Business

Luckin Coffee Inc., founded in 2017 by a Chinese entrepreneur, had the goal of outgrowing Starbucks as China’s largest coffee chain. The company’s 2019 IPO and bond offering raised approximately US$900 million. However, in February 2020, it was discovered that Luckin had fabricated its financial statements, with revenue overstated by US$300 million. Litigation followed, with various direct and class action claims being asserted in the U.S., a class action claim in Canada, and injunctive proceedings in both the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong. The principal creditors were unsecured bondholders and equityholders with securities litigation claims. In order to protect Luckin from its creditors, restructuring officers were appointed in the Cayman Islands, and the company’s debt was successfully restructured. This international panel of experts will discuss the case and lessons restructuring professionals can learn from it.

This panel will focus on disputes regarding engagement as counsel and payment of fees. The panel will cover such issues as unbundling of services, bifurcated fee arrangements and conflicts of interest. The panelists also will discuss a number of ethical issues that have arisen in recent cases.

This panel will explore the various roles of neutrals in bankruptcy, including applicable provisions of the Bankruptcy Code and Rules, as well as the limitations on the use of neutrals in bankruptcy. Examples of neutral roles in bankruptcy include mediators, fee examiners, subchapter V trustees, and mass tort personal-injury plan administrators. Limitations on the use of neutrals in bankruptcy can be found in Bankruptcy Rule 9031, and there is growing support to modify the rule to eliminate this limitation.

This session will discuss strategies that various creditors (e.g., committees, secured, priority and unsecured) can employ to counter, if not defeat, certain types of first-day relief, DIPs and other case-determinative actions that set the table for the chapter 11 case or, as some may describe it, result in the first-day fix. The panelists will touch upon substantive and procedural responses, objections, accommodations and extractions.

This panel will delve into collateral estoppel, res judicata, judicial estoppel, equitable estoppel and, although jurisdictional, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.

Join ABI Editor-at-Large Bill Rochelle for this fun and informative session as he and several bankruptcy judges discuss circuit splits and hot topics on important bankruptcy issues. An attendee favorite!

This session will provide a unique, interactive look at difficult evidentiary issues.