BK attorney's office also represents BK trustee at times??

[shoopy]

I visited one more (hopefully final) attorney today. At the end of the meeting I read and signed the fee, and other disclosure packet. One of the disclosure items was that, while the office mostly represents clients seeking bankruptcy, but also represents some of the trustees at times for certain proceedings. What the heck?? The legal asst. said that conflict of interest was avoided by not appearing before trustees that they represent. Is this common? Is it a, good, bad or indifferent thing? Conveniently, they forgot to give me a copy of this disclosure, etc. so I can't quote it verbatim.

The office appears to be a bit of a BK mill, but they don't advertise at all, all of their clients are from referrals, either other attorneys or former clients. Does that seem strange to anyone?

[HHM]

Answer: Indifferent.

I doubt it is a "true" mill. A referral based practice is actually a very good sign.

However, bankruptcy is still a "service" business. "Expertise" is only one part of the overall package. "Customer service" and "time" make up the other primary factors for which you pay. Many chapter 7 trustees actually represent debtors in BK as well and use their "expertise" to demand a higher fee...but many provide lousy customer service or spend far too little time on the case.

I think you will be fine. But, if you felt a bit of a mill atmosphere, that is probably because 95% of attorneys are lousy business people. Meaning, they may be good attorneys, but they are really bad and running and managing a business and realize that a business needs to be customer focused, most BK firms are not.