NCBJ 2022: What's Hot

When the nation's bankruptcy judges, academics and practitioners get together for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, there are certain topics that tend to dominate. This year mass torts were a through line in many of the presentations.  A presentation on pushing the boundaries of chapter 11 suggested that mass tort cases did not have the same urgency as melting ice cube operating businesses. A panel on third party releases noted the difference between the use of third party releases to protect guarantors as opposed to those developed in mass tort cases. ABI Editor at Large Bill Rochelle has nightmares about Congress seeing abuses in mass tort cases and passing legislation without the input of bankruptcy experts. His panel also delved deeply into the Texas Two-Step.  There was even a presentation by a Pulitzer Award winning journalist and the law professor who helped him crack the source of the opioid epidemic.  As I write up my articles from this year's conference, there will be many references to issues raised by mass tort cases.