Contact: John Hartgen
               (703) 739-0800
               [email protected]

LEGISLATIVE SYMPOSIUM TO EXAMINE THE FUTURE OF U.S. CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING

September 14, 2009, Alexandria, Va.- As a new breed of corporate restructuring cases continues to take shape, the American Bankruptcy Institute is sponsoring a legislative symposium titled “Chapter 11 at the Crossroads: Does Reorganization Need Reform?” The free event, funded by the ABI Anthony H.N. Schnelling Endowment Fund, will take place on Nov. 16-17 at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., and will bring together some of the most prominent commercial bankruptcy practitioners, judges and scholars to examine whether the Bankruptcy Code needs to be reformed in order to adapt to the evolving nature of chapter 11 corporate restructurings. The luncheon keynote will be delivered by Harvey Miller of Weil Gotshal & Manges (New York), the lead attorney involved in the restructurings of General Motors and Lehman Brothers.

To view the full program schedule and speaker list, please click on the link below.

Link: http://www.abiworld.org/LEG09/schedule.html

Background

Current corporate restructurings are not only bigger but faster-moving, with a growing trend toward sales over traditional reorganization, and with governmental stakeholders dominating the process in ways perhaps not contemplated by the Code's architects or even insolvency case law history.

• Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings rose by 91 percent in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2009.
• More than 150 public companies filed during the first eight months of 2009 - a pace not observed since 2002.
• A record 25 cases filed this year have assets of more than $2 billion, and many are substantially larger.

Can the current law keep pace with today's volatile global economic climate? Is it time for Congress to revisit not only the 2005 amendments, but engage in a systematic modernization of chapter 11? Are the present crisis-driven cases changing the law de facto, even without Congress' participation or assent?

The Symposium will address these questions and additional issues related to the challenges facing the chapter 11 process. ABI hopes that the permanent record of the Symposium will materially assist Congress in its understanding of the current restructuring environment and lead toward a stronger and more adaptable Bankruptcy Code.

Members of the press that would like to attend the symposium should contact ABI Public Affairs Manager John Hartgen at 703-894-5935 or via e-mail at [email protected].

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ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes more than 12,300 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals, providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on ABI, visit www.abiworld.org. For additional conference information, visit http://www.abiworld.org/events.

The Anthony H.N. Schnelling Endowment Fund was created in 1989 to provide resources for insolvency research and education.