Practice and Procedure

This panel will cover how to serve notice in a bankruptcy proceeding and will explain the difference between a contested proceeding and a simple notice under Rule 2002. The panelists will discuss how a notice can also become a contested proceeding by virtue of notice. Sounds confusing? It isn’t, yet it is incredibly important to ensure that due process is followed. You may have a lengthy list of creditors in your client’s chapter 13 case, but if only 15 creditors file claims, why should the remaining creditors be noticed after the claims deadline has passed? The panelists also will discuss the rules we now have that allow for limited noticing and limited titling under Rule 7004(b)(3).

Advances in technology are changing how law is practiced. Online research databases, digital contracts, expert systems and document automation all help make lawyers’ routine tasks easier and more efficient. All lawyers must make informed decisions about what technology tools to acquire, develop or leverage. While lawyers’ use of technology is not an end unto itself, it is providing a catalyst for the transformation of the legal profession. Moreover, in a world of rapidly advancing technologies, data breaches and increasingly sophisticated uses of artificial intelligence, lawyers are now ethically required to understand the benefits and risks of technology. Intractable barriers to access to justice also remain a perennial concern. This panel discusses new developments in legal technology and ethics, and explores the ways in which technology can scale the provision of legal assistance, as well as examines how new developments in attorney regulation have expanded the definition of who can “practice law.” It also considers, despite people’s strong preference for maintaining the status quo, how understanding and adopting technology tools will optimize lawyers’ abilities to provide services to clients more effectively and efficiently.

This panel explores the realities, misconceptions and interpretations of the “business case” vs. the “values case” for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in this interactive session. The panelists highlight the gaps created when the business case for DEI is prioritized over values and organizational culture, and examine metrics that can measure and evaluate the progress of values around DEI.

As virtual hearings become standard in Court’s across the country, the panel members provide, review of best practices and lessons learned from the Court’s perspective since the mainstreaming of virtual hearings.

This panel will present a discussion of bankruptcy rules and procedures that work and don’t work from a practical perspective, as well as reflections on how technology impacts current practice.