Consumer

This panel will discuss the qualification and disqualification of the debtor in possession’s professionals and conflicts counsel.

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.

This panel will discuss valuation, motion to lift stay, objections to claim and adversaries.

This panel will discuss the update on mortgage relief programs; litigation between homeowners and lenders; intersection with bankruptcy and motions for relief from stay.

This panel will discuss what consumer practitioners need to know about individual Chapter 11s and how they differ from Chapter 13 cases

This panel will focus on the latest local bankruptcy rules, as well as the most current cases and the related decisions.

Since most debtors default in chapter 13 plans before they reach completion, are modifications needed to the law's rehabilitation goals? Pro: Hon. Pamela Pepper Con: Catherine Peek McEwen Should the U.S. Trustee's enforcement role in chapter 11 cases yield to creditor preferences? Pro: Robert M. Fishman Con: Clifford J. White, III Do creditors' committees serve a useful purpose in cases where the debtor's assets are overly encumbered and the amount of unsecured claims is a fraction of the amount of secured debt? Pro: Robert J. Feinstein Con: Jay M. Goffman

Consumer Track - The National Mortgage Settlement: How Will It Affect Consumer Bankruptcy Cases? Although the impetus for the $25 billion settlement was robosigning issues in foreclosure cases, many of its provisions affect residential mortgage loans in consumer bankruptcy cases. The panel will discuss the terms of the consent judgment, which will impact the handling of home loans by debtors, the affected servicers, the USTP and the bankruptcy courts.

Professional Development Track: Litigation Skills Mock Expert Examination R. Scott Williams, Moderator Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker, LLC; Birmingham, Ala. Judge: Hon. Gregg W. Zive U.S. Bankruptcy Court (D. Nev.); Las Vegas Direct Exam: Dillon E. Jackson Foster Pepper PLLC; Seattle Cross Exam: Lynnette R. Warman Hunton & Williams LLP; Dallas Witness: James Peko Grant Thornton LLP; New York

June 23 marked the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Stern v. Marshall, in which the court held that a bankruptcy court lacks the constitutional authority to enter final judgment in a state law counterclaim. Since Stern, the growing trend is uncertainty among the courts in whether to interpret this standard narrowly or broadly. This cloud of uncertainty only makes the most complex matters worse when large-sum commercial interests may be at stake, impacting lenders, officers and directors and other stakeholders involved in litigation.