Reality Bites: Ethical Issues in Real Estate Cases

Andrea Wimmer is a Managing Editor and Contributing Writer for Upsolve. Previously, she was a lawyer at Schiam Walker, PLC.

Richard Carmody has practiced law for more than 40 years, has a nationwide reputation for solid counsel in the field of insolvency law (C&I) and secured lending, and has a network of referral sources that he has developed throughout his career. Richard is one of the firm’s principal bankruptcy attorneys, representing clients in difficult financial matters. He also provides counsel to lenders for complex commercial transactions and internal policies. In 1992, Richard became the first lawyer in Alabama to become certified as a specialist in Business Bankruptcy by the American Board of Certification.

On the state level, Richard helped establish and served as the first chair of the Alabama State Bar section on bankruptcy and commercial law, and he is a member of the Alabama Law Institute’s committees for revision of the UCC (Articles 3, 4, 4A, 5 and 9). Nationally, Richard is a founding member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, and he established and served as co-chair of the ethics committee of the ABI (1999-2005). Additionally, he served as vice chair of the ABI's 2013 Task Force for Ethical Standards. Richard was inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy in 1999 and currently serves as a director of the college foundation and member of the foundation’s pro bono committee. He is a frequent writer and lecturer on bankruptcy and commercial law topics. In 2017, the Alabama State Bar presented Richard with the Albert L. Vreeland Pro Bono Award.

Steven N. Berger has focused his career on resolution of complex business disputes through effective representation of clients in bankruptcy or other reorganization proceedings, loan workouts, litigation and business transactions. He co-founded the firm in 1999 after gaining experience as an associate and partner at two of Arizona’s largest law firms. He has extensive experience in representing parties involved with troubled loans or troubled businesses, and has represented lenders, lessors, business owners, investors, asset purchasers, creditor committees and other parties in bankruptcy and reorganization cases. Steve has more than 30 years’ experience in representing clients throughout Arizona, is admitted to practice before all state and federal courts in Arizona, and before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a long-time Arizona resident and business owner, providing him with added perspective in his work on Arizona based issues.

Hon. Laurel M. Isicoff is Chief Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, initially appointed on Feb. 13, 2006, and named chief judge on Oct. 1, 2016. She also serves on ABI’s Board of Directors. Judge Isicoff is immediate past secretary, and currently serves as a director, of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and is also on the board of directors of CARE (Credit Abuse Resistance Education). She is a member of the Pro Bono Committee of the American College of Bankruptcy and chair of its Judicial Outreach Committee. She also currently serves as judicial chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the Business Law Section of the Florida Bar and is a member of the Florida Bar Standing Committee on Pro Bono.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Isicoff specialized in commercial bankruptcy, foreclosure and workout matters both as a transactional attorney and litigator for 14 years with the law firm of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, after practicing for eight years with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, now known as Squire Patton Boggs. She also developed a specialty in bankruptcy and SEC receiverships involving Ponzi schemes. After law school, Judge Isicoff clerked for
Hon. Daniel S. Pearson of the Florida Third District Court of Appeals before entering private practice.

She is a past president of the Bankruptcy Bar Association (BBA) of the Southern District of Florida and, until she took the bench, chaired its Pro Bono Task Force. Judge Isicoff speaks extensively on bankruptcy around the country, and is committed to increasing pro bono service, diversity in the bankruptcy community and financial literacy.

She received her J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in 1982.