 decisions and the use of cross-border protocols in complex multijurisdictional cases ( e.g., SDNY General Order M-511, Delaware LBR 9029-2). Learn about preparing a cross-border case and cash-management issues across cross-border estates, difficulties that arise when dealing with foreign boards, subsidiaries in foreign jurisdictions and limited resources to manage the complications, and the winding down and liquidation of cross-border estates.