ABI's Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 has released the names of nearly 130 corporate restructuring experts who have agreed to serve on one of 13 advisory committees to examine discrete current issues. The diverse group of professionals come from the backgrounds of law, finance and the judiciary. The lists of names can be found on the Commission's website. The thirteen advisory committees/study topics are: Administrative Claims, Critical Vendors and Other Pressures on Liquidity; Avoiding Powers; Bankruptcy Remote Entities, Bankruptcy-Proofing and Public Policy; Distributional Issues Under Plans; Executory Contracts and Leases; Financial Contracts, Derivatives and Safe Harbors; Financing Chapter 11; Governance and Supervision of Chapter 11 Cases and Companies; Labor and Benefits Issues; Multiple Enterprise Cases/Issues; Plan Issues: Procedure and Structure; Role of Valuation in Chapter 11 Cases; and Sales of Substantially all of the Debtor’s Assets, Including Going Concern Sales. The Commission is working to break down each study topic further into subtopics—a process intended to help advisory committees identify all potentially relevant issues and coordinate areas of potential overlap among study topics.
The Commission has announced a schedule of fall public hearings at major insolvency conferences, where interested members of the restructuring community can appear and provide testimony to the Commission or to one or more of the advisory committees. The hearings will be held at the NCBJ annual meeting on October 26, the TMA annual convention on November 3 and the Commercial Finance Association annual meeting on November 15. Other public hearing dates will be announced.