Education
The National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Annual Conference offers one of the most comprehensive and respected educational programs in the bankruptcy community. Each year, the conference brings together leading judges, practitioners, academics, and industry professionals to explore the most important developments shaping bankruptcy law and practice.
Attendees can expect a robust lineup of educational sessions, panel discussions, and thought-provoking presentations designed to address emerging issues, practical challenges, and evolving legal trends. Programs are carefully curated to provide meaningful insights and valuable perspectives for members of the bankruptcy bench and bar.
In addition to NCBJ programming, the conference features educational offerings presented in partnership with several respected affiliate organizations, including:
- American Bankruptcy Law Journal (ABLJ) Symposium
- American Bar Association – Bankruptcy Law Division
- American Bankruptcy Institute
- Commercial Law League of America
- Federal Bar Association
These collaborations help ensure a diverse and high-quality educational experience, covering a wide range of perspectives across the bankruptcy field.
All registrants for the NCBJ Annual Conference are entitled to attend and request CLE/CPE Credit for all educational programs, including those of any of the affiliates. However, in order to receive CLE credit for ABA Educational programs, you must pay a separate fee.
NCBJ Educational Program
NCBJ Opening Plenary Session: 88 MPH to Confirmation: Landmark Cases That Changed the Ride
Moderator: Hon. Jason Burgess
Speakers: Hon. Aubrey Thomas, Hon. Tiffany Geyer, Eyal Berger, Hon. Bruce Harwood, Alexandra Dugan, Eugene Johnson, James Block
Description: Great Scott! What happens when we put bankruptcy law in a time machine? This panel takes participants on a fast-paced journey through the cases and statutory developments that transformed modern restructuring practice. Along the way, the discussion will connect past innovations to today’s most contested issues- and offer predictions about where bankruptcy is headed when the clock hits 88 miles per hour again.
Forum Shopping Network
Moderator: Hon. Shireen Barday
Speakers: Bruce Bennett, Jessica Lauria, Evan Fleck
Description: more information coming soon!
Decide or Decline? Bankruptcy Court Jurisdiction: When Does It Start — And When Does It End?
Moderator: Hon. Scott Clarkson
Speakers: Chris D. Hampson, Anup Sathy, Hon. Karen B. Owens
Description: This audience interactive panel will explore numerous factual circumstances surrounding when a bankruptcy court should or must step back from adjudicating matters. The panelists – spanning the bench, the bar, and the academy – will discuss lack of jurisdiction, mandatory and permissive abstention, remand of removed proceedings, transfer of cases under FRBP 1412, and retention of jurisdiction after plan confirmation. The audience will vote on what the court should or must do in a wide range of circumstances.
Bankruptcy’s Most Wanted: Fraud and Bankruptcy
Joint Program with Federal Bar Association
Moderator: Hon. Craig Gargotta
Speakers: Tara McGrath, Peter S. Davis, Marti Murray
Description: This panel explores fraud in bankruptcy from all angles. Panelists will discuss challenges in representing parties that have potentially been involved in fraud, as well as provide perspectives from the viewpoint of creditors, trustees, and examiners.
Let’s Make a (Subchapter V) Deal!
Moderator: Hon. Paul W. Bonapfel
Speakers: Hon. Scott M. Grossman, Hon. Deborah L. Thorne, Grace Kinley, Amy Denton Mayer, Caroline Djang
Description: Join your host Judge Paul “Monty Hall” Bonapfel to match wits with celebrity teams of contestants answering difficult and tricky questions about subchapter V.
Feasibility in the 21st Century: LMEs, Chapter 22s, Future Claims, and Other Puzzles
Moderator: Hon. Michael Kaplan
Speakers: Robert W. Miller, Josh Sussberg, Phil Dublin, John Castellano
Description: What does “feasibility” mean in an era of liability management exercises, repeat chapter 11 filings, and future claims? This panel will revisit the doctrinal roots of feasibility—including its relationship to absolute priority, the equity “option,” and foundational Supreme Court precedent—and ask what work the requirement is meant to do today. Is feasibility still a meaningful safeguard for creditors, or has it become a flexible tool shaped by market realities? The panel will explore whether rapid “chapter 22” cases reflect system failure or an efficient response to changing capital structures; how analysis should account for LMEs conducted prepetition; and how the presence of future claims intersects with the assumption of a solvent, reorganized debtor. The discussion will bring together judicial, legal, and financial perspectives to examine whether feasibility doctrine is keeping pace with modern restructuring practice—or quietly evolving to meet it
Mexican Business Insolvency Law: Reform and Challenge Just Beyond the Border
Moderator: Hon. Nancy Alquist
Speakers: Charlie Beckham, Dario Oscos, Rosa Rojas Vertiz
Description: This panel will consider the various reforms that have occurred since the insolvency law became effective in 2000, the challenges within the system, including the stalled creation of specialized courts within Mexico, and the experience of practitioners. The panel will include a Mexican law professor, Mexican and U.S. practitioners, and a professional trustee working within the Mexican system.
Fulcrum Creditor Power: RSAs, DIPs, Backstops, and Other Tools of Creditor-on-Creditor Violence
Moderator: Hon. Alfredo Perez
Speakers: Vincent Buccola, Alice Belisle Eaton, Laura Davis Jones, David M. Hillman
Description: Many of the hottest topics in big cases these days involve intra-class creditor conflicts, sometimes loosely referred to as “creditor on creditor violence” — that is, attempts by a sub-group within a key creditor class to get better treatment than is available to the other, non-participating members of the class. Typically, this sub-group controls their class’s vote, which enables them to cut a deal with the debtor that gives them special treatment in exchange for a yes vote. Backstop agreements are a well-known example of this, with a subset of the class backstopping the exit financing for a sometimes exorbitant fee. Many DIPs and restructuring support agreements involve similar preferential arrangements. Liability management transactions are of course another example, but one that is outside the scope of this panel.
The Privacy Paradox: Transparency and Confidentiality in Bankruptcy
Moderator: Hon. Brian Walsh
Speakers: Brad Knapp, Elise Frejka, Abigail Ryan
Description: Privacy issues are now pervasive in business bankruptcy cases. The goals of maximizing the value of the estate and transparency in the bankruptcy process are not always consistent with the desire to protect information personal to customers and creditors of the debtor. The panel will address the sale of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), including biological information, collected by a debtor in its business and developing practices in the large-scale redaction of PII of creditors, tort victims, and alleged tortfeasors in documents filed with the court.
AI in the Personal and Professional Lives of Bankruptcy Lawyers and Judges: Real-World Demonstrations
Moderators: Hon. Ashley Austin Edwards, Hon. Christopher J. Panos
Speakers: Kizzy Jarashow, Meredith King, Matthew Frank
Description: Ever wonder how your peers actually use AI? This session pulls back the curtain, moving from a short collective overview to five rotating “learning labs” where speakers demo their personal and professional workflows. You’ll cycle through every station, ensuring you leave with a comprehensive toolkit of real-world AI applications and direct insights from the bench and bar.
Bankruptcy Shark Tank: Testing the Marketplace of Bankruptcy Ideas with an Expert Panel
Moderator: Hon. Martin R. Barash
Speakers: Douglas G. Baird, Dennis F. Dunne, Pamela Foohey, Ronit Berkovich, Hon. Robert Drain
Description: Experts with proposals for changes in bankruptcy law or practice will try to convince a panel of skeptics that their proposals should be adopted. Proposals may include, among others, possible Bankruptcy Code amendments impacting business and consumer cases and narrowing specific appellate holdings.
Hot Topics in Bankruptcy
Moderator: Hon. Jeff Deller
Speakers: Jane Kim, Suzanna Uhland, Tara Twomey, Melissa Jacoby
Description: A panel of leading bankruptcy judges, practitioners and scholars will engage a lively discussion of “hot topics” in bankruptcy, including questions arising in corporate restructuring and and consumer bankruptcy cases.
Judicial Roundtable
Moderator: Hon. Katy Perhach
Description: Participate in small group discussions with bankruptcy judges from around the country to discuss real-world ethics challenges