Course Description
Provide students with practical, direct, and realistic experience with the procedural rules applicable to the resolution of disputes that commonly occur in contested chapter 11 reorganization and chapter 7 bankruptcy cases. Students will individually and as part of teams draft petitions, draft and argue Contested Matter applications, motions, objections, and an Adversary Proceeding complaint and answer.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate law students will not be doing any extra work beyond
that required of the Juris Doctor students. J.D. students are
post-baccalaureate students and the workload expected of them is
the same workload expected of post-baccalaureate graduate
students. Law students are professional students, not
undergraduate students. Graduate law students are primarily
international lawyers seeking expertise in the American legal
system. This expertise is gained through exposure to Juris
Doctor courses.
Athena Title
Bankruptcy Litigation
Undergraduate Prerequisite
JURI 4360/6360
Graduate Prerequisite
JURI 4360/6360
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will learn the dynamic and fluid negotiating environment that exists in business bankruptcy reorganizations with particular emphasis on key bankruptcy concepts that are employed by various stakeholders as a debtor formulates and seeks to obtain confirmation of its plan of reorganization. Students will prepare motions and objections and present arguments in class as a part of their classroom participation.
Topical Outline
1. Introduction to Chapter 11 Business Reorganizations and a Sample Debtor. 2. Preventing interference with the Debtor’s Operations: The Automatic Stay. 3. Finding Cash to Continue Operations. 4. Turning the Debtor Around – The Business Issues. 5. Controlling and Supervising the Reorganization. 6. Executory Contracts. 7. Avoiding Secured Claims (and Other Transfers and Obligations). 8. Determining Claims Against the Estate. 9. Dealing with Creditor (and Other) Misconduct. 10. Proposing a Plan of Reorganization—Exclusivity, Classification, and Impairment. 11. Determining the Enterprise’s Value. 12. Making Disclosure, Soliciting Votes, and Voting on the Plan. 13. Confirmation of the Plan (Consensual and Cramdown). 14. Consequences of Confirmation—The Discharge and Related Post- confirmation Issues.