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San Fernando Valley Bar Association – Bankruptcy Section program Friday, 12/10 at noon

Email from Steve Fox:

Dear All:

We have a really meaty program that the panelists will deliver with high energy.  The panel will look at recent C.D. U.S. District Court opinions discussing bankruptcy issues.  You may not want to deal with the district court but that court issues a lot of bankruptcy opinions that all of us need to know of.   The panel will be led by Roksana Moradi-Brovia who along with Eliza Ghanooni and Tamar Terzian, will make up the panel.  The materials are thick and good. 

Here are the particulars:

            Date:              Friday December 10, 2021

            Time:              12 noon to 1:15 give or take

            Place:             Via Zoom

            MCLE:             1.25 hours – Specialization credit available for this program

            Charges:        $20 to members of the SFVBA

                                    $30 to non-members of the SFVBA

            Lunch:            As tasty as you make it!

            To register:    1.         Sign up at SFVBA.org

                                    2.         Call (818) 227-0495 and ask for help to register

If you do not want to receive periodic emails from me announcing SFVBA programs, just reply and let me know.

Sincerely,

Steven R. Fox

The Fox Law Corporation

UWLA Newsletter

With a nice little bio of my friend and colleague David Chaney. You can access it here.

Good News – UWLA 2021 California Accredited Law School Annual Compliance Report

Email from Dean Jay Frykberg, Dean and Provost, University of West Los Angeles School of law

UWLA 2021 California Accredited Law school Annual Compliance Report

All,

I can report that UWLA has successfully submitted our 2021 annual CBE report. This report was dramatically different and much larger than any previous annual report due to changes from staff at the CBE (ie. student/faculty demographics, further disaggregated data based upon campus location and program, etc.) in fact this report was almost three times the size of previous annual reports and consisted of 33 files and 916 pages all of which was completed in only 23 days. This is also our first fully digital report that is accessible on UWLA’s share drive, that ensures that next year’s process will be even more efficient.

Thank you to each of you who contributed, especially to those that submitted print ready documents as requested, and an extra special and deeply appreciated thank you to Patty and Jesse both of whom were indispensable in the completion of this project. Not only did they complete their sections, but they also assisted in completing many more.

Jay

Response from President Robert Brown

Dean Frykberg, I would like to also extend my heartiest appreciation for the work completed by your team. I wish to note that your team submitted the report well  in advance of the requisite deadline. I also want to express my appreciation for the extraordinary efforts of Jesse Aldava and Patty White. Job well done.  Your contributions are recognized and appreciated. As you know this report is not only no small feat to prepare but it means everything in terms of our state bar accreditation and our relationship with the California Bar. Congrats!

I also want to salute Dean Frykberg for being named the Chair of the State Bar rules committee. What a fantastic and well-deserved honor. You mean that someone from UWLA is considered an “insider”? lol Thanks jay for your fabulous and ongoing leadership. You are an example for all of us to aspire to emulate. Will you please join me in saluting Jay and his team for their outstanding efforts and achievements?

Robert Brown

18th Annual Bankruptcy Ethics Symposium – Friday, November 19, 2021 (3.5 hours ethics)

The Federal Bar Association (LA Chapter) is hosting its 18th Annual Bankruptcy Ethics Symposium on Friday, November 19, 2021.  The format this year is online/webinar only.

Click here to register online (November 19, 2021)

Click here for the event flyer (pdf).

Federal Bar Association-Los Angeles Chapter’s 18th Annual Bankruptcy Ethics Symposium

Friday, November 19, 2021

Time: 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Online / Webinar

3.5 hours of ethics CLE

SPEAKERS:

  • Honorable Sandra R. Klein, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California
  • Honorable Barry Russell, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California
  • Honorable Martin R. Barash, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California
  • John Hermann, Chief Deputy of Administration
  • Ron Maroko, Office of the United States Trustee
  • Misty Perry Isaacson, Pagter and Perry Isaacson, APLC
  • J. Scott Bovitz, Bovitz & Spitzer
  • John N. Tedford, IV, Danning, Gill, Israel & Krasnoff, LLP

Program Chair: Joseph Boufadel, Salvato Boufadel LLP

PROGRAMS:

  1. Leaving Your Attorney Legacy:  Ethical Consideration in Mentoring and Succession Planning  
  2. Technical Competency and Ethical Pratfalls: “I am Not a Cat” and Much More
  3. Brave New World: Ethical and Practical Considerations in Conducting Remote Hearings and Trials

MCLE: 3.5 Hours Legal Ethics. This activity has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education Credit by the State Bar of California. The FBA certifies that this activity conforms to the standards of approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.

Thank you.

Joseph Boufadel

Salvato Boufadel LLP

Congratulations to Everett Green

I learned today that Everett Green will be the new Chair of the Business Law Section of the California Lawyers Association.   Congratulations Everett.

Message from University of West Los Angeles School of Law (UWLA) President Robert Brown (total good news).

Dear UWLA executive management team, faculty and staff. While it is fresh in my mind, I want to circle back and commend our entire institutional team on the recent great achievements. After tremendous efforts and team work by  all, we have achieved amazing institutional victories and goals. I want to ask everyone to reflect on what we recently achieved and then re-direct your energies and efforts to the formidable challenges facing us this year.

  1. In February of this year, we hosted a WASC accreditation visit and were extremely successful in evidencing to the team, why we deserve to be re-accredited. Just as a reminder, this visit occurred because we received our initial accreditation two years ago, and WASC requires a backup visit within two years of the initial accreditation. Yes, it has been two years already since we received initial accreditation! Our entire team from the board of managers to our faculty and every staff person contributed to the successful re-accreditation visit. Dean Frykberg and Dean Brown, led our tremendous faculty and  staff in preparing an accreditation self-study that had over 7,000 pages of evidence. Our accreditation report from the visiting team had a number of outstanding commendations and in particular cited our faculty, Deans and the Board of managers and our CFO. We will attend the WASC conference in June to meet with the full WASC committee and we expect to receive full renewal of accreditation  based upon the WASC team report and their overall recommendation.  Great job team! Thanks Faculty and staff. Read more…

San Fernando Valley Bar Assn program this Friday Feb 5, 2021

Email from Steve Fix:

Dear All:

This program, dismissing complaints under Rule 12, is anything but boring.  The bar association has put two top notch (and quite humorous) speakers together on the panel.  The Honorable Barry Russell and Scott Bovitz will take us through a neat power point presentation on taking apart an opponent’s complaint, strategies whether you should bring a motion to dismiss and all of the fun that goes into these motions. Read more…

Married couple should consider holding title as “community property with right of survivorship.”

More stuff I didn’t know.  Yikes, this has been around since 2001?

I finally got around to writing my case summary of Brace.  I forgot that Judge Lafferty wrote the opinion for the BAP a while back.  I can’t wait to hear his comments at the 9th Circuit Review on January 23, 2021 (click here to join the cdcbaa and see the program for free).  One thing the court commented on that I didn’t know is that there is a new “form of title,” new since 2001 I guess.   The Supreme Court said:

In addition, the rule that form of title controls at death was a key motivation for the Legislature’s 2000 enactment of Assembly Bill No. 2913, which created a new form of title: community property with a right of survivorship. (… Civ. Code, § 682.1.)  This form of ownership combines the tax benefits of holding community property at the death of one spouse — a stepped-up basis in the full value of the community property — with the right of survivorship in a joint tenancy.

Civil Code Section 682.1 says: Read more…

Nice explanation of the difference between recoupment and set off from the 9th Circuit.

In re Gardens Regional Hospital and Medical Center, Inc.  975 F.3d 926 (9th Cir. September, 2020)

Historically, “[s]etoff allowed a reduction of [the] plaintiff’s claim by the amount of a liquidated claim of the plaintiff to the defendant; recoupment allowed a defendant to assert a claim arising out of the same transaction as the plaintiff’s claim.”  “The defining characteristic of setoff—as opposed to recoupment—is that, in a setoff, ‘the mutual debt and claim . . . are generally those arising from different transactions.’” [emphasis in original]   “[R]ecoupment is not the adjustment of separate mutual debts but the process of defining the amount owed under a single claim.”  “[R]ecoupment is in the nature of a right to reduce the amount of a claim, and does not involve establishing the existence of independent obligations.”  But “courts should apply the recoupment doctrine in bankruptcy cases only when ‘it would . . . be inequitable for the debtor to enjoy the benefits of that transaction without meeting its obligations.’”

SFVBA Program Friday December 4, 2020 – “Late-Filed Returns and How To Discharge Them”

Email from Steve Fix:

Dear All:

Sorry for the late notice.  Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kwan (who worked at the Justice Department representing the IRS prior to taking the bench), John Tedford IV (at Danning Gill and who wrote a fascinating article on this issue for the ABI) and John Faucher (who spent a decade at the Justice Department on tax matters) have put together a good program.  It is called “Late-Filed Returns and How To Discharge Them”  The program looks at the problem – Section 523(a) – what constitutes a return, how BAPCAP has complicated the analysis, the IRS’ position on late filed returns, how to figure out if your client has the problem and what to do about it.  Of course the panel will also look at how the Franchise Tax Board and its position can complicate the analysis.

Why attend this program?  Easy.  The intersection of bankruptcy and tax is complicated.  This is probably the area of the highest legal malpractice for bankruptcy attorneys.  We have to know the subject well enough to at least know the issues, the questions, and hopefully a lot more.  For those of you who think the subject is dry, first, it is not but second, the program is only hour long.

I hope you can join us.  Here are the particulars: Read more…