  |
  |
  |
    
  
   |
 | |||
|
|
|
|
| |||
Committee counsel undertakes to represent the interests of the entire class, not just the committee members. Committee counsel may pursue litigation against a constituent individual creditor, as long as counsel acquires no confidential information from that creditor nor takes any improper advantage through representation of the committee. Committee counsel may in some cases object to a plan even though the majority of the class members voting on the plan voted for it.
2. Committee counsel, like DIP counsel, is to meet its responsibilities in a manner that will not waste estate assets through excessive and inefficient work. For example, efforts should be directed toward facilitating discussion and resolution of plan issues instead of preparing numerous committee draft plans and objections to debtor plans and disclosures. When a debtor is aggressive or deleterious, committee counsel may need to file competing plans to negotiate better treatment for committee constituents, however. Generally, the committee's professionals should not involve themselves in every minute aspect of the DIP's business, incurring excessive fees that inappropriately drain the estate. Nor should they act as mere spectators, however, contributing nothing to benefit the creditors, while reaping the estate's cash for their fees. When issues arising in the case have a significant impact on creditor distributions, committee counsel should undertake a factual and legal analysis and bring the conclusions to the court. But once it becomes reasonably obvious that unsecured creditors will not receive a distribution, committee counsel must scale back services.
This outline is adapted from Chapter 27, Ethical Responsibilities, Norton Bankruptcy Law & Practice 2d (Thomson-West 2005)
