Bankruptcy Process and Procedure

The Importance of Strategic Communications and Media Relations in High-Profile Restructurings

In high profile restructurings, managing public perception and crafting a go-forward narrative matters. This session explores how strategic communications play a critical role in mitigating reputational damage and preserving brand and estate value throughout the restructuring process, including positioning the company for success upon emergence.

We will explore the importance of:
- Developing a comprehensive communication strategy to address various stakeholders (employees, partners, media, etc.) and preserve enterprise value
- Being prepared to implement aspects of the strategy even before filing (given propensity for leaks) and during key moments of the process through emergence
- Communicating effectively to promote business objectives, shape public perception, support legal strategies, and stabilize key stakeholder relationships
- Proactively (and reactively) addressing misinformation, media inquiries and stakeholder concerns to protect the brand and franchise
- Learning from real-world examples of communication efforts in major bankruptcies
Participants will be able to understand:
- The role strategic communications play in preserving value of the brand and business, including keeping internal and external parties apprised and on side
- The importance of crafting clear, forthright, consistent and timely messaging
- The ways in which strategic communications can significantly influence the outcome of a restructuring process

Debtor Suggested Speakers Paul Caminiti paul.caminiti@reevemark.com Reevemark (Strategic Communications)

Unlocking Hidden Value: Leveraging Life Insurance as a Bankruptcy Asset

With over 18 million life insurance policies lapsed or surrendered in 2023, and hundreds of thousands potentially eligible to be treated as valuable assets, bankruptcy trustees have a significant opportunity to enhance outcomes for estates and creditors. This session explores the critical role of life insurance policies in bankruptcy cases, emphasizing the process of valuing and monetizing these assets. It also addresses the importance of maintaining anonymity and ensuring maximum value through competitive marketplaces and non-traditional valuation practices. Attendees will gain actionable insights into identifying, protecting, and leveraging life insurance policies as a pivotal asset in bankruptcy proceedings. 1) Identify Opportunities: Understand how to recognize life insurance policies as potential assets during the bankruptcy process, including the types of policies most suitable for valuation or sale.

2) Understand the Process: Gain knowledge of the step-by-step process to evaluate, protect, and monetize life insurance policies, from assessing the policy's value to executing a sale.

3) Prioritize Anonymity: Learn best practices for maintaining the anonymity of policyholders and insureds to safeguard personal information and ensure compliance with ethical and legal standards.

4) Maximize Value: Explore how competitive bidding platforms and life settlement marketplaces can yield the highest possible value for creditors while navigating potential challenges.

5) Promote Awareness: Discuss strategies for educating policyholders and stakeholders about life insurance as an asset class, preventing policies from being overlooked or prematurely lapsed. Business Suggested Speakers Stephen Jass stephen@LSHub.net Life Settlement Hub

No Need for Chapter 11 Sub V Trustees

UST should provide data on the fees charged by sub V trustees and what they did for the case to justify their needless fee Business Shmuel Klein SHMUEL.KLEIN@VERIZON.NET law office of shmuel klein

Whole Leader Health

World-class leadership begins with the Whole Leader. Promoting wholeness requires addressing multiple dimensions of well-being. Considering system induced stress is a significant cost personally, professionally, and organizationally, bankruptcy leaders should consider a holistic approach to improving results. -Why wholeness is the new standard for individual, team, and organizational well-being.
-How to improve resilience to reduce the effects of system induced stress.
-How to lead a company culture with higher engagement, learning, and growth levels. Other Suggested Speakers Dr. David Nico events@davidnico.com DavidNico.com

The Shrinking Practice

The state of the bankruptcy bar and why it's shrinking. In the past 2 years, our 3-person panel has taken over 5 other law practices. Three practitioners retired. One died. One simply wanted to get out of the bankruptcy practice area. Many more exits are on the horizon.

It's important to understand how to take over another attorney's practice effectively, efficiently, and ethically. We are compelled to give clients options, but also have a duty to ensure they will continue to have cost-effective representation. It's also essential that those of us in the practice NOW are taking the appropriate steps in succession planning to make these transitions smooth.

We will discuss why we think people are getting out, why now, and what we can do to ensure we continue to have provide quality legal services in the practice of bankruptcy law. What steps must be taken under the guidance of the OCDC to efficiently and effectively take over a law practice. Consumer Suggested Speakers Betsy Lynch blynch@chinnery.com Chinnery Evans & Nail, PC

Navigating The Intersection of Bankruptcy and Intellectual Property

Note to Committee
Beverly Berneman, Frank Oswald, and I (Summer Chandler) are working on the second edition of the ABI book, Choppy Waters: Navigating the Intersection of Bankruptcy and Intellectual Property. It should be ready to go to print by the end of this year. We would like very much to have the opportunity to present at the Spring Meeting on some of the issues we will be discussing in the book and that we have encountered in our practices or other work. Thank you for considering our proposal.

Panel Description:

Intellectual property is often critical to the financial stability and well-being of a company. When a debtor enters bankruptcy, the Bankruptcy Code contains several provisions that impact rights held by the debtor, or others, in intellectual property owned or used by the debtor. Given the important role that intellectual property often plays in the life of a business, disputes pertaining to intellectual property frequently surface in the context of the debtor's bankruptcy case. Unfortunately, significant uncertainty continues to surround many of the issues that exist at the intersection of bankruptcy law and intellectual property law.

This panel will explore the complex intersection of intellectual property and bankruptcy law, focusing on the important and unique challenges and opportunities that can arise when intellectual property rights are at issue in bankruptcy proceedings. The topics discussed will include, among others: the effect of the rejection of an intellectual property license agreement, the effect of the sale of a debtor’s intellectual property on the rights of non-debtor licensees, and the assignability of intellectual property license agreements (either standalone agreements or agreements contained within a more comprehensive agreement – such as a franchise agreement). Panelists will discuss and analyze several important and interesting disputes, including, among others, the tortured bankruptcy history of 2 Live Crew/Luther Campbell and Lil’ Joe Records. By the conclusion of the program, attendees should: (1) understand the legal framework governing the treatment of intellectual property assets in bankruptcy; (2) recognize risks and challenges related to intellectual property in bankruptcy, and (3) be able to assess the potential impact of bankruptcy on ongoing and future intellectual property transactions. Business Suggested Speakers Summer Chandler summerchandler@lsu.edu Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU

Consensual Releases for Sec. 327 Professionals, Committee Members,Trustees and Other Case Administrators

In the aftermath of Purdue Pharmaceuticals it is clear that non-debtors releases in reorganization plans under chapter 11 and, most likely Chapter 12, require the releases to be "consensual." This invokes general principals of contract law which require, inter alia, consideration for the releases. Insiders, like the Sacklers in Purdue, can contribute cash or equity. Insurers, guarantors, and similar parties can similarly fund the releases. However, it is not clear how administrative persons can contribute "consideration" for releases especially where Secs. 326-31 largely govern types of claims that might be asserted against these persons. The Barton doctrine also provides a framework for asserting claims against many of these persons and an obligation for the court to raise claims against such persons even if her parties in interest do not.

Given the pre-Purdue inclusion of boilerplate provisions in many plans for releases of the various counsel and other case administrators, the issue arises under Purdue whether or not such releases are possible post-Purdue and how that might be obtained if they are possible. In a post-Purdue world, counsel, other professionals and committees in reorganization cases may well face significant increased exposure to claims and liability where they may not be able to obtain releases for such claims and liability. Strategies to deal with this change are of obvious import to those attendees and those professionals they deal with in the course of reorganization cases, particularly those in which there is dissatisfaction with these individuals' actions. E.g, The Asarco case in which the reorganized debtor sued its predecessor's former counsel. Business Suggested Speakers Leo Weiss leoweiss@ecentral.com Retired, formerly with he U.S. Trustee Program

From Good Hands to (Bankruptcy) Boxing Gloves: the Impact of Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum Company on Your Next Reorganization

The Supreme Court's June 2024 decision in Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum Company held that insurers qualified as "parties in interest" under Section 1109(b), entitling those insurers to object to a plan of reorganization. This landmark decision is likely to have far-ranging effects in the reorganization world and affect debtors and creditors committees alike. The ABI should host a panel examining the expected extent and impact of those effects, including that:
- debtors and creditors should prepare for the fact that insurance carriers will start getting a seat at the negotiating table;
- the insurance industry may view Truck as not merely granting a seat at the table, but also as an invitation to test the boundaries of its newly granted position;
- Truck presents an existential threat to the already-risky tack of chapter 11 plans' limiting director and officer liability to only insurance proceeds;
- insurance carriers will likely leverage Truck to urge courts in jurisdictions that deem insurance proceeds to be property of the estate to reexamine the status quo; and
- insurance carriers will begin to horse-trade for concessions in connection with first-day motions and debtors' purchasing tail coverage and run-off policies post-petition. Participants will gain knowledge and skills vital to negotiating insurance-related issues in bankruptcy, such as:
- traps for the unwary in attempting to limit liability in chapter 11 plans to only insurance proceeds;
- how to maximize or minimize Truck's reach in their next plan negotiation, depending on whether their goal is to tout or downplay its effects; and
- how to navigate coverage issues if insurance carriers are granted a seat at the table during their next plan negotiation. Debtor Suggested Speakers Brandon Lewis blewis@reidcollins.com Reid Collins & Tsai LLP

The Role of Investigations in a Bankruptcy

Nardello & Co. is the only Band 1 ranked investigations firm in the United States, whose experts have worked on some of the highest profile and most complex bankruptcy cases of the past decade. This includes recovering assets on behalf of investors following the collapse of FTX and assisting Sandy Hook families as creditors in the bankruptcy of InfoWars creator Alex Jones. The purpose of the session would be to discuss how investigative firms can serve a unique role bankruptcies and insolvencies. Specific topic areas would be uncovering fraud and malfeasance that have collapsed companies, tracing and recovering assets, digital investigations and cryptocurrency tracing, supporting litigation to clawback funds and performing due diligence on bidders of debtor assets to make sure that they have the necessarily wherewithal and don’t present compliance issues. The panelists will share novel and practical perspectives on how to approach these issues, drawing on Nardello & Co.’s investigative expertise in recent insolvency matters and global presence. Participants will learn when and how to utilize investigative firms to assist their clients, whether they are corporate debtors or creditors committees. Nardello & Co. would bring in Lawyers who worked on these cases or similar, to speak on panel, if desired. Business Suggested Speakers Meredith Allesee mallesee@nardelloandco.com Nardello & Co.

Circuit Bankruptcy Judges

There are three Bankruptcy Judges that moved up to be Circuit Court Judges. Judge Ambro was a hit at ASM and has indicated he would love to speak more at ABI events. Having a discussions with the all 3 Circuit Court judges that started as Bankruptcy Judges (understanding that Judge Ambro was only a bankruptcy lawyer, not a Judge), would be very interesting. Hear their different perspectives of appeals, how they view SCOTUS decisions on bankruptcy issues, and how their fellow Circuit Court Judges rely on them on bankruptcy appeals. This sessions would given bankruptcy practitioners insight into how Circuit judges with bankruptcy experience view appeals and bankruptcy law in general. Business Chris Ward cward@polsinelli.com Polsinelli