Conferences and Webinars

This panel will provide an update on cryptocurrency’s adoption and integration into the global financial system. The panelists will share practical approaches for bankruptcy practitioners to identify, take possession of and manage cryptocurrency in bankruptcy cases. The panelists will also discuss strategies for debtors in possession and bankruptcy trustees to preserve the value of crypto-estate property.

This panel focuses on alternative fees in bankruptcy and litigation financing, pursuing claims against third parties and derivative claims/reflective losses, the assignment of claims and court sanctioning.

The world has gone through monumental changes as a result of COVID-19: We have witnessed an administration change; a pandemic shutdown, emergence and contemplated re-shutdown; record market highs; record sustained interest rate lows; and substantial stimulus legislation. How have these various external and macroeconomic changes affected insolvency and fraud litigation, and what impact will they have on the future of litigation? Further, how have these changes influenced cross-border considerations in litigation?

This panel highlights some of the roadblocks that small business debtors face at the commencement of their cases, throughout the process and on the road to plan confirmation. First in line is the definition of “engaged in commercial or business activities.” Central to this issue is whether a debtor needs to be actively engaged in business operations to qualify as a subchapter V debtor. Next up is lease assumption. When is it the right time to assume?

This panel will discuss notable chapter 15 and cross-border insolvency cases decided in the past year, including those involving the scope of discovery available to foreign representatives, § 109 eligibility, and the use of chapter 15 to bind creditors to confirmed plans. The panelists will also discuss logistical and practical solutions in running chapter 15 cases.

Speakers:

Claudia R. Tobler, Moderator
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Washington, D.C.
Matthew Crawford
Maples and Calder; George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Kenneth M. Krys
KRyS Global; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Helena Sprenger
Houthoff Buruma, New York
Colette Wilkins
Walkers; Cayman Islands

This panel will feature a discussion with leading experts in the field of Latin American restructurings about the recent — and not-so-recent — updates to insolvency statutes throughout the region. While some of these new insolvency regimes remain largely untested, others offer both lessons and open questions about the potential for a true convergence of Latin American restructuring laws to other more established and tested jurisdictions.

In the past few months, we have seen once-prominent Brazilian companies face financial distress as a result of governmental mistakes, political unease, global decline in oil and gas prices and the downturn in the local credit markets. Most importantly, the Petrobras bribery and corruption scandal has had wide-ranging effects on Brazilian companies, from the criminal prosecution of corporate executives to open-ended prohibitions on future contracts with Petrobras and, in some instances, fines millions of reais.

Foreign representatives have begun using chapter 15 more creatively in seeking a broad array of relief; consequently, parties in the U.S. have increasingly been raising a number of challenges. In 2014, foreign representatives were presented with a number of objections to chapter 15 relief, including objections questioning the proper location of the foreign debtor’s center of main interests and the fairness of proceedings before the foreign court. This panel will discuss cases that address these issues, including In re Octaviar Admin. Pty Ltd., In re Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd.

Many companies operating in and around the energy industry have been adversely affected by the recent precipitous drop in the price of oil, a global trend that has exposed vulnerabilities in a number of industry segments and individual companies. The companies, their exposures and the complicated issues raised by their distress span the Americas.