New Mexico

Find out the latest happenings in all the Southern Districts. What can impact your practice? What should?

Overview of the legal landscape for mediation; selecting the mediator (identifying the essential traits and differing styles of a mediator that are suitable for a particular controversy); potential attorney conflicts in mediation; preparing yourself and your client for the mediation; effective use of pre-mediation statements; good, bad and ugly strategies for opening statements; preparing for potential roadblocks in a mediation; effective bargaining strategies; utilizing the mediator to your best advantage; and documenting the settlement agreement.

This panel will examine the risks associated with purchasing claims and debt positions for strategic purposes in bankruptcy cases. Issues to be discussed include whether a claim can be purchased free and clear of any defenses to the claim (KB Toys), designation of claims (DBSD), and other risks associated with the purchase of secured and unsecured claims.

The panel will address, in an interactive format, the equitable decisions rendered by courts that may modify, diminish or impact secured claims or secured creditors’ pre-petition agreements. For example, the program will cover the limitations on the post-petition effects of a security interest based on the equities of the case, surcharge issues and § 363(k) cause to preclude credit-bidding, as well as other equitable theories.

As if the Bankruptcy Code doesn’t give us enough to ponder, bankruptcy practitioners must consider the impact of the U.S. Tax Code on the decision-making process. This session will address the Internal Revenue Code “section 1398 short year” election and separate entity rules, discharge of tax claims, cancellation of debt (COD) income, and tax issues arising from mortgage modification, foreclosure, and transfer or abandonment of property.