Income, Expenses and Related Issues Under BAPCPA
A Roundtable Discussion Featuring Debtor’s Counsel, the U.S. Trustee, Chapter 13 Trustee and the Bench
(Special Note for those who attended the First Stop in Atlanta)
A Webinar Series Just for Consumer Practitioners!
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"This was an excellent and timely program. I appreciate all that the ABI does to help me
in my practice."
- Leonard K. Welsh, Bakersfield, CA
An ABI member who attended this webinar "in Atlanta."
January 28, 2008
2:00 p.m. Central (3:00 p.m. Eastern)
ABI’s Deputy Executive Director
Felicia S. Turner moderated a two-hour roundtable discussion among
a judge, a chapter 13 trustee, a U.S. Trustee representative and a
debtor attorney regarding issues related to §§707(b) and 1325
of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005
(BAPCPA). The panelists discussed specific issues, arguments and
rulings related to income and expense calculations under the means test,
special circumstances to rebut the means test, dismissal and plan
payments when the means test is not applicable or rebutted, and related
issues unique to chapter 13s, such as the meaning of projected
disposable income and whether the applicable commitment period for a
plan is a temporal requirement or based on a multiplier.
Moderator
Felicia S.
Turner became the deputy executive director of the American
Bankruptcy Institute in September 2007. Immediately prior to that,
she was the U.S. Trustee for Regions 20 and 21, managing 12 offices
covering 13 federal judicial districts and four federal circuits in
Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Oklahoma,
Kansas and New Mexico. She oversaw the coordination of the U.S. Trustee
offices’ participation in bankruptcy cases under all chapters to
preserve the integrity of the judicial system, including the
development and implementation of policy and ensuring regional and
national consistency in and appropriateness of the federal
government’s legal positions. Prior to her appointment in
2003 as the U.S. Trustee for Region 21, Ms. Turner was a partner in the
Atlanta-based law firm of Troutman Sanders, LLP, where she was a member
of the bankruptcy practice group and the litigation section, mainly
representing creditors and debtors in chapter 11 cases. Before
joining Troutman Sanders in 1999, she practiced with Sullivan,
Mountjoy, Stainback & Miller, PSC, in Owensboro, Ky., where her
work ranged from representing debtors and creditors in consumer cases
to serving as debtor-in-possession counsel for Big Rivers Electric
Corporation. Ms. Turner is a frequent panelist and speaker at ABI
and bar meetings all over the country and served on the ABI’s
Caribbean Insolvency Symposium Advisory Board. During 2005 she
served on the U.S. Trustee Program’s committee for implementation
of the provisions of BAPCPA. Until taking her new
position, she also served on the National Conference of Bankruptcy
Judges’ liaison committee with the U.S. Trustee Program. Ms.
Turner received her law degree from Duke University School of Law in
Durham, N.C., in 1994 and her undergraduate degree in mathematics magna cum laude from DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.
in 1991.
Speakers
Hon. George W. Emerson, Jr. was appointed U.S. Bankruptcy Judge to replace retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William Houston Brown on July 1, 2006. He is a former partner in the law firm of Stevenson and Emerson. He served on the panel of Chapter 7 Trustees from 1983 to 2006 and as a Standing Chapter 13 Trustee from 1988 to 2006. He was a member of the N.A.C.T.T. from 1988 to 2006. He graduated from the University of Memphis Law School in 1980. He served as a law clerk to the late U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William B. Leffler and has served for three years as a U. S. Bankruptcy Court Clerk for the Western District of Tennessee. He also, for several years, taught Bankruptcy Law as a professor in the Paralegal Studies Degree Program at the University of Memphis.
Melissa R. Burgess is one
of three Civil Enforcement Unit trial attorneys in the Executive Office
for U.S. Trustees (EOUST) in Washington, D.C. She advises and
consults with the 95 field offices of the U.S. Trustee Program on
issues related to §707(b) of BAPCPA. Ms. Burgess
joined the EOUST in November 2005 after five years in the Los Angeles,
Houston and Washington, D.C., offices of Dewey Ballantine LLP, where
she primarily represented secured creditors and equity security holders
in complex chapter 11 cases.
Maria Salas received her B.S. from Middle Tennessee State University summa cum laude in 1985, and received her J.D. from the Nashville School of Law in 1992. She formed Salas Slocum Law Group, PLLC in 2005. Ms. Salas is certified as a consumer bankruptcy specialist by the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization and the American Board of Certification. She is a member of the board of directors of the MidSouth Commercial Law Institute and is a former chair of the Nashville Bar Association Bankruptcy Court Committee. She is also a member of the American, Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations, Nashville Lawyers Association for Women, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and the American Bankruptcy Institute. She is a fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation and the Nashville Bar Foundation, and received the Nashville Bar Association Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year Award for 2001.
Henry ("Hank") E. Hildebrand, III has served as Standing Trustee for Chapter 13 matters in
the Middle District of Tennessee since 1982 and as Standing Chapter 12 Trustee for that
district since 1986. He also is of counsel to the Nashville law firm of Lassiter, Tidwell &
Hildebrand, PLLC.
Mr. Hildebrand graduated from Vanderbilt University and received his J.D. from
the National Law Center of George Washington University. He is a fellow of the
American College of Bankruptcy and serves on its Education Committee. He is also Board
Certified in consumer bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification and serves
on its Board of Directors, and he is chairman of the Legislative and Legal Affairs
Committee for the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees.
Mr. Hildebrand has served as case notes author for The Quarterly, a newsletter
dealing with consumer bankruptcy issues and chapter 13 practice in particular since
1991. He is a contributing editor to the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal and is an
adjunct faculty member for the Nashville School of Law and St. Johns University School
of Law.
A note to those who attended the first stop in Atlanta:
Based on your feedback from the first stop in Atlanta, the second stop in Nashville/Memphis included expanded session length and materials, as well as a slightly reformatted structure. These changes allowed every panelist to discuss all the issues in more detail.
Materials
Materials for this conference includes
an outline written by one of ABI’s past resident scholars, as well as
other relevant articles and information.
Click here for the Materials
Purchase the Webinar Recordings
Click
Here for the Next Stop!
