Tips on identifying subtle conflicts of interest that may arise in consumer bankruptcy cases and how to ethically obtain client waivers.

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Ed Hays is a founding member of the firm of Marshack Hays LLP. He graduated with honors from California State University at Fullerton in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business. He graduated from the University of Southern California Law Center in 1992 where he was a member of the Hale Moot Court Honors program. Mr. Hays was admitted to practice in 1992. Mr. Hays has been certified as a bankruptcy law specialist by the State Bar of California.

Ed focuses his practice on bankruptcy and litigation matters, including appeals. In 2020, he was the President of the California Bankruptcy Forum. In 2000 and 2017, he served as Chair of the Commercial Law & Bankruptcy Section of the Orange County Bar Association. Ed is frequently asked to speak at national, statewide, and local bar association groups including the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the California Bankruptcy Forum, the Orange County Bankruptcy Forum, the Inland Empire Bankruptcy Forum, the Orange County Bar Association, and the Office of the United States Trustee for multiple Regions. 

Michael Nicastro is a member of the California Lawyers Association Insolvency Law Committee and is co-chair of the ILC’s Education Subcommittee.  Mr. Nicastro has decades of experience representing thousands of debtors, creditors, panel and sitting trustees in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 proceedings.  He began his career as an accountant and brings his financial education and knowledge into his legal practice.   After successfully representing thousands of bankruptcy clients in matters ranging from simple to extremely complex, Mr. Nicastro has established a reputation as a creative thinker, a fierce advocate for his clients and the go-to referral for attorneys who want their friends, family and/or existing clients well represented in work out and bankruptcy matters.

Judge Charles Novack has served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge since May 2010, and was the Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of California from 2018 – 2022.  He regularly lectures on a variety of bankruptcy topics to local, state and national audiences.  He chaired the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges’ ethics committee from 2016 – 2017 and served as the editor of the Ninth Circuit’s Bankruptcy Judges Education Committee’s newsletter for several years.  Judge Novack maintained his own bankruptcy practice in Oakland, California during the five years preceding his appointment, representing Chapter 7 trustees and debtors, creditors and other interested parties in Chapter 7, 11 and 13 cases.  From 1994 until 2005 he was an associate and then a shareholder at the Oakland bankruptcy boutique firm of Kornfield, Paul & Nyberg. Judge Novack served as an associate professor at California State University, East Bay from 2006 – 2009 and as an adjunct professor at UC Law, San Francisco (formerly Hastings College of the Law) during the 2017/18 school year. Judge Novack graduated from Rutgers College in 1980 (With Honors) and UC Law, San Francisco in 1983 (Cum Laude).

Misty Perry Isaacson is a Certified Bankruptcy Specialist with over 25 years of experience in bankruptcy and insolvency law. Certified by the State Bar of California, she has represented debtors, creditors, Chapter 7 and 13 trustees, the U.S. Trustee, and litigants in bankruptcy proceedings. She is admitted to all California state and federal courts, including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and has successfully argued before the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, District Court, and the Ninth Circuit.

Ms. Perry Isaacson earned her B.A. in Political Science from California State University, Long Beach, and her J.D. from Southwestern University School of Law, where she externed for the Honorable Kathleen P. March, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge.

A respected leader in the legal community, she is a past Chair of the Ninth Circuit Lawyer Representatives Coordinating Committee, former Co-Chair of the Central District Lawyer Representatives, and an advisor to the State Bar’s Insolvency Law Committee. She also serves on the boards of several regional bankruptcy forums and is active in the American Bankruptcy Institute, the James T. King Bankruptcy Inn of Court, and the OCBA Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section. She is a former President of the Inland Empire Bankruptcy Forum 

Of Counsel to Sall Spencer Callas & Krueger in Laguna Beach, Robert Sall is a Certified Specialist in Legal Malpractice Law by the State Bar of California’s Board of Legal Specialization. For decades, Mr. Sall’s practice emphasis has been in cases involving lawyer conduct, including the prosecution and defense of legal malpractice actions.  He is a 1975 graduate of UCLA and a 1978 graduate of UC College of Law San Francisco (formerly Hastings College of the Law). He is a member of the Orange County Bar Association Professionalism and Ethics Committee, and a member and past chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee. 

Mr. Sall served on the State Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct (2003-2006). He has also been a Probation Monitor and a Special Deputy Trial Counsel for the State Bar of California, member and chair of the State Bar’s Committee on Mandatory Fee Arbitration (1995-2000), Co-Chair of the Orange County Bar Association’s Mandatory Fee Arbitration (MFA) Program, and past member on the Client Relations and Judiciary Committees of the Orange County Bar Association. Mr. Sall has taught law courses in Professional Responsibility and Legal Malpractice, and frequently lectures and serves as an expert witness or consultant in matters related to legal malpractice, professional responsibility and attorneys’ fees.