COVID-19

Energy Megatrends create volatility in the energy market. In 2024, elections, various regional conflicts, concerns about climate change, and the feasibility and marketability of various forms of energy make the valuation of “energy” a potentially tenuous endeavor. This session provides a how-to guide for five-year business plans, capital-adequacy tests and cash-flow tests across the energy industry, and discusses how to meet the bar for stress-testing under Judge Shannon’s Kravitz v. Sampson Energy decision. Retail- Douglas E. Spelfogel Jonathan P. Goulding Surbhi Gupta Hon. Thomas M. Horan Commercial Real Estate- David Levy Navin Nagrani Specialty Health Care Providers/Pharma- Stuart Neiberg David Light Kelly E. Singer Sidney S. Welch Energy- Lorie R. Beers Kenneth J. Malek Matthew W. Moran

Attendees will work through case problems in small judge-led groups.

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.

For nearly 100 years, we have not experienced a shock to the economy where large numbers of industries exhibited disastrous declines in revenues resulting from a pandemic. Frankly, none of us were equipped with readily available valuation frameworks to handle such shocking changes in cash-flow projections, discount rates, the ‘appropriate’ use of comparable companies and the relevant transactions to be used in the M&A comparable method. This panel discussion will present the main valuation parameters that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated legal and experts’ battles, mostly during and post-pandemic.

The first half of 2022 set a First Day record for fewest chapter 11 filings over any calendar six-month period, but chapter 11s picked up in the second half of the year, with Q4 concluding as the year’s busiest quarter and December closing out as the year's busiest month. Ignoring real estate cases, which peaked in 2021, the frequency of chapter 11 cases fell by only 1% in 2022. Despite the waning of COVID-19, companies continue to cite the pandemic as at least part of the reason for their bankruptcy filings. However, during 2022 the cause of many chapter 11 filings moved away from pandemic factors, such as work stoppages and lower demand, to supply-side macroeconomic factors, including supply chain issues, labor costs and inflation. Rising interest rates and the collapse of crypto are also becoming prominent reasons for bankruptcy filings.

Regional judges will strive to answer questions on current issues.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act play increasingly critical roles. This panel will introduce and explain the most important features of the FDCPA and RESPA.

The global pandemic has had an incredible impact on mortgage issues in consumer bankruptcies and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. From the CARES Act forbearances, to resolving those forbearances through a waterfall of options including partial-claim mortgages, deferral agreements and modifications, to HAF funds, potential sales and other loss-mitigation options, this panel will discuss the pandemic's effects on consumer bankruptcies and the various issues that creditor and debtor attorneys will have to navigate.