BarbriSFCourseDetails
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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

  • work Practice Area

    Bankruptcy

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Wednesday, March 30, 2022

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE course will review director and officer protection statutes across key jurisdictions and show counsel how to maneuver through the window between the business judgment rule and intentional dishonest acts to ensure access to directors and officers liability insurance policies if duties of care (e.g., gross negligence and recklessness), loyalty (e.g., self-dealing and conflicts of interest), and more recently, supervision, have been violated. The program will also discuss how to spot negligent and unlawful opinions, services, and transactions by professionals.

Faculty

Michael Burkart
Bankruptcy Plan Administrator
Heller Ehrman, LLP

After more than 20 years of experience in commercial banking, having served as a President & CEO of four publicly owned commercial banks in California, Mr. Burkart earned a reputation as a problem solver and turnaround manager. You may recognize his name as the court appointed Chapter 11 Plan Administrator for the Bankruptcy Estate of Heller Ehrman LLP, filed in San Francisco. This was a 112-year old international law firm, with 750 attorneys, that filed its Chapter 11 Voluntary Petition on December 28, 2008. Despite a case fraught with litigation and other challenges, thus far, he has distributed a 100% dividend to all unsecured priority creditors and six interim distributions totaling 64% to general unsecured creditors.

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Thomas A. Willoughby
Partner
Felderstein Fitzgerald Willoughby Pascuzzi & Rios, LLP

Mr. Willoughby's practice focuses on difficult insolvency related cases. Tom has been lead counsel to businesses in financial distress, trustees, Official Committees, financial institutions, and other creditors in a wide array of cases both in and out of bankruptcy court.

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Christopher D. Sullivan
Partner
Sullivan Pratt, LLP

Mr. Sullivan has successfully represented a wide variety of clients in major litigation, including both plaintiffs in business litigation and large corporate defendants. He has represented bankruptcy estates and unsecured creditors’ committees, major corporations (American Honda, American Express, and Southland, the 7-11 franchisor), real estate developers, a financial institution, and a famous underwater photographer. Mr. Sullivan represents individuals and smaller businesses against large corporations.

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Description

Recovering, protecting, and preserving company assets in Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 starts with understanding what led to a company's demise, which may have occurred over a long time under the watch of multiple sets of management. Often the responsible parties blame circumstances beyond their control, but investigation tells a different story.

Counsel will need knowledge of how the terms of key bankruptcy documents and financing strategies affect recovery. Often battles arise between creditor committees and others over standing, and the effect of releases in confirmation orders has become controversial.

Once culpable parties are identified, counsel need innovative litigation strategies based on a thorough understanding of state corporate law and bankruptcy law to avoid and sidestep typical defenses.

Listen as our premier panel explores how counsel for debtors, creditors, financial institutions, creditors' committees, and others can discover what killed the company, who is responsible, and how to obtain recovery.

Outline

  1. Investigation and identification of culpable parties
    1. Preserving and reviewing key electronic and other evidence
    2. Importance of early thorough witness interviews
    3. Finding a cooperative inside witness
  2. Impact of key bankruptcy documents on recovery
    1. How to maximize value of potential litigation claims to calm creditors
    2. Ways to work with creditor/investors to bring slightly overlapping claims
  3. Anticipating and neutralizing typical defenses
    1. Common key defenses
    2. Threading the needle to avoid pitfalls
    3. Preserving insurance coverage

Benefits

The panel will address these and other critical issues:

  • How can trustees or creditors avoid triggering insurance exclusions and stay within coverage?
  • How do consensual and nonconsensual releases affect strategy?
  • When are nonconsensual releases proper and likely to be approved?
  • What is the current law regarding standing to bring avoidance actions under Bankruptcy Code section 548 and state law?
  • Who has standing to bring breach of fiduciary duty claims?
  • What are the tell-tale signs of ignoring wrongdoing in ordinary opinions and scope of work descriptions?