Consumer

Two of the most currently challenged industries — higher education and health care — are also the two industries most likely to use the nonprofit form of organization. Recent high-profile cases have demonstrated the pull and tug on officers and directors of those entities. Tasked with both the practical realities imposed by the need to make payroll and the mission-based obligation to pursue the organization’s charitable purposes, the officers and directors are forced to weigh financial discipline against the obligation to heal or to educate. This panel explores the seemingly conflicting fiduciary duties of the officers and directors of nonprofit companies, identifying those duties and the statutory protections afforded those who are faced with making real-time decisions. The discussion will also explore challenges to the actions taken, including additional hurdles to asset sales under § 363(d)(1), government agency investigations and oversight, and class action litigation.

Practitioners are constantly looking for ways to expand, or limit, the ability of estate fiduciaries and creditors to avoid transfers. This panel will explore several cutting-edge issues with respect to fraudulent-transfer actions currently playing out in bankruptcy courts, including whether trustees may recover tuition payments by debtor-parents for the benefit of their adult children and the meaning of “reasonably equivalent value” under Section 548(A)(1)(b). The panel will explore opportunities to expand a trustee’s avoidance powers, including a trustee’s ability to stand in the shoes of the IRS and benefit from the 10-year look-back period, Ponzi scheme issues, and applying avoidance powers to foreign defendants. The speakers will also discuss whether silence is still golden in light of Husky International v. Ritz.

The same circumstances that lead debtors to bankruptcy often give rise to claims under various consumer-protection statutes. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mortgage-servicing rules, and similar consumer-protection rules and statutes can have substantial impacts on the creditor/debtor relationship. Whether you represent business or consumer debtors, creditors, or estate fiduciaries, an understanding of how consumer-protection statutes intersect with bankruptcy will help you deal with the opportunities and challenges that your clients might face when bankruptcy and consumer-protection laws meet. The panelists will discuss practical implications of the common intersection of consumer-protection statutes and bankruptcy.

The same circumstances that lead debtors to bankruptcy often give rise to claims under various consumer-protection statutes. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mortgage-servicing rules, and similar consumer-protection rules and statutes can have substantial impacts on the creditor/debtor relationship. Whether you represent business or consumer debtors, creditors, or estate fiduciaries, an understanding of how consumer-protection statutes intersect with bankruptcy will help you deal with the opportunities and challenges that your clients might face when bankruptcy and consumer-protection laws meet. The panelists will discuss practical implications of the common intersection of consumer-protection statutes and bankruptcy.

This presentation combines art and insolvency law to reveal fascinating insights into Dutch artist Rembrandt’s life (1606-69): his Amsterdam workshop, loves, real estate and art investing, fraudulent transfers and secret corporations, along with asset auctions and jurisdictional issues not seen since Stern v. Marshall.

Two sitting judges and a professor of bankruptcy law will offer an overview on the sources of authority for the issuance of sanctions and holding persons or entities in contempt, the nature of the remedies available, applicable standards and the appropriate procedures. The discussion will cover sanctions available under various provisions of the Bankruptcy Code and the Bankruptcy Rules, including Rule 9011, failure to make discovery and bankruptcy court authority to discipline counsel. Also discussed will be the court's sources of power of contempt, limitations on that power, and procedures the court should consider before exercising such power.

Our expert faculty will review the groundbreaking final report of the ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy and the findings of its Subcommittee on Case Administration and the Estate.

Michigan residents have the option of choosing either the state or federal exemptions, but the choice sometimes requires careful consideration. What are the differences between the state and federal exemptions? How do they impact the debtor? How do you determine which set of exemptions is the best option for your client? After a selection has been made, can you change your mind? How late is too late to amend exemptions? What are the best practices for handling objections to exemptions? How do you value property in rising markets? How does Law v. Siegel and its progeny affect your ethical obligations in advising clients about exemptions?

It is estimated that U.S. student debt obligations now exceed $1.5 trillion. This panel will discuss the impact of student loans before and after the borrower files bankruptcy. What can an attorney do to assist his/her client in determining his/her options with student loan obligations? How can a student loan be modified, and what can be done outside the courtroom for the borrower? Further discussion will concentrate on when a student loan can be dischargeable, the difficulty in establishing a hardship discharge, how the lender defends against a debtor seeking a hardship discharge at trial, and how student loans are treated in chapter 13 proceedings throughout the First Circuit.

It is estimated that U.S. student debt obligations now exceed $1.5 trillion. This panel will discuss the impact of student loans before and after the borrower files bankruptcy. What can an attorney do to assist his/her client in determining his/her options with student loan obligations? How can a student loan be modified, and what can be done outside the courtroom for the borrower? Further discussion will concentrate on when a student loan can be dischargeable, the difficulty in establishing a hardship discharge, how the lender defends against a debtor seeking a hardship discharge at trial, and how student loans are treated in chapter 13 proceedings throughout the First Circuit.