Professional Compensation/Fees

This panel will discuss the various obstacles attorneys can encounter when collecting fees. The discussion will include enforcement of contractual and statutory rights to payment, over- and undersecured claims, preference claims arising from the payment of attorneys’ fees, fees incurred defending fee application objections, and other related issues.

This panel will include individuals from various business sectors discussing how they select counsel and what they expect from their counsel during the representation.

The panel will discuss the ins and outs of business development and the various ways attorneys and their firms market their practices.

This year’s mountainside chat will address recent developments in the requirements for employment of disinterestedness, disclosure and disqualification. It will focus on two recent decisions relating to the extent to which a lack of disinterestedness or the presence of an ethical conflict of one firm member is, or is not, imputed on others within the same firm, and whether there is a difference between the two. The discussion will also address different views expressed by courts on the impact of receipt of a retainer, outstanding obligations for pre-petition services, and the potential for avoidance of pre-petition payments.

How will the Supreme Court’s decision in Baker Botts v. ASARCO affect professional fees? Will there be an increase in fee litigation in future chapter 11 cases? This panel will also explore the Tribune standard for payment of unsecured creditors’ post-petition professionals’ fees, fees awarded as part of global settlements (Lehman), and the recent use of fee examiners. The session could also include a discussion on when disclosure of “representations of parties in unrelated matters” is sufficient, whether conflicts be cured by the appointment of conflicts counsel, a recent Ninth Circuit decision on the potential implications of exceeding fee caps, when it is necessary to obtain a conflict waiver, current vs. recent vs. former clients, and directly adverse vs. positionally adverse.

A roundtable discussion with a select group of bankruptcy judges will focus on breaking issues and best practices for professionals.

Beware of the Traps: Ethical and Fiduciary Issues for Committee Members and Professionals

Join in the fun with ABI’s rendition of the American classic game show “Hollywood Squares,” where some of your favorite celebrity bankruptcy judges serve up a smorgasbord of dubious and comical answers to help contestants forge a winning tic-tac-toe. And you will learn something about bankruptcy law, too!