Business

Great Debates Paul M. Nussbaum, Moderator Whiteford Taylor Preston, LLP; Baltimore Resolved: A structured dismissal that violates the absolute priority rule should never be permitted. Pro: Craig Goldblatt WilmerHale; Washington, D.C. Con: Hon. Kevin J. Carey U.S. Bankruptcy Court (D. Del.); Wilmington Resolved: Asset sales under § 363 should lawfully be free and clear of successor-liability claims. Pro: Hon. Robert E. Gerber (ret.) U.S. Bankruptcy Court (S.D.N.Y.); New York Con: William P. Weintraub Goodwin Procter LLP; New York

This panel will explore a variety of issues related to plan confirmation, including artificial impairment (Village Green I, GP v. Federal National Mortgage Association), cramdown interest rates/subordination/make-whole provisions (MPM Silicones) and third-party releases (Millennium Lab Holdings).

Are lenders finding strategies to avoid the Code’s landlord protections? This panel will explore whether a debtor’s obligation to timely perform is being honored, rejection/assumption rules modified in DIP orders, use of nunc pro tunc rejection to minimize claims, and other issues in today’s retail cases.

This panel will explore the trend of private-equity firms and hedge funds favoring out-of-court workouts (with or without a pre-packaged or pre-arranged bankruptcy case) rather than traditional chapter 11 cases for achieving their restructuring goals. The panel will also debate whether the Chapter 11 Reform Commission’s recommendations adequately address such issues. Cases to be discussed include Tribune Co. fraudulent conveyance litigation, Sun Capital, ICL Holding and Sabine Oil & Gas Corp., et al.

This session will highlight particularly interesting case law developments to date in 2016 and their impact on bankruptcy law and practice.

This panel will address the unique issues presented when matters involving fraud, including Ponzi schemes, arise. The discussion will include best practices for responding to, or managing, fraud allegations directed to a client inside and outside of bankruptcy, addressing and investigating fraud from an accounting perspective (including strategies for identifying hallmarks of fraud), and current developments in case law relating to fraud and Ponzi schemes in the bankruptcy context.

This panel will discuss strategies for negotiating and confirming chapter 11 plans, from support agreements and competing plans to the proper use of releases and injunctions.

The Final Report of the Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 is the culmination of nearly three years of testimony, advisory reports and deliberations. This panel, consisting of several members of the Commission, will present key findings as submitted to Congress.

This panel will discuss the recent filings in the oil, gas and energy sectors and provide an overview of what practitioners and professionals should know and understand about this changing and developing sector.

Knowing who your client is and what duties you have is a problem in cases ranging from the mega Caesars bankruptcy case to actions involving a distressed small family business that is jointly owned by several relatives. This presentation will address several attorney/client ethical issues, both in and out of bankruptcy, when jointly representing clients, including practical considerations when representing a group of closely related businesses, attorney/client privileges between multiple clients, and state and federal law ethical issues related to “who is your client.”