Lateral movement among law firm partners and associates has boomed. In 2020, the number of associates moving firms was up 149% and the number of partners moving was up almost 43%. [1] In 2021, the number of lawyers switching firms was up 111% over 2020.
From its inception, the National Ethics Task Force [1] was charged with answering the question of whether there is a need for national ethics rules, standards and general practice guidance in the bankruptcy context.
The Ethics and Professional Compensation Committee had an active 2021, and we are excited to carry that energy into 2022.
Bankruptcy courts have not always favored post-petition retainers to debtor’s counsel. [1] But does the Bankruptcy Code prohibit them? That is exactly the question Judge David D. Cleary answered in In re Golden Fleece Beverages Inc., in which he held that the Code indeed supports post-petition retainers.
On January 14, 2022, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit in In the Matter of Sharon Sylvester (Sylvester vs Chaffe McCall LLP) held that a trustee’s attorney is entitled to compensation under Bankruptcy Code § 330(a) “only for services requiring legal expertise that a trustee would not generally be expected to perform without an attorney’s assistance.”
In a recent decision from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada, three proofs of claim filed on behalf of LVNV Funding, LLC — a creditor assignee in the chapter 13 bankruptcy case commenced by Antonia Andrade-Garcia — were disallowed because the statute of limitations on the underlying claims had long ago expired.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia recently issued an opinion detailing the reimbursement limitations under the Bankruptcy Code for services provided by a trustee’s law firm in a chapter 7 case.
Hon. Christopher S. Sontchi approved the retention application of debtors’ counsel over the objection of the U.S.
How are subchapter V trustees compensated? The answer under the Code depends on whether the trustee is a standing or nonstanding subchapter V trustee. In reality, though, the answer should be the same in all cases, because, while 28 U.S.C.
