Ethics Potpourri

Advising and interacting with clients remotely, with a strong reliance on electronic rather than in-person communications, is the reality for most bankruptcy professionals in a post-pandemic world. This session focuses on the resulting ethical issues facing consumer practitioners, including issues regarding the verification of debtor identity, authority issues regarding the use of client signatures, protection of confidential client information, conduct during telephonic (or video) § 341 meetings, and ethical obligations in the face of data breaches. The panelists use hypothetical scenarios to demonstrate the ways in which these ethical issues often arise, and discuss best practices to handle these issues, as well as highlight potential access-to-justice problems that clients can face.