2016

This panel will discuss data-retention concerns for bankruptcy trustees.

This panel will discuss the three major segments that are ripe to go through distress in the next several years, namely residential care, durable medical equipment, and testing labs/imaging facilities. The panel will also discuss hospital cases (including the sale of nonprofits to for-profits).

This panel will discuss potential conflicts when a lender regularly recommends that a debtor hire their preferred CRO (the debtor is the CRO’s client, but a “one off” client) and the lender is a repeat business, as well as the 1% Rule and retention application disclosures/potential conflicts.

Debtors and their counsel want a smooth, quick chapter 7 experience and discharge: a simple no-asset case that will proceed promptly through a short, uneventful first meeting of creditors, to discharge and case closing in a matter of a few months. The chapter 7 trustee stands in the way, though, as he/she looks for discharges to deny and assets to pay creditors. Forewarned is forearmed: This seminar will explore recent skirmishes in the struggle between the impecunious and their trustees, including the important areas of homestead exemption and mortgage-lien avoidance, avoidance of large pre-filing family expense payments, and nondisclosure issues.

Join us as we explore three complicated areas of ethics that all attorneys should be wary of. First, we will discuss examples of sanctionable lawyer behavior and when that behavior can result in a law firm being sanctioned. Second, some pre-petition planning is necessary, obvious and required in order to advance your clients’ interests, but some planning can cross the line between permissible advocacy and fraud. How do you know where the line is so that you can represent your client to the best of your abilities and avoid trouble? Lastly, some conflicts are clear, while others are more nuanced. This panel delves into the duties regarding perilous conflicts, and steps you can take to make sure you comply with the appropriate rules of professional responsibility while still representing the best interests of the client.

Commercial chapter 11 has suffered double-digit percentage decreases in in the number of filings in each of the past three years. This plenary session will be conducted by a law firm marketing expert, who will provide advice on obtaining market share in a down market. Jim Durham, chief marketing and business development officer at Littler Mendelson and author of The Essential Little Book of Great Lawyering and The Law Firm Marketer’s Guide to Survival, will provide marketing advice, including getting known, getting referrals, maximizing client satisfaction and increasing profit.

When is a tax return not a tax return? Bankruptcy can be very useful when seeking to discharge personal income tax obligations, but if the return has not been filed on time, dischargeability may be in jeopardy. Many courts have addressed this issue and have issued widely divergent views, including the First Circuit’s strict interpretation of what constitutes a tax return as announced by the majority in In re Fahey. This panel will focus on the development of the case law in the First Circuit, the information you must obtain from the taxing authority to determine when a tax return has been filed, what constitutes a return, and strategies to employ in the event that the tax return your client filed is defective and the taxes reported on that return are nondischargeable.

This panel will explore the conflicts of law between estate planning and bankruptcy. Debtor’s counsel, beware: Life estate, remainder interest, trust or power of attorney may not be safe in bankruptcy. The panel will examine recent bankruptcy cases addressing the validity of estate-planning techniques designed to protect assets that then wreak havoc on pre-bankruptcy planning, timing and chapter selection and that can have significant implications on debtors and their nonfiling family members.

Representing public figures whose livelihoods depend on their public image and in remaining in the public eye, or individuals thrust into the public eye by perceived scandal, presents particular challenges to their bankruptcy lawyers. Flamboyance tends to catch the eye of judges and creditors, as well as fans and entertainment reporters. Scandal is a national pastime, so high-profile debtors catch the eyes of everybody. Representing creditors in those cases, and managing their expectations when outward appearances suggest no shortage of resources either because fame is equated with fortune or preservation of ill-gotten gains is presumed, also presents its own set of challenges. This multimedia session will be presented by lawyers who have lived through some of the highest-profile cases of recent years, and includes counsel in cases involving those who sought out the limelight, such as 50 Cent, Mike Tyson and Bob Guccione, and those who were thrust into it, such as David Drumm of Anglo-Irish Bank.