Small Business

This session will focus on several of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, including 1.2 (Scope of Representation and Allocation of Authority Between Client and Lawyer), 1.4 (Communications), 1.6 (Confidentiality of Info.), 1.7 (Conflict of Interest: Current Clients), 1.18 (Duties to Prospective Clients), 3.3 (Candor to Tribunal), 3.4 (Fairness to Opposing Party and Counsel) and 7.3 (Solicitation of Clients). The panelists will also discuss many current ethical challenges, including ethical issues in subchapter V, future claimants' representative (FCR) standards, remote proceedings and witness testimony, and client authority.

This program considers the life cycle of a small business reorganization. Beginning 30 days before the debtor files its petition, continuing through the 90-day plan filing deadline, and hurtling toward confirmation, the panel discusses pre-bankruptcy planning and negotiation, debates eligibility and case management issues, considers best practices for utilizing the Subchapter V trustee throughout the case, and highlights tips and traps of plan formulation, contested confirmation hearings, and post-effective date matters. Our distinguished panel features the perspectives of the debtor (Chris Keach, Molleur Law), creditor (Kellie Fisher, Drummond Woodsum), the Subchapter V trustee (David Mawhinney, Bowditch & Dewey), and the bench (Hon. Peter Cary, United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maine).

This panel of subchapter V experts will discuss the multitude of issues that have developed since the enactment of the statute, and how practitioners can best deal with these issues.

This panel will focus on subchapter V eligibility, privileges and contested confirmation issues.

This panel will highlight some of the roadblocks that small business debtors face at the commencement of their cases, throughout the process and on the road to plan confirmation. First in line is the definition of “engaged in commercial or business activities.” Central to this issue is whether a debtor needs to be actively engaged in business operations to qualify as a subchapter V debtor. Next up is lease assumption. When is it the right time to assume? Complicating the road to confirmations is a secured creditor’s § 1111(b) election, and the panelists will present pro and con arguments relating to nondebtor stay relief, injunctions and releases. Finally, the panelists will discuss what the debtor can do to effectuate a consensual plan, the role of the subchapter V trustee in a nonconsensual case, and the discharge of the debtor under both scenarios.

Subchapter V is the newest option for debtors to reorganize in bankruptcy. Learn from a panel of experienced subchapter V trustees what it is all about and how subchapter V has changed the bankruptcy landscape for the better.

Bankruptcy Judges Elizabeth Brown and Michael Romero will discuss the year’s widest splits and most controversial opinions with ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle.

This panel will examine what's involved in getting a subchapter V case across the finish line, starting with best practices for debtors as attorneys position their clients to confirm their plans. The panelists will specifically explore putting together projections and liquidation analyses, the weapons creditors have in their arsenal (including the § 1111(b) election), and the role of subchapter V trustees.