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10 Lee S. Raphael oversees California foreclosure, civil litigation, and collections practices for Prober & Raphael, a Legal League 100 member firm, as well as the firm's nationwide bankruptcy practice. He has extensive experience with bankruptcy, real estate, and federal appellate matters. Raphael taught real property law for the Legal Education Conference Center and served on both the Central District of California Bankruptcy Forms Committee and the Central District of California's Relief from Stay Task Force. Raphael currently serves on the American Legal and Financial Network's Executive Bankruptcy Committee and the National Association of Chapter irteen Trustee's Mortgage Committee. Raphael was also a member of the Southern California Bankruptcy Inns of the Court and Central District of California's Bar Rules Advisory Group's Relief from Stay Working Group. Raphael earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from California State University Northridge and his Juris Doctor from South- western University School of Law, where he received the Dean's Scholar Designation. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1995 and is also admitted to all California Federal District Courts as well as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, Raphael has maintained a perfect 5.0 AV Preeminent peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell for close to 20 years. What are the trends you see at play in the bankruptcy sector right now? One major continuing trend is objections by trustees and debtor's attorneys regarding notice of post-petition fees and what the various courts are doing with those, as well as how servicers, their attorneys, and the GSEs, are all responding. When bankruptcy courts get slow, they look for ways to generate income. What's happening with Chapter 13 bankruptcies is that creditors need to file when they incur a post-petition fee and a notice of post-petition fees. e debtor attorneys and the trustees are objecting to what they believe is a fee that is not substantiated properly. e industry has used a flat fee for years on these things, and it's sort of like the no-work fee that you have debtor bar incurring when they file a Chapter 13. For whatever reason, however, it's not being treated that way. So the allowable flat fee that the GSEs mandated for POCs and planner reviews is being objected to, and some of the judges around the country are, in response to these objections, requiring hourly time and invoices to show every single minute that's been incurred on reviewing a plan and preparing a POC. at's something that law firms have not been doing. ey haven't been keeping their time because it's a flat fee. ere's still no uniformity on this around the country. Procedures are all over the place, and how it's interpreted and dealt with is different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and even sometimes within the same jurisdiction from courthouse to courthouse, from judge to judge. How has your firm handled opportunities to evolve and streamline processes in this ongoing low-volume environment? We've been around for 35 years. We have experience with surviving decreased volume in downturns, but honestly, our business has not gotten any less busy. As volumes have dropped and inventory has fallen, we've maintained as the servicers have consolidated the number of firms that they're using. I hope that speaks to the quality of service we provide and the fact that we've been here for so long because we have not had clients move on from us. We've seen volumes increase from some clients because they've consolidated and are using fewer firms. "e last thing my clients want is another REO in their portfolio. It can sometimes be challenging to work with debtors, especially pro se debtors, when they don't have any faith or trust in the process or their servicers." COUNSEL'S CORNER LEARNING LESSONS FROM DIVERSE COURT CASES Lee S. Raphael Managing Partner, Prober & Raphael

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