Consumer

Avoiding Bankruptcy: What Options Exist (and Are Accessible)?

The Easy Fix: Is Repealing § 523(a)(8) Really the Answer?

Past Presidents’ Debate: Michael P. Richman Hunton & Williams LLP; New York Deborah D. Williamson Cox Smith Matthews Incorporated; San Antonio Resolved: Secured creditors should be required to fund the payment of all administrative claims and make a distribution to general unsecured creditors as a condition of cleansing substantially all of the debtors’ assets through a § 363 sale process. Judicial Debate: Hon. Kevin J. Carey U.S. Bankruptcy Court (D. Del.); Wilmington Hon. Frank J. Santoro U.S. Bankruptcy Court (E.D. Va.); Norfolk Resolved: A claim is not impaired for purposes of § 1129(a)(10) if the alteration of the rights in question arises solely from the debtor’s exercise of discretion, because § 1129(a)(10) recognizes impairment only to the extent that it is driven by economic need. Consumer Debate: John Rao National Consumer Law Center; Boston Brett Weiss Chung & Press, PC; Greenbelt, Md. Resolved: The Bankruptcy Rules and Forms should require that a national chapter 13 official plan form be used in all cases.

A panel of younger lawyers/financial professionals will talk about the issues and challenges of working for senior lawyers and suggest ways to improve the working relationship between senior and junior lawyers.

This panel will discuss a variety of issues arising due to the explosion of social media communications. Topics will include property rights, evidence, spoliation, ethics and trustee investigation duties.

A panel of participants in ABI’s Civility Task Force will discuss the work of the task force in an interactive program designed to further the conversation about civility in our profession.

The panel will address trends in dischargeability, modification programs, prospects for legislative changes and other recent developments.

Consumer debtors have been turning up the heat recently and asserting private rights of action, specific performance and damage claims based on federal statutes passed in response to the consumer mortgage loan crisis. This panel will explore issues surrounding the claims asserted under nonbankruptcy consumer mortgage mitigation programs (HAMP, HARP, etc.) and enforcement programs (National Mortgage Settlement, OCC consent orders, etc.) by debtors in chapter 13 cases.

Individual chapter 11 cases continue to present practitioners with a variety of complex and perplexing issues. This panel will discuss navigating through an individual chapter 11 case from the perspective of both the debtor and its creditors.