2016, 2016 Northeast Bankruptcy Conference

This year’s mountainside chat will address recent developments in the requirements for employment of disinterestedness, disclosure and disqualification. It will focus on two recent decisions relating to the extent to which a lack of disinterestedness or the presence of an ethical conflict of one firm member is, or is not, imputed on others within the same firm, and whether there is a difference between the two.

This program will explore current hot-button topics relating to the drafting and confirmation of chapter 11 plans. The issues discussed will including drafting to accommodate, as well as to either encourage or discourage § 1111(b) elections, and the strategy of holders of secured claims in either making or not making that election. It will also include a discussion of third-party releases and injunctions, using recent cases in the First Circuit to illustrate when such releases are, and are not, appropriate.

Oil, gas and energy are the hottest areas in bankruptcy right now. As this is an industry that suffers from volatile market conditions, with its earnings linked to ever-depleting reserves, companies involved in or dependent on the exploration, development and production of oil and gas present unique issues for the bankruptcy practitioner. This panel will include the viewpoints of legal professionals from both the debtor and the creditor sides, an economist focused on the oil and gas sector, and a trust administrator with a large energy portfolio under management.

In the Massachusetts economy of the 21st century, insolvency professionals are increasingly called upon after it is too late to save a small business. Thus, our practice is increasingly liquidation-focused, requiring the professional to seek to engage in a process that both tightly controls cost and maximizes value.

This program will explore the boundaries of the sub rosa plan doctrine in a variety of contexts potentially arising in chapter 11 cases. The focus will be on efforts to resolve the relationship of the debtor to all or many of its creditor constituencies and equity-holders that arguably deviate from the priority and procedural schemes of the Bankruptcy Code.