We hope you were able to attend this year’s 2023 California Bankruptcy Forum’s 35th Annual Insolvency Conference at the LaQuinta Resort and Club in LaQuinta. For those who were not able to attend. The California Receiver’s Forum was proud to participate on three panels at the Insolvency Conference and is grateful to the CBF for including the CRF as part of the Conference. the remainder of the article provides a summary and recap of all three panels:
CRF kicked off CBF with a bang, leading this conference with a morning cup of coffee and an informal gathering of attorneys, receivers, service providers, and everyone in between, discussing what practitioners are seeing in the market, new receivership assignments that participants were recently asked to submit proposals for, and even a recent receivership of interest. Mia Blackler, the moderator of the first panel and Dominic Lobuglio, the producer looked into the receivership “Crystal Ball” and aptly named the panel “Rise of Receiverships.” As many of us are now seeing, receiverships, along with interest rates and bankruptcy filings, are trending up. Conversations overheard included new equity receiverships over operating companies, real estate receiverships stemming from broken construction projects, monetary defaults, and maturity defaults as well as partnership disputes. The panel echoed the conversations during the morning meet-and-greet, and gave a useful glimpse into some of the recent receivership matters the panelists have been handling.
Day 2 of a conference is always tough to draw a crowd, especially if you are the first panel of the day. However, due to the nature and topic of this panel – cannabis receiverships – and the nuances associated with the cannabis industry from a legal perspective (as well as the lack of bankruptcy protection … for the time being), the “Roll the Dice” Cannabis panel was very well attended and took on a life of its own. Produced by Daniel Miggins and Aram Ordubegian, and moderated, by Michael Muse-Fisher, this panel brought together a series of professionals with a wide variety of backgrounds within the cannabis sector. The panel included war stories, disagreements, banter, addressing hypotheticals and “what if” scenarios. Audience participation was robust and the consensus was that it was an exciting and useful panel. The panelists, included: (i) Iran Hopkins, who advised on corporate structuring issues,
potential liabilities that exist from a tax perspective, and the need to adhere to regulatory compliance at both a state and local level; (ii) Tim Bossidy, who provided his exceptional expertise and explained “synthetic bankruptcies” as he calls it, and interim CEO or CRO issues and strategies for practitioners; (iii) Jason Rosell explained in detail the cannabis workouts he has been a part of on behalf of both secured and unsecured creditors and strategies and pitfalls in successfully resolving workouts; and (iv) Kevin Singer, the guru of cannabis receiverships, represented CRF well by reminding the audience of the benefit of running a cannabis business through a receivership and the tips and recommendations he has learned from his considerable experience.
The California Bankruptcy Forum’s Alternatives to Bankruptcy Panel at this year’s CBF Conference was well attended by many Young Insolvency Professionals as well as other conference attendees. Produced by Mo Kebeh, the panel explored various approaches to insolvency, such as Article 9 Sales, Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors, Receiverships, and Out-of-Court Workouts. Panelists Kyra Andrassy, Jake Diiorio, Molly Froschauer, and Veronica Rocha utilized hypothetical scenarios, including one involving a malfunctioning robotic pet to demonstrate which strategies are most effective in different circumstances. Led by their engaging moderator, Benjamin King, the panelists were each able to share how their career experiences have helped them advise clients to successfully navigate insolvency issues.
Conclusion
The California Receivers Forum greatly enjoyed participating in this year’s CBF conference and after conferring with Michael Sweet, CBF’s current President, we will look to keep this tradition going at CBF’s conference in 2024.
We hope to see you next year at Loyola X in January and at CBF in May.
Daniel Miggins spearheads the business development and client relations efforts at Hilco Real Estate. Mr. Miggins engages with creditor’s rights and debtor’s counsel, special asset groups at banks, private credit lenders, and special servicers within commercial mortgage-backed securities with a particular focus on commercial real estate assets.