BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

This CLE webinar will offer guidance to bankruptcy lawyers contending with delays, additional costs, and confusion that can result when bankruptcy and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) intersect. The program will discuss how bankruptcy courts analyze the enforceability of pre-petition arbitration clauses, mediation of disputes that arise during the case, and the unforeseen challenges of mediating large cases.

Faculty

Description

ADR issues arise in bankruptcy in primarily two ways. First, the debtor may be a party to a pre-petition arbitration clause, and the bankruptcy court must determine whether it must or should be enforced. Second, disputes and impasses arise in the bankruptcy case, and the parties may wish to have a third party to assist.

With no Supreme Court decisions on point, lower courts have been left to develop their own jurisprudence about the bankruptcy court's discretion to stay or require arbitration and on what types of issues, the preclusive effect of arbitrated facts and cases, the effect of filing a proof of claim, the effect of assumption and assignment of contracts, and other emerging issues.

At the same time, mediation has become a well-accepted option in bankruptcy cases as an alternative to expensive and public litigation. Mediation offers the parties enormous flexibility on a wide range of issues but can become unwieldy when large numbers of stakeholders are involved or even give rise to other disputes. Counsel must be aware of all the issues.

Listen as our panel of experienced bankruptcy counsel discusses the intersection of arbitration and bankruptcy.

Outline

  1. Enforcement of pre-petition arbitration clauses
  2. Mediation of bankruptcy issues

Benefits

The panel will consider these and other key issues:

  • Does a bankruptcy court have discretion to deny enforcement of a contractual arbitration provision?
  • In what instances does the use of mediation arise and where can it perhaps be most useful, including in the context of plan mediation?
  • What are best practices and tools for a successful mediation?