The Labor and Employment Committee has continued to remain at the forefront of the intersection of labor and employment issues and bankruptcy in its continuing effort to keep its members well-informed as they navigate these issues. To begin, this year our Committee paired up with ABI’s Asset Sales Committee for the Annual Spring Meeting to discuss “Labor Issues in 363 Sales: Things You Need to Know.” The panel included Lucian B. Murley of Sal Ewing LLP, James Lukenda of Huron Consulting Group, Michael Horan of Trenman Law and Scott Brown of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP. The major topic of discussion was labor issues in a post-Jevic era. Multiple people attending the panel discussion said it was one of the best at the Annual Spring Meeting.
In early June, 2016 the committee presented a webinar titled: “Labor & Workforce Issues in Coal Producer Bankruptcy Cases.” The strong panel of speakers consisted of Cullen D. Speckhart of Wolcott Rivers Gates, Sharon L. Levine of Saul Ewing LLP, and Gregory F. Pesce of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The panel provided unique and valuable insight regarding key labor issues in coal bankruptcy proceedings. For those who were not able to attend the live broadcast, an audio recording of this webinar is available at ABI’s e-Learning Page.
This year the Labor and Employment Committee also published an original article in its e-newsletter entitled “There is Separation Between Church and Pension, and It May Impact Your Restructuring.” The article was written by Sharon L. Levine, Jason Teele and Keara Waldron, all with Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
For the Winter Leadership Conference, our Committee teamed up with the Tax Committee for a presentation entitled “Tackling Taxing Employment Issues in Bankruptcy.” Our outstanding panel consisted of Dennis N. Brager of Brager Tax Law Group, Jay D. Crom of Bachecki, Crom & Company, LLP, the Hon. Mary Grace Diehl of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Georgia, and Henry Riordan of the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, CTS. We thank each of these panelists for their valuable insight and thoughts.
Looking forward to 2017, the Committee is taking a new approach to team up with the Consumer Committee at the Annual Spring Meeting to discuss labor issues in consumer bankruptcies. This is a topic that is infrequently addressed and will certainly be insightful and educational. We invite you to attend and learn.
The leadership of the Labor and Employment Committee encourages you to provide ideas and suggestions for topics or recent decisions that you would like the committee to cover in future educational sessions or in newsletter articles. One way for members to do so is by sharing their thoughts on our listserve or by contacting our Communications Manager, Charles Malloy. Alternatively, ABI members should feel free to contact either our education director, Jason Teele, or our special projects/task force leader, David R. Seligman. We are always seeking original written materials for our quarterly newsletter. Any ABI member who is interested in publishing a short article on a topic of interest should contact our newsletter editor, Peter Young.
As co-chairs of the Labor & Employment Committee, we offer our appreciation to our committee leadership for their hard work and dedication, to the individuals who contributed to the educational programs and article sponsored by the committee, and to our members, and we look forward to another great year.