Finance and Banking

The panel will discuss legal and practical issues arising out of bank failures. Following a brief overview of precipitating factors in recent bank failures, the panelists will discuss the legal framework for bank liquidations through FDIC receiverships, including their effects on deposit customers and borrowers. While banks are liquidated by the FDIC, related entities, such as bank holding companies, often look to bankruptcy courts to address their issues. The panelists will discuss the issues that arise with bank holding company bankruptcies, including key bankruptcy provisions and their interplay with the FDIC liquidation.

This panel will examine various alternative capital structures used for structuring transactions and obtaining access to capital.

The bankruptcy process requires the management of the bankruptcy estate’s bank accounts, client accounts and business records, in addition to the management and processing of claims, claim distributions, adequate assurance deposit accounts, asset recovery, and many other financial and legal demands. Each one of these is a point of business email compromise (BEC) vulnerability. BEC attacks are the most costly form of cyberfraud for all businesses. This session will focus on best practices to use to protect your clients and yourself from this pervasive fraud. The panelists also will address bankruptcy-specific issues and tactics, with FBI agent discussions regarding the latest threat intelligence and prevention strategies.

This panel will address current trends in private credit restructurings, including the types of companies and industries that are most affected. The panelists also will explain the role of private equity and hedge funds in private credit restructurings, as well as the potential impact on stakeholders, and will analyze the legal and regulatory landscape for private credit restructurings, and the challenges associated with navigating this landscape.

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 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 address recent trends in private credit restructuring.

This panel will explore recent developments and trends in DIP financing, including equity-linked DIP facilities, contingent second draws, case controls, an increase in priming fights, and increased chapter 7 conversions due to an increased unwillingness of DIP lenders to bail out chapter 11 debtors.

This panel will discuss the impact of today’s persistently higher-interest-rate environment from several perspectives, including valuation, operational free cash flow and financial flexibility, private equity and M&A transaction activity, and liability management (LME) and restructuring transaction opportunities.