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  • videocam On-Demand
  • card_travel Bankruptcy
  • schedule 90 minutes

Mass Torts in Bankruptcy: Confirmation Strategies and the Role of Insurance

$297.00

This course is $0 with these passes:

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Description

For over 40 years, since 1982 when Johns-Manville filed Chapter 11, debtors facing massive liability for personal injuries have turned to bankruptcy to aggregate, manage, settle, and discharge claims. At least one class of impaired claimants must vote to approve the plan, which is difficult to achieve when the case involves numerous classes of complex class claims.

As disputes arise over both the value and validity of claims, the debtors, personal-injury plaintiffs, creditor committees, and insurers often reach an impasse. One option for resolving these cases has been to provide a cash payment and then assign claims against third parties. When the claims being assigned under a plan are claims to insurance proceeds, additional issues arise.

Listen as this experienced panel discusses the intersection of bankruptcy reorganization, tort claims, and insurance and how these issues can affect both large- and small-scale reorganization.

Presented By

Howard Brod Brownstein
President and CEO
The Brownstein Corporation

Mr. Brownstein provides turnaround management and advisory services to companies and their stakeholders, as well as investment banking services, fiduciary services, and litigation consulting, investigations and valuation services. He also serves as an independent corporate board member for publicly-owned and privately-held companies, as well as large nonprofits.

Timothy W. Burns
Partner
Burns Bair, LLP

Mr. Burns combines a deep understanding of insurance law and the insurance industry with a broad understanding of the civil litigation system that allows him to bring creative solutions to high-stakes problems.

C. Anne Malik
Partner
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Ms. Malik is Partner in Orrick's Washington, D.C., office and a member of the firm's Complex Litigation and Dispute Resolution group. With a focus on mass torts and product liability, her practice involves defending companies in a variety of industries against complex tort suits. Ms. Malik also works with Orrick's Public Policy group advising clients on strategies for solving key state legislative issues.

Kimberly Parson
Partner
Rebar Kelly

Ms. Parson is the managing partner of the firm’s New Jersey office. She has experience representing clients in complex commercial litigation, focusing on insurance coverage, litigation general commercial litigation, personal injury liability, products liability, environmental liability, mass torts, professional negligence, medical malpractice, and employment liability; as well as in New Jersey’s Municipal Court. Ms. Parson also has experience in providing coverage opinions and advice to insurance carriers concerning their coverage obligations under various types of insurance policies including, comprehensive general liability, group property and casualty lines, public entity insurance, specialty and professional risk, excess, contractors, automobile liability, and workers’ compensation and/or employer’s liability coverage. In addition, she represents clients with municipal court liability and is a former New Jersey Municipal Court Prosecutor.

Ilan D. Scharf
Partner
Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, LLP

Mr. Scharf specializes in financial restructuring and bankruptcy litigation, with a particular focus on representing creditors' committees of nonprofit entities. He has experience representing debtors, creditors’ committees, equity holders, asset purchasers, trade creditors, chapter 11 trustees, and other parties in business reorganizations and related litigation. Mr. Scharf has experience before bankruptcy courts in New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He was named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine in 2012, and has been selected as a Super Lawyer every year since. Mr. Scharf is a graduate of Yeshiva University and received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a law clerk to the Honorable Robert E. Gerber in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Scharf is admitted to practice in New York, and is resident in our New York office.

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


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Wednesday, March 1, 2023

  • schedule

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

  1. Overview of mass tort bankruptcies
  2. Parties in a mass tort Chapter 11 case
  3. Sources of funding for mass tort claims
  4. Confirmation issues

The panel will discuss these and other key issues:

  • Do insurers have a duty to settle in bankruptcy and are they subject to bad faith claims if they do not?
  • Is the insurance contract an executory contract that can be assumed and assigned under Section 365?
  • To whom are claims against the insurer potentially transferred: individuals or trusts?
  • What law governs?