Washington State Approved Sessions

This panel will discuss (a) interactions with clients who have mental health problems, lying clients and unreasonable clients; and (b) spousal conflicts, joint individual and business case conflicts, conflicts that arise when changing firms, and multiple-owner business case conflicts.

This session will provide an overview of the requirements to file an involuntary bankruptcy case and the advantages and pitfalls that arise from these filings, including petitioner liabilities.

This panel will discuss automatic stay and discharge injunction violations arising from withholding property to collect, statutes of limitations, and exceptions to discharge after Husky.

Three avenues for appellate courts to dismiss bankruptcy appeals are sale, plan and constitutional mootness. This panel will discuss the strengths and limitations of these three approaches, which appellate courts are increasingly gravitating toward and departing from, and steps and arguments parties can make to improve their chances of success in obtaining (or avoiding) dismissal of a bankruptcy appeal as moot.

Resolved: Hiring an independent CRO displaces the need for the appointment of a chapter 11 trustee under § 1104(e) of the Bankruptcy Code. Resolved: Holders of acquired claims should be required to disclose the basis in such a claim as a condition for seeking relief in a bankruptcy case. Resolved: Holders of acquired claims should be required to disclose the basis in such a claim as a condition for seeking relief in a bankruptcy case.

This panel will feature a roundtable discussion with bankruptcy judges from the Ninth Circuit and across the country. The judges will share their thoughts and perspectives, as well as take questions from the audience, on topics of current interest in both business and consumer cases.

This panel will address current ethical topics relating to attorney and client conduct in the context of out-of-court and bankruptcy restructurings.

The existence of multiple bondholders can impose uncertainty and gamesmanship in a contest for economic gain from distressed corporate situations. The paper that they hold rarely tells the whole story; bondholders may have competing investments, undisclosed hedges and varying purchase price discounts that make it impossible to determine their true position. This panel will explore issues related to bondholder-led restructurings and takeovers, including the operation of ad hoc committees, the role of indenture trustees, conflicts, disclosures, subordination and deal structures.

With low energy commodity prices the new reality, E&P companies are being forced to restructure their balance sheets — both in and out of court. This panel will discuss legal issues that are crucial to advising a client in E&P restructurings and how those issues may shape your strategy, including oil and gas leases as absolute conveyances and the protection of royalty-holders; ORRIs, NPIs and production payments; plugging and abandonment liability; M&M liens; borrowing bases under RBL credit facilities; and joint operating agreements.