2017 24th Annual Northeast Conference

This panel will discuss recent case law highlighting the fallout from failing to reaffirm, what “surrender” really means, and what you need to know when advising your client on the benefits and burdens of reaffirmation and surrender.

A panel of judges, academics and Supreme Court practitioners will lead a discussion regarding the 2016-17 Supreme Court decisions of note for insolvency practitioners, as well as the high court’s most impactful, interesting or problematic decisions on bankruptcy practice to date. Amendments to Rule 37(e) (in effect since December 2015), as well as courts’ and litigants’ experiences with amended Rule 37(e), will also be discussed.

This panel will discuss the growing practice of the pre-petition transfer of business assets to insiders to allow for an individual filing, and the resulting issues for the debtor and its creditors. Is it fraud per se, or is it a creative way to get your individual client and their business assets into one case? Join us as we discuss this inspired, but precarious, practice.

Emails, text messages, Snapchat: Nobody ever calls anymore. Firing off an email three minutes after somebody made you angry gives rise to any number of issues, one of them being that once the “send” button is hit, electronically stored information (ESI) is created. This panel will discuss the ethical duties to preserve and the discovery duties to produce ESI, and remedies for violations of either — including the duty to refrain from obstruction of access to evidence, the ethical duty to refrain from unlawful alteration or destruction of evidence (spoliation), and the duty to make diligent efforts to comply with discovery requests. Also covered will be the necessary protocols that clients should have in place prior to litigation, remedies for failure to preserve ESI under Fed. Rule Civ. P. 37(e), and other remedies for discovery violations. Amendments to Rule 37(e) (effective December 2015), as well as courts’ and litigants’ experiences with amended Rule 37(e), will also be discussed.

Led by Luis Pabon-Roca, the host of the highest rated political radio show and of a televised political talk show, a panel of professionals involved in the Puerto Rico PROMESA proceedings and a jurist who has presided over a municipal bankruptcy will discuss the current political, social and legal conditions in the Commonwealth and before the court in the largest governmental entity insolvency proceeding in United States history.

Balloon payments, assets acquired post-petition, student loan classifications and discharged debts related to criminal activity: Can these issues be navigated without throwing a debtor’s plan upside down? Catch up on strategic tips and considerations that will help you get your debtor to the other side of a chapter 13.

When financial trouble hits the closely held business, a more complicated structure often lurks below the surface. What the “family” views as a single business may actually be several entities with a long history of intercompany transactions. Conversely, one generation may have transitioned out of the business but might still be receiving compensation from the business under the control of the next generation. The problems are heightened when your contact at the client is an individual who wears various “hats,” including president, board chair, CEO and potential defendant. How does the professional deal with the conflicts and consequences of transactions with insiders and affiliates, particularly where the financial resources of the business and individuals are already stretched thin before adding the layer of professionals that come with any bankruptcy proceeding? This panel of experienced restructuring professionals will discuss the legal, ethical and financial issues raised by family conflicts, and provide their unique legal insights and practical advice.

How do you come to understand a business whose very survival was dependent on ensuring that nobody could understand the business? When administering Ponzi-related bankruptcies, actions taken at the outset are often determinative of the results, but what do you do when the books and records are fiction? This panel will focus on the role of financial professionals in Ponzi scheme bankruptcies, including the initial investigation, establishing the existence of a Ponzi scheme, determining who the “winners” and “losers” are, seeking additional recoveries (including chapter 5 actions and other litigation), making distributions and negotiating settlements.

Challenging an expert witness requires more than just wondering what questions to ask on cross-examination. Is the expert witness even an expert in the right subject matter? Should the expert be deposed before trial and challenged before he or she takes the stand, or would cross-examination without giving the expert the clues that come with deposition questions present the best opportunity to defuse the weight of the expert’s opinion? How can the trial lawyer prepare for cross-examination of an expert and contain the damage done on direct examination of the expert? What are the essential attributes of strong cross-examination, and how should the trial lawyer deliver the most effective and forceful cross? What are the most effective cross-examination strategies for impugning and impeaching an expert’s opinion? This panel will discuss the legal, strategic and practical considerations that arise in preparing and delivering effective cross-examination, followed by experienced trial lawyers demonstrating techniques for effective containment and impeachment of expert opinion and testimony — with an experienced judge letting them know in real time whether they succeeded.

The next evolution of insolvency practice is upon us. The morphing of what started as a restructuring practice into a § 363 sale practice is old news, while the more recent introduction of nontraditional, sophisticated financial investors into the process has brought about another evolution: the debt-to-equity conversion. Why settle for prime and three when you can use Bankruptcy Code provisions like the absolute priority rule and the securities law exemption to come out post-effective date with a freely tradable equity instrument that will enable the holder to share in all of the upside of the reorganized enterprise? This panel will explore the mechanics of a debt-to-equity conversion in the context of a chapter 11 plan in the legal context, then will explain the valuation metrics and allocation calculations that underlie the dynamics as to who gets to participate and the amount of equity offered to the various case constituencies. The discussion will also cover the tools used to spur creditor acceptance of the conversion and uses of the paradigm as a means of raising new capital for the restructured debt, such as backstop agreements and rights offerings.