Link: http://www.si.edu/

We have recently added an interesting, non-legal site to the links section of the firm's web page. It is for the Smithsonian Museum and is full of interesting stuff to explore! Here is the link as well: http://www.si.edu/

Mike

Thinking of filing a personal chapter 7 bankruptcy and having the chapter 7 trustee sell that nasty fraudulent transfer suit [where you will be the defendant] to your brother in law? Well, the 9th Cir. BAP decided two days ago that this was not something that could be done, at least not without some serious Court scrutiny. In this matter, the debtor, soon to be defendant, had the Trustee agree to sell a cause of action which belonged to the estate [itself an interesting event, but allowable in the Ninth Circuit] to a newly established company [named "Claims Prosecutor, LLC"]. The Court of Appeals noted first that the name of the purchaser was ironic, in that it should have been named the "Claims Extinguisher" since the owner was the defendant's brother in law and he openly stated that he had no intention of pursuing the case. The trouble with this idea, according to the appellate court, was that the Bankruptcy Court approved the sale over creditor objections without first carefully reviewing whether the sale was "fair and equitable" and did not consider whether the objecting creditor might be willing to pursue the suit for the benefit of all creditors, a common procedure in situations where the estate does not have the money to pursue the cause of action itself. Here is a link to the case: http://www.ce9.uscourts.gov/Web/bap.nsf/46DD4CD27C4623C48825700700763D1F/$file/Lahijani-04-1350.pdf?openelement

Mike

One of the fun things about having this small firm is reading [and hopefully learning from] the regularly generated reports. The majority of the reports which cross my desk are financial in nature and are prepared by Alicia, a CPA who is the firm's long time part time accountant. Yesterday, however, I got a different type of report, related to the firm's web site.

Thus, I am now able to tell you all kinds of useless information, like the fact that it has had 136,087 hits or (better yet) that the most separate hits came from California, not Texas. My favorite "tidbit" of information relates to our foreign visitors to the site. Some of these are easily understood ? because we have client representatives located in Taiwan, Canada and Sweden. Other visits (from 50 different cities world wide) presently are a mystery. For example, the 80 separate visitors from Beijing; the 2 visitors from Switzerland or, finally, the 1 lone visitor (thus far) from Iran ? no city indicated. At any rate, welcome all and ?if you wish to identify yourself as one of our visitors (wherever you reside) please drop us a line and tell us what you think of the site, the blog, whatever.

Mike 05/20/05

With the rising incidence of identity theft, keeping an eye on your credit information is more important than ever. Thanks to a recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, beginning June 1, 2005, Texas residents may obtain free copies of their credit reports from each of the three major credit reporting companies (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian). The program has been introduced in phases: Other states have had access to the service since December 1, 2004, and free reports will be available to residents of all 50 states effective September 1, 2005.

To obtain your credit reports, or for more information, go to www.annualcreditreport.com

The Federal Trade Commission has additional information, as well as information on how to avoid and recover from identity theft http://ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ycr_free_reports.htm

Mac McMahan 05/19/05

Two books about Enron:

The Smartest Guys in the Room
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1591840082/qid=1114196690/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/002-4269749-8508815?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Enron: Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1587785781/qid=1114196968/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_6/002-4269749-8508815?v=glance&s=books

One of Mike's favorites:

A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0374270325/qid=1114196899/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/002-4269749-8508815?v=glance&s=books&n=507846