Professional Compensation Committee

ABI's Annual Spring Meeting: Committee Educational Session

ABI's 26th Annual Spring Meeting, the networking and CLE event of 2008, will be held April 3-6 at Washington, D.C.'s Renaissance Hotel in the Nation's Capital! Join us during cherry blossom season for exciting and informative sessions, including a luncheon keynote by Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

The committee will meet on Saturday, April 5, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. to discuss, "The Fee Study and Beyond: What is Going on in the Real World Now". This presentation will address the Chapter 11 Professional Fee Study funded by the ABI and released in December of 2007, and its possible impact by focusing on several key findings of the Study.

This presentation will also provide an overview of several key professional compensation issues currently impacting bankruptcy professionals. Speakers for the Professional Compensation presentation will be: Hon. Wesley Steen; Professor Stephen Lubben; Richard Carmody; Ed Malpass and Tom Morrow.

 

Prepetition Unsecured Creditor Defeats Objection to Claim for Post-petition Attorneys’ Fees

by: Brian L. Holman [1]
White & Case LLP; Los Angeles

In Travelers Casualty & Surety Co. of America v. Pacific Gas & Electric Company,[2] the Supreme Court held that federal bankruptcy law does not automatically disallow claims for post-petition attorneys’ fees incurred by a pre-petition unsecured creditor simply because such fees are incurred in litigating issues arising under the Bankruptcy Code.  The Court, however, left open the issue whether such claims may be disallowed on the basis that the attorneys’ fees were incurred post-petition.  Creditors, distressed debtors and their professionals have watched post-Travelers cases discussing the open issue closely, as the allowance of claims of pre-petition unsecured creditors for post-petition attorneys’ fees could dramatically affect how an insolvent debtor’s limited unencumbered assets are divided up among the debtor’s unsecured creditors.  When there is not enough pie to go around, each creditor wants its slice to be as large as possible.

Read the full article.