Creditors' Committee

Is the debtor always right? The Bankruptcy Code and its underlying policies are designed to give the debtor a fresh start and foster reorganization. However, committees and individual creditors are not always on board with a debtor’s restructuring efforts and at times prefer payment over compromise or even a going-forward business partner. This panel will cover the tools and strategies committees and individual creditors use to slow down a debtor’s restructuring efforts to address the collective demands of committees or the individual needs of creditors both big and small.

This panel will cover recent developments in liability-management transactions, a.k.a. creditor-on-creditor violence. The panelists will discuss the mechanics of uptier, drop-down and double-dip transactions, approaching each type of deal from the viewpoints of various parties in interest.

This panel will discuss the historical relationship between secured and unsecured creditors in reorganization cases, and explore recent instances where the groups have worked together to create value for their constituents. The panelists will include an overview of the key positions taken by each group, and will provide first-hand descriptions of how the constituents were able to achieve consensus.

This panel will discuss different tactics creditors use to pursue the collection of debt, how debtors can defend against collection efforts and pursue claims when a creditor has gone too far, how creditors can minimize their exposure to such claims, and the potential impacts of pre-petition proceedings on creditors and debtors when a debtor files a bankruptcy petition.

This panel takes a fresh look at the latest categories and buyers of asset sales under § 363, and the increased influence that unsecured creditors are exerting over those sales. The panelists discuss recent noteworthy successful and failed sales, including Vice Media, Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Celsius Network, LedgerX and Voyager.

This session will discuss the broader policy debate on the usefulness, functionality and policy issues of examiners and trustees in chapter 11. ➤ Bankruptcy examiners drive up the cost of the bankruptcy process and generally do not deliver benefits that justify their expense and distraction. ➤ Bankruptcy examiners play an important role in ensuring the integrity of the bankruptcy process and should be appointed more regularly. ➤ Typically, it should be the role of an official committee, rather than an examiner, to investigate estate causes of action in circumstances that implicate the debtor’s insiders such that the debtor is conflicted.

Hosted by IWIRC New England Companies are not the only ones fighting with creditors these days; creditors are fighting amongst themselves, relying on increasingly nuanced interpretations of debt-issuance documents and intercreditor agreements. What has changed in the debt-finance landscape that is bringing these disputes to a head? What are the document provisions and transaction structures that have been in dispute? What are the litigation strategies and considerations at play, and how have courts reacted to these kinds of disputes? This session will address these questions and more.

This session will discuss strategies that various creditors (e.g., committees, secured, priority and unsecured) can employ to counter, if not defeat, certain types of first-day relief, DIPs and other case-determinative actions that set the table for the chapter 11 case or, as some may describe it, result in the first-day fix. The panelists will touch upon substantive and procedural responses, objections, accommodations and extractions.

A full panel of the distinguished Delaware Bankruptcy Court bench answering previously submitted questions from the members of the bar, providing “behind the bench” insight.