Plan Confirmation

Confirmation Roundtable: Top Tips to Confirm a Chapter 11 PlanThis roundtable will explore choices and strategies in formulating a plan, including classification, thestreamlining tools available under § 105(d), restructuring support agreements, and the murky intersection ofexculpations, releases and injunctions. The panelists will explore these topics with an eye toward sharingpractical tips for obtaining a successful confirmation.

A judge, chapter 13 trustee and bankruptcy attorney will discuss how to help chapter 13 debtors succeed in chapter 13 despite increasing asset values, increased loan balances and increased expenses. This panel will delve into such issues as creating feasible plans with debtors’ ever-tighter budgets, instilling flexibility in the bankruptcy system, and dealing with asset appreciation. The panelists also will discuss options for cases that are running long in light of the Kinney decision, along with other issues that can arise.

This session will dive into mass tort cases, “Texas Two-Step” divisive mergers and the bad-faith arguments surrounding them, and equitable mootness (Talarico v. Ultra Petro. Corp. and others).

This panel will identify recent examples of chapter 11 plans confirmed within the Ninth Circuit that contained third-party releases despite longstanding precedent in the Ninth Circuit prohibiting those releases outside of the asbestos context. The panelists also will describe the types of releases confirmed, as well as how the plan proponents were able to include the releases.

Post-confirmation trusts increasingly have become a popular means of obtaining plan confirmation and administering estate assets, pursuing litigation, and resolving a variety of disputes in chapter 11. While the use of post-confirmation trusts provides a host of benefits, it may provide traps for the unwary.