Volcker Rule Conformance Period Clarified

On April 19, 2012, the Federal Reserve Board announced its approval of a statement clarifying that an entity covered by section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the so-called “Volcker Rule,” has the entire two-year period provided by the statute to fully conform its activities and investments, unless the Board extends the conformance period. In general, the Volcker Rule requires banking entities to conform their activities and investments to the prohibitions and restrictions included in the statute on proprietary trading activities and on hedge fund and private equity fund activities and investments.

Section 619 required the Board to adopt rules governing the conformance periods for activities and investments restricted by that section, which the Board did on February 9, 2011. However, the Board has since then received a number of requests for clarification of the manner in which this conformance period would apply and how the prohibitions will be enforced. The Board is issuing this statement to address this question.

The Board’s conformance rule grants entities covered by the Volcker Rule a period of two years after the statutory effective date, which would be until July 21, 2014, to fully conform their activities and investments to the requirements of section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act and any implementing rules adopted in final under that section, unless that period is extended by the Board.

The Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “agencies”) plan to administer their oversight of banking entities under their respective jurisdictions in accordance with the Board’s conformance rule. The agencies have invited public comment on a proposal to implement the Volcker rule, but have not adopted a final rule.

 Source:  --> http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr6238-12

Study Shows Chapter 7 Debtors Represented by an Attorney Are “Almost Ten Times More Likely to Receive a Discharge” of their Debts

In my work as a bankruptcy attorney, I attend Chapter 7 “341 hearings” with my clients. That’s the typically routine and fairly short meeting with the bankruptcy trustee that everyone filing bankruptcy attends  a month or so after their petition is filed. Because these are public meetings, I can observe the people who file bankruptcy without an attorney, and there are many cases that prove how dangerous it is to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy without an attorney. The question of whether hiring an attorney is really necessary or even helpful is discussed in a book that was recently published, Broke: How Debt Bankrupts the Middle Class. In the compilation of scholarly articles, one of the chapters focuses on “pro se” filers (those without attorneys). The author, Asst. Professor Angela K. Littwin of the University of Texas School of Law, analyzed data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, “the leading [ongoing] national study of consumer bankruptcy for nearly 30 years.” She concluded, “that pro se filers were significantly more likely to have their cases dismissed than their represented counterparts.”

In another closely related study from last year, Prof. Littwin concluded that “17.6 percent of unrepresented debtors had their cases dismissed or converted” to Chapter 13, [while] only 1.9 percent of debtors with lawyers met this fate.”  Even after controlling for other factors such as “education, race and ethnicity, income, age, homeownership, prior bankruptcy, whether the debtor had any nonminimal unencumbered assets at the time of the filing,” “represented debtors were almost ten times more likely to receive a discharge than their pro se counterparts.” In her carefully understated and scholarly appropriate way, Prof. Littwin concluded that “there may always be additional unobservable factors for which I cannot control… [b]ut this analysis suggests that filing pro se dramatically escalates the chance that a Chapter 7 bankruptcy will not provide a person with debt relief.”

Update on Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions

The USCIS has just informed the AILA that 22,323 cap-subject H-1B petitions have been received as of April 4, 2012. Approximately 25% of these cases are for U.S. advanced degrees.  Based on this announcement, approximately 17,000 of the 65,000 “regular” H-1B cap-subject petitions have been filed and 5,500 “Masters” H-1B cap-subject petitions. Last year, the USCIS reported that 17,400 Regular H-1B Cap-subject numbers had been used through June 29, 2011. It took about 4 and one-half months for the remaining 47,600 “regular” H-1B slots to be filled. If this year’s pace were to equal last year’s pace, that would mean that the H-1B numbers would be exhausted by mid-August. However, this year’s demand seems certain to be greater than that. Last year 15,000 “regular” H-1B cap-subject H-1Bs were filed in the final month (November 2011). If the November 2011 demand is a reasonable metric for usage projection, this year’s H-1B cap would be reached approximately June 1, 2012.