Delaware State Approved Sessions

Most lawyers are schooled on how to litigate and fully understand how to prepare for the courtroom battleground. Mediation, however, is a flexible and relatively informal dispute-resolution process that has become almost a mandatory first step in many common bankruptcy disputes, like preference actions — and it can achieve significant cost-value results for clients. Yet many lawyers make the mistake of either treating mediation as a side show that requires little or no preparation, or using the same preparation methods they use for trial. This session will explore the keys to conducting a successful mediation, from deciding when mediation is appropriate through properly documenting the mediated resolution, with an emphasis on how to prepare both yourself and your client for mediation to maximize its value, regardless of whether an actual settlement is reached. The panelists will include attorneys and judges who often serve as mediators, giving attendees a unique view on the different skills, presentation methodologies and mindsets needed to prepare for mediation vs. litigation.

Do you know the answers to the hottest ethics issues of the day? Do the experts? Are there actually answers? Audience members will match wits with a panel of ethics experts to see who knows up-to-the-minute ethical issues best! In this fun interactive session, the audience and the experts will try to determine the best answers to cutting-edge ethics questions from the bankruptcy world and beyond. The hot topics and questions will be known only to our Masters of Ceremonies, Tom Horan and Michael P. Richman (who will roam the audience with microphones), and will not be known to our audience or expert panelists Prof. Nancy Rapoport and Claire Wu until they play the game. Come enjoy, participate and learn!

Bifurcated fee arrangements involve splitting the consumer chapter 7 engagement into pre-petition and post-petition fee arrangements that require little or no money down for the work required to finish the case. In several jurisdictions across the nation, however, bifurcated fee arrangements in chapter 7 cases are being challenged. This panel will review the complex issues related to these fee arrangements.

Mention “artificial intelligence,” and most people start rolling their eyes and making jokes about Skynet. But today’s A.I. is changing the way that many law firms operate. Rather than replacing lawyers, A.I. is taking over more and more of the grunt work that prevents lawyers from doing the higher-level work that is necessary for their practices — by streamlining case searches, brief-writing and a whole host of tasks you might not even have considered.

Rule 3002.1 exists to protect debtors and creditors from unnecessary disputes over the status of current and former chapter 13 debtors’ mortgage loans. A recent Second Circuit opinion (In re Gravel) calls into question the ability of bankruptcy courts to impose monetary sanctions on mortgage-servicers that fail to comply with Rule 3002.1’s requirements. In this session, the panelists will cover both Gravel (and the dissent) and a recent bankruptcy court opinion (In re Blanco) that rejects the reasoning in Gravel. Can the two cases be reconciled? What is the standard that must be established to justify the imposition of sanctions when mortgage-servicers fail to comply with Rule 3002.1’s requirements, and what are the limitations on the amount of sanctions that can be considered appropriate? The panelists will discuss these questions along with additional legal actions and notices that consumer attorneys should take in these cases, as well as using an adversary proceeding in lieu of a motion.

You’ve read the headlines: hacked databases, stolen information, all becoming increasingly commonplace. Unfortunately, the question now is not whether your information is going to be accessed or stolen, but when. This session will inform attendees of current developments in the digital underground, and will provide realistic advice for cyberprotection. Included in the discussion will be recent high-profile cybercrime events, including website breaches impacting a variety of organizations and sectors, and particularly dangerous types of threats that might affect individuals involving the so-called dark web, the internet of things, phishing and wi-fi attacks, and the value of leveraging digital evidence and ESI in bankruptcy proceedings.

This panel will discuss why understanding gender identity is important to your practice, with a focus on key concepts and terms, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation and pronoun usage, and how we can best implement gender identity/expression in our professional lives.

Ever have a case dismissed because you overlooked some critical detail? We’ve all been there. This informative session will help guide you through some of the missteps that can scuttle a case right at the finish line.

Video and Materials Coming Soon! If you are newer to chapter 13 practice, you won’t want to miss this panel. Join a judge, chapter 13 trustee, and debtor and creditor counsel as they show you how to navigate a chapter 13 case from both debtor and creditor perspectives. The discussion will include plan drafting and modification, claims filing, objecting to confirmation, dismissal, conversion, and getting paid in chapter 13 cases, as well as an overview of the tools you must take advantage of to make a chapter 13 work.

Video and Materials Coming Soon! If you are newer to chapter 13 practice, you won’t want to miss this panel. Join a judge, chapter 13 trustee, and debtor and creditor counsel as they show you how to navigate a chapter 13 case from both debtor and creditor perspectives. The discussion will include plan drafting and modification, claims filing, objecting to confirmation, dismissal, conversion, and getting paid in chapter 13 cases, as well as an overview of the tools you must take advantage of to make a chapter 13 work.