International Insolvency

Director liability in restructuring continues to grow in importance across borders, with shifting legal regimes and case law creating uncertainty for boards and restructuring professionals alike. This panel will compare filing laws and requirements in key jurisdictions, including Ireland and Germany, and examine the evolving roles of independent directors and restructuring practitioners.

This panel will explore how tariffs, geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic pressures are reshaping the restructuring landscape. The panelists will examine the impact of these forces on such sectors as real estate, energy and retail, highlighting emerging distressed assets and strategies for navigating complex cross-border and domestic restructuring challenges. Attendees will gain practical insights into mitigating risk and identifying opportunities in an increasingly volatile environment.

This session will explore the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital-asset recovery in cross-border bankruptcy proceedings. The panelists will examine the challenges in making recoveries when digital-asset businesses are the subject of fraud or hacking activity, and discuss how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing asset-tracing, evidence-gathering and recovery processes. They also will cover the practical challenges insolvency professionals face when appointed over businesses in this sector, especially when there is a parallel criminal investigation and/or prosecution, and ways in which practitioners can navigate that landscape to achieve the best outcomes for stakeholders by drawing on real-life examples of cases in which the panelists have been involved.

This annual session features leading U.S. practitioners and judicial perspectives on the most pressing developments in U.S. restructuring and insolvency. The panelists will examine the surge in private credit and its impact on liability management, explore how public perception shapes insolvency outcomes, and assess current trends in chapter 15 relief and cross-border practice. The panelists also will address the practical realities of forum-shopping, discuss where cross-border restructurings have succeeded or struggled, and share lessons learned from recent cases in which recognition was denied or chapter 11 presented unexpected hurdles. International experience will be brought to the forefront, providing comparative insights to help practitioners navigate today’s fast-evolving insolvency landscape.

This panel will examine the evolving landscape of third-party releases in insolvency proceedings, with a focus on their implications in chapter 15 cases. This panel of U.S. and international judges and practitioners will discuss parallel proceedings in jurisdictions including the U.S., U.K., Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, France and Luxembourg, highlighting the complexities that arise when third-party guarantees and releases intersect with cross-border recognition. The panelists also will address the aftermath of Purdue Pharma, explore the challenges of forum-shopping and enforcement across borders, and provide practical insights on navigating divergent legal frameworks.

This panel will provide a forward-looking exploration of European insolvency and restructuring law in the context of global cross-border practice. The panelists will examine the evolution of European insolvency frameworks, the work of UNCITRAL Working Group V, and current efforts at harmonization through choice-of-law initiatives and upcoming EU legislation. Special attention will be given to new national restructuring tools such as the Dutch WHOA, Germany’s StaRUG and Spain’s Restructuring Plan, with comparative analyses of how these procedures perform in practice and interact with U.S. chapter 15 recognition. Attendees will gain a practical understanding of how these reforms are shaping the future of cross-border insolvency and what they mean for practitioners navigating multi-jurisdictional restructurings.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Purdue Pharma has significant implications for cross-border insolvency practice under chapter 15. This panel will examine how the ruling is reshaping the legal landscape for foreign main proceedings, recognition standards, and especially the use of nonconsensual third-party releases. The panelists also will explore emerging questions around comity, enforcement of foreign judgments, and the limits of U.S. bankruptcy courts’ authority in cross-border cases. 

This session will cover recent Supreme Court and Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Circuit cases that you need to know about.

Corporate restructuring has recently experienced a significant transformation. Traditional business “rehabilitations” (sweeping and lengthy chapter 11 proceedings) have become truncated, and “pre-arranged” cases often follow a strategic liability-management exercise (LME). Jurisprudence that had long constrained debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing (e.g., the sub rosa plan doctrine) has seemingly lost its importance. In many cases, the creditors' committee — as well as the bankruptcy court — are boxed into restructuring support agreement (RSA) terms that are, in turn, embedded into DIP covenants, and those covenants often compel a particular (rightful or wrongful) case outcome. This panel will evaluate whether chapter 11 still reliably delivers on its legislative purpose.

This panel will discuss the features that make chapter 11 world-renowned, and will analyze the similar features that have been incorporated into the (often newly enacted) restructuring regimes of foreign countries. The panelists will then examine certain of these regimes to explain why some regimes have used these similar features more successfully than others. Will chapter 11 continue to be the leading restructuring format in the world? Join us and find out!