Ethics

“Group Privileges”: What are the limits of the attorney-client and work-product privileges that can be asserted by official committees and their members? Ad hoc committees and their members? Bank syndicates and their members; Conflicts: Latest developments in disclosure and disqualification, the use of conflicts counsel, UST Guidelines, etc.; The New U.S. Trustee Guidelines: What ethical concerns are raised by the new UST Guidelines on professional retention and fee applications (including issues relating to attorney/client privilege)? Are there limits on the proper disclosure of a firm’s billing practices and/or “blended” rates?

This panel will focus on the irrational biases for decision-making in bankruptcy. The essence of bankruptcy is deciding how to divide the debtor's metaphorical shrinking economic pie among qualified creditors. At its optimum, bankruptcy decision-making is efficient and rational. However, at other times even the most skilled bankruptcy practitioners are stymied by the inability of bankruptcy participants to make seemingly rational business decisions. Why can't everyone be rational? Decision-making is not a rational process. Behavioral economic scholars such as Daniel Ariely and Daniel Kahneman explain that we all have psychological biases that interfere with our ability to make objectively rational decisions. Bankruptcy practitioners who understand these biases learn strategies to influence them and thus enhance optimal bankruptcy decisionmaking.

Financial Advisors Track: Current Issues for Financial Advisors in Bankruptcy Cases This panel will discuss the various governance, operational and quasi-legal issues that financial advisors deal with on a day-to-day basis before, during and after the commencement of a chapter 11 case. Topics will include addressing management fraud, dealing with ERISA/labor/WARN Act/union issues, navigating corporate governance issues, Dodd-Frank compliance, and the state of the law on pursuit of accounting and securities fraud claims.

Financial Advisors Track: The Ethical Compass: Multiple Ethical Schemes Applicable to Financial Advisors This panel will focus on the variety of rules, statutes and codes that govern the conduct of financial advisors, including the Bankruptcy Code and Rules, TMA and AIRA Codes of Ethics, Licensure rules (e.g., for CPAs), state law governing trustee roles, etc.

Professional Development Track: The Dos and Don’ts of Effective Oral Advocacy

Featuring the Judges of the 18th Annual Rocky Mountain Bankruptcy Conference

This panel will focus on the ethics of limiting the scope of employment as well as attorney's fees in Chapter 7 and how they get paid.