Business Reorganization

This year's ABI Talks, presented in the style of the ever-popular TED Talks, will focus on four timely topics: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt, Not Your Parent’s Loan, Energy in Bankruptcy, and Health Care in Bankruptcy.

Unemployment rates are slowly dropping after hitting an all-time high in April of this year and remaining in the double digits for four months straight. However, the effects of the ongoing pandemic remain. Rent payments are down, and homeowners are delaying payments on their mortgages. The Federal Reserve has dropped interest rates to near-zero, and small business revenue nationwide is down nearly 20%, even after accounting for the thousands of businesses that have already closed for good. Congress, states and local governments are scrambling to put policies and programs in place that will help forestall financial collapse. As bankruptcy practitioners and scholars, this is our moment — or is it? This presentation will explore the role that bankruptcy policy can and should play in a global pandemic, discuss the role that bankruptcy policy has already begun to play, and query what factors may be limiting the effectiveness of bankruptcy policy in easing financial distress and limiting unnecessary business closures.

This past year has seen a remarkable number of wide splits and controversial opinions. This panel of experts, moderated by ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle, will discuss and analyze current notable business and consumer bankruptcy cases.

The panelists will discuss COVID-related business bankruptcy issues, including rent issues in commercial leases, § 365(d)(3) issues, force majeure clauses, and lease assumption and rejection issues after COVID.

Presented by the Business Reorganization and Bankruptcy Litigation Committees This panel will focus on two important issues that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic: The availability of nunc pro tunc orders in the wake of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico v. Acevedo Feliciano, __ S. Ct. __, No. 18-921, 2020 WL 878715 (Feb. 24, 2020), and the battle between landlords and debtors across the country regarding the deferral of rent pending the pandemic and beyond the period authorized by the Bankruptcy Code.

In this virtual variation on the in-person format, a nationwide group of distinguished judges will discuss current bankruptcy and practical skills issues in an innovative Zoom-style presentation. The judges will rotate to a new online “room,” allowing participants to maximize their time and gain valuable insights into best practices.

This panel will discuss whether liens are available on unencumbered assets like avoidance actions, credit bidding issues, equitable subordination/ recharacterization concerns, committee challenges to liens and bidding procedures.

What are the hottest topics in bankruptcy law? This panel of experts, moderated by ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle, will discuss and analyze current business and consumer bankruptcy law cases.

Most office employees have been working from home throughout the pandemic, and businesses are increasingly realizing that office space is not as essential as once thought. In addition, retailers are closing their doors permanently or shifting exclusively to online sales. Can corporate real estate survive or reinvent itself?