The recent decision in Sabatini Frozen LLC v. Weinberg, Gross, & Pergament LLP[1] is a tale of a failure of corporate governance of a closely-held corporation, coupled with the failure of debtor’s counsel to adequately address that matter.
Committees
Under 11 U.S.C. § 330(a)(3)(F), professionals seeking payment from a bankruptcy estate must be compensated using reasonable rates and fees charged by comparably skilled professionals in nonbankruptcy cases. Prompted by the size of the professional fees in large chapter 11 filings, the General Accounting Office (GAO) was asked by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to evaluate whether bankruptcy professionals billed higher fees for large chapter 11 cases, and if
In Pham v. Golden,[1] the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) reversed an award of sanctions against the debtors and their counsel for discovery abuses in an adversary in which the debtors were not parties. In doing so, the court limited or invalidated several local rules that provided the basis for the bankruptcy court’s award of sanctions.
A recent decision from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California confirms what many bankruptcy attorneys have long suspected: A debtor’s bad conduct in bankruptcy may serve to defeat a fee waiver for a debtor who otherwise qualifies under the income guidelines. In In re Gjerde, the debtor, Sean Patrick Gjerde, was a disbarred
Bankruptcy courts are vested with the inherent and statutory authority to sanction litigants for acting in bad faith and engaging in otherwise unreasonable or inappropriate conduct.
In In re Halloum,[1] the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel reversed an order granting a fee expense award in excess of $116,000 based on the failure of the bankruptcy court to make supporting findings of fact.
On June 15, 2015, in Baker Botts LLP v. ASARCO LLC , the U.S.
Under the recent landmark opinion ASARCO,[1] the Supreme Court noted that the bankruptcy court had awarded ASARCO’s bankruptcy counsel, Baker Botts, L.L.P.
In light of the Third Circuit’s recent decision in In re Prosser,[1] bankruptcy practitioners in the Third Circuit (which includes the highly trafficked District of Delaware) should have a heightened awareness of the line between zealous advocacy and abusive and vexatious conduct.
For consumer debtor attorneys, getting paid has become quite a challenge. A debtor’s attorney must either get paid pre-petition in a chapter 7, diminishing what would otherwise be nonexempt property of the debtor, or get paid out of “projected disposable income” in a chapter 13.
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