2018 Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop

The restaurant industry, particularly the fast food and fast casual sectors, is under pressure from rising food and labor costs, the changing dining habits of millennials, and decreased foot traffic at retail shopping centers. This panel will examine those trends and explore potential strategies to maximize enterprise value, both in and out of bankruptcy court.

All types of hospitals — from acute care to highly specialized — are experiencing financial challenges. This is especially true for rural and nonprofit hospitals, which often rely heavily on slower and lower payments from Medicare and Medicaid. Often the best (or only) solution for a distressed hospital is a sale to a larger hospital operator or system. This panel will examine the unique challenges facing buyers and sellers in connection with such distressed hospital sales.

This panel will examine the factors considered by debtors and their advisors when determining where to file a large chapter 11 business case, and the occasional efforts to have the case transferred to a venue that is arguably more convenient to creditors, employees and/or shareholders. The panel will also discuss the pending legislation known as the Bankruptcy Venue Reform Act of 2018 (S. 2282) — as well as the arguments both supporting and opposing its passage.