Mountainside Chat: The Ethics of Getting Hired

This year’s mountainside chat addresses recent developments in the requirements for employment of disinterestedness, disclosure and disqualification. It will focus on two recent decisions relating to the extent to which a lack of disinterestedness or the presence of an ethical conflict of one firm member is, or is not, imputed on others within the same firm, and whether there is a difference between the two. The discussion also addresses different views expressed by courts on the impact of receipt of a retainer, outstanding obligations for pre-petition services, and the potential for avoidance of pre-petition payments.