Bankruptcy: A Lesson in Conflicts and Sex with Clients – Part IV©

By Mark D. Yochum, Professor of Law, Duquesne University School of Law

Counsel for the debtors themselves in Chapters 7 or 13 are not subject to the Code’s requirement of disinterestedness. Such counsel are still, of course, subject to state and federal ethical rules and their continued employment supervised by the bankruptcy court. For example, in In re Souzasilveira, 2012 Bankr. LEXIS 3022 (Bank. Ct. C.D. Mass. 2012), the bankruptcy court disqualified the debtor’s counsel based upon ethical conflicts rules. In addition to the general shoddy practice, counsel purporting to represent the debtor also represented . . .

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