2013

BK 360 Revisited: ABI Past-Presidents Panel

Chapter 11 Track: Creditors’ Committees and the Role of Indenture Trustees and Related Issues This panel will focus on the unique issues facing the indenture trustee when it elects to serve on a creditors’ committee, including how to balance potentially conflicting fiduciary duties, how to get paid, how to navigate through the plan-negotiation process and other similar types of issues.

Chapter 11 Track: Chapter 9s, Nonprofits and Other Nontraditional Restructuring Processes The financial crisis has taken its toll on municipalities as evidenced by the increasing number of chapter 9 petitions over the last couple of years. Nonprofits have also faced challenges of their own and are increasingly finding themselves in bankruptcy court. This panel will explore the cutting-edge issues involved in these and other nontraditional restructuring processes.

This panel will focus on the irrational biases for decision-making in bankruptcy. The essence of bankruptcy is deciding how to divide the debtor's metaphorical shrinking economic pie among qualified creditors. At its optimum, bankruptcy decision-making is efficient and rational. However, at other times even the most skilled bankruptcy practitioners are stymied by the inability of bankruptcy participants to make seemingly rational business decisions. Why can't everyone be rational? Decision-making is not a rational process. Behavioral economic scholars such as Daniel Ariely and Daniel Kahneman explain that we all have psychological biases that interfere with our ability to make objectively rational decisions. Bankruptcy practitioners who understand these biases learn strategies to influence them and thus enhance optimal bankruptcy decisionmaking.

Financial Advisors Track: Current Issues for Financial Advisors in Bankruptcy Cases This panel will discuss the various governance, operational and quasi-legal issues that financial advisors deal with on a day-to-day basis before, during and after the commencement of a chapter 11 case. Topics will include addressing management fraud, dealing with ERISA/labor/WARN Act/union issues, navigating corporate governance issues, Dodd-Frank compliance, and the state of the law on pursuit of accounting and securities fraud claims.

Financial Advisors Track: The Ethical Compass: Multiple Ethical Schemes Applicable to Financial Advisors This panel will focus on the variety of rules, statutes and codes that govern the conduct of financial advisors, including the Bankruptcy Code and Rules, TMA and AIRA Codes of Ethics, Licensure rules (e.g., for CPAs), state law governing trustee roles, etc.

Professional Development Track: The End Game and How to Get There Utilizing a case-study approach, this panel will provide a primer for young practitioners on the goals, motivations and incentives that key constituents in a chapter 11 case have, and the techniques and strategies used to achieve such goals.

Professional Development Track: The Dos and Don’ts of Discovery in the Bankruptcy World This panel will explore effective strategies for navigating the world of discovery in bankruptcy cases. Topics will include effective use of 2004 examinations, document subpoenas and deposition testimony, as well as other issues.

Professional Development Track: The Dos and Don’ts of Effective Oral Advocacy

Professional Development Track: Advancing in the Restructuring Profession This panel of well-known and respected department heads will offer advice to young professionals on how to advance in their careers. From rainmaking to servicing clients to becoming involved in professional organizations, the panelists will offer practical tips that helped guide them in their career advancement.