Practice and Procedure

This panel will present strategies and tips for presenting financial evidence in chapter 11 cases. Panelists will discuss the selection, roles and fee arrangements of financial advisors and experts, employment applications/standards under the Bankruptcy Code, disclosure, protecting privilege, opinion testimony, use of demonstrative evidence, witness preparation and more.

This session will take a look at different valuation techniques, including asset approaches, market approaches and income approaches. Concepts such as time value of money, discounted cash flows, determining the discount rate and cost of capital, and terminal value assumptions will be illustrated. Comparable companies and precedent transactions to establish the relative enterprise and equity value of firms will also be examined and discussed.

This panel will discuss how to examine and cross-examine an expert witness and respond to judges. Through a fact pattern/role-playing approach, the panel will cover issues related to valuation and plan confirmation.

This panel will discuss practice tips during the pre-trial discovery period, as well as during the trial itself, related to the handling of evidence and objections thereto; discuss the proper use of post-judgment motions related to reconsideration and requests to amend findings of fact and conclusions of law; explain the appeals process, including motions for stay pending appeal; and explain certain important local rules, as well as updates that have occurred and those that will be coming.

Your pleadings and briefs are the first, often the last and typically the most comprehensive opportunity you have to persuade a court. This panel will provide you with essential guidance for effective and persuasive written advocacy at both the trial and appellate levels.

Following an introductory video clip about the dangers of social networking in litigation, a panel featuring a judge, a trustee and a practitioner will lead a discussion on the inherent risks in using social networking, some of the ethical issues involved, and suggestions for how to manage these business and ethical risks that are associated with the ever-changing world of social networking.

This panel will discuss the various types of evidentiary privileges that arise in bankruptcy practice — including joint-defense privilege, Fifth Amendment, attorney/client privilege and husband/wife privilege — and how they may be inadvertently waived. The session will also include what happens to these privileges in connection with 363 asset sales, the establishment of liquidating trusts and other sticky issues.