2009 Duberstein Competition Set for March 14-16
The Seventeenth Annual Chief Judge Conrad B. Duberstein Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition will be held in New York beginning on Saturday, March 14, 2009, and culminating in the Gala Awards Banquet Monday evening, March 16, 2009. The Competition regularly draws nearly 50 teams from schools around the nation, and the awards banquet is attended by more than 800 bankruptcy lawyers, judges and students.
In addition to New York-area bankruptcy judges and three pre-eminent appeals court judges, ABI brings in a dozen bankruptcy judges from all circuits to help judge the advanced rounds of the Competition. Each year, the competition problem focuses on two sophisticated cutting-edge issues of bankruptcy law.
This year’s problem raised two timely unresolved issues of bankruptcy law: (1) whether class-skipping gifts are permissible in chapter 11 plans and (2) whether a provision of an inter-creditor agreement authorizing a senior creditor to vote the claim of a junior creditor is enforceable. The fact pattern can be accessed at www.abiworld.org/moot/index.html.
Past competitions addressed environmental clean-up costs, channeling injunctions in mass tort cases, state sovereign immunity, the constitutionality of the bankruptcy courts, religious entity bankruptcies and the constitutionality of speech restrictions imposed on consumer bankruptcy attorneys, to name just a few of the problem topics.
The competition is a wonderful experience for your students and provides an excellent opportunity to involve members of the local bench and bar in your school’s bankruptcy and commercial law program. Many teams were sponsored by local bar groups, who provided funding and coaching. If your school would like assistance in identifying local practitioners to support a team, contact Prof. G. Ray Warner at St. John’s University.
Every student who participates in the competition receives a certificate recognizing his or her achievement, and special awards are given to the top five oralists, the teams with the top five briefs and all sixteen teams advancing to the semi-final rounds. In addition, the ABI Endowment awards cash prizes to the top four teams, the best oralist and the team with the best brief. Registration forms for the 2009 Competition will be available in September 2008.