Overturning Adverse Bankruptcy Decisions: Bankruptcy Appellate Rules, Flexible Finality, Mootness and Jurisdiction

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Bankruptcy
- event Date
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE course will guide counsel through the unique challenges and procedural complexities of bankruptcy appeals, including the specialized issues of finality, mootness, and jurisdiction. The program will help lawyers avoid several minefields crowded with terminal explosive devices that can change entities and people in considerable ways.
Faculty

Mr. Miller is a director at Bayard. He concentrates his practice in the areas of corporate bankruptcy and restructuring, representing debtors (both voluntary and involuntary) and trustees, in addition to asset purchasers, landlords, official committees of unsecured creditors, secured creditors, vendors, and preference and fraudulent transfer litigants in bankruptcy courts across the country. Mr. Miller's clientele stems from a wide range of industries, including aviation, blockchain/cryptocurrency, restaurants, insurance, retail, healthcare, energy, and education, among many others, and he has worked with them on both in-court and out-of-court restructuring matters. He is a frequent speaker and author on these topics and others in the restructuring space, including with respect to cryptocurrency, blockchain, and the treatment and valuation of virtual assets in bankruptcy. Mr. Miller is also a certified mediator for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and is included on the Register of Mediators and Arbitrators maintained by the Court. He has also served as an expert witness in the areas of restructuring and insolvency.

Mr. Smelko brings more than thirty-five years of experience to his representation of clients in litigation, with an emphasis on business bankruptcy, restructuring and corporate governance disputes. He has successfully litigated all aspects of bankruptcy matters from both the creditor’s and debtor’s perspective. Mr. Smelko's practice also involves advising banks, credit unions and other financial institutions on a variety of bankruptcy related matters, including plan confirmation objections, asset disposition and use motions, stay relief litigation, lease disputes and the prosecution and defense of discharge objections and nondischargeability complaints. He has successfully argued a number of appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and California's Fourth District Court of Appeal. Mr. Smelko teaches Bankruptcy, Bankruptcy Procedure and Workouts, Collections & Foreclosures at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law while also coaching Thomas Jefferson's Bankruptcy Law Moot Court and Negotiation Teams.
Description
There are more bankruptcy-related appeals than appeals of any other type of federal civil action. They have a disproportionate effect on the parties' economic rights and finances. Knowledge of the bankruptcy appellate process is an essential tool for bankruptcy practitioners.
Bankruptcy appeals are unlike regular civil appeals in fundamental ways. Many intermediate decisions are reviewable long before the end of the bankruptcy case under the doctrine of "flexible finality."
Appeals can go stale in bankruptcy much sooner than in an ordinary case and involve statutory construction, equitable considerations, rule compliance, and fact development.
Listen as the experienced panel leads counsel through the complexities and pitfalls of bankruptcy appeals.
Outline
- Applicable rules
- Standards of review
- Flexible finality
- Mootness and equitable mootness
- Standing
- Forum choices
- Structuring and presenting the argument clearly and concisely
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- Who has standing to appeal?
- What is flexible finality?
- When can the parties appeal directly to the court of appeals?
- What is the relationship between stays pending appeal and mootness?
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