Financial Lawyers Conference 214 Main Street, #336, El Segundo, CA 90245 · (310) 322-1350 · Fax (310) 615-4581 FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.financiallawyers.org
The Annual Seminar of the Financial Lawyers Conference for 2012 will take place at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in Ojai, California, over the weekend of April 20-22, 2012. This year’s Seminar topic is:
Bankruptcy After the Fall: Emerging Issues in the Wake of the Financial Crisis — The bursting of the housing bubble in 2007, the financial panic of September 2008 culminating in the bankruptcy of Lehman and bailout of AIG, and the ensuing and continuing shocks to the global financial system, have created novel stresses on the bankruptcy system. Judges and practitioners in cases such as Lehman, Chrysler, and Madoff, have been required to address and resolve numerous cutting-edge issues, often in very pressured environments. Using a series of hypothetical fact patterns created by our moderator, we shall examine these cutting-edge issues and explore their applicability to the more traditional cases handled by the bankruptcy system.
Our moderator will be Professor Douglas G. Baird, the Harry A. Bigelow Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, where his research and teaching interests focus on corporate reorganizations and contracts. Before joining the faculty in 1980, he was a law clerk to Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler and Judge Dorothy W. Nelson, both of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Baird was Dean of the Law School from 1994 to 1999. He has served as Vice Chair of the National Bankruptcy Conference and is Scholar in Residence of the American College of Bankruptcy. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and sits on the Board of Directors of the American Law and Economics Association. About three weeks before the seminar, FLC will email attendees the written course materials including the hypothetical fact patterns and questions that will form the basis for the seminar discussions, as well as assignments of each attendee to a particular topic.
The topics to be discussed at the seminar include the following: Issues in largely unexplored regions of insolvency practice, including municipal bankruptcy, state insolvency, Dodd-Frank, and broker-dealer liquidations. Fraudulent conveyance and equitable subordination issues, including those that have been raised in Tribune, TOUSA, Yellowstone, Dynegy, and Madoff, as well as the reach of section 546(e). Complex sales, including the ability to sell free and clear of product liability claims and other liabilities, noncash bidding, credit bidding, mootness, and section 363(m). Treatment of corporate groups in bankruptcy, including special purpose entities. Plan negotiation issues, including disclosure obligations after WaMu, gifting, and plan support agreements. Plan confirmation issues, including competing plans, claims trading, and vote designation.