Local Rule 9010-1: ATTORNEYS – NOTICE OF APPEARANCE

RULE 9010-1. ATTORNEYS – NOTICE OF APPEARANCE A. Eligibility to Practice. An attorney who has been admitted to practice and remains in good standing before the United States District Court for the Northern, Western, or Eastern District of Oklahoma, or before the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma, may practice before this Court without special permission. An attorney who is employed or retained by the United States or its agencies may practice in this Court in all cases or proceedings in which they represent the United States or such entities. Attorneys so admitted shall file pleadings and documents electronically with the Court in compliance with these Local Rules and the ECF Administrative Guide.

B. Permission to Appear Pro Hac Vice. An attorney who has been admitted to practice and remains in good standing before any other court of the United States, or before the highest court of any other State, and who is familiar with these Local Rules may practice before this Court by permission of and on such conditions as may be set by the Court. Permission to practice before the Court may be requested by filing a written motion in the main bankruptcy case (or by making an oral request during any proceeding before the Court, followed by a written motion) and paying the appropriate admission fee to the Clerk of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, 333 W. Fourth Street, Room 411, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103. An attorney so admitted shall file pleadings and documents electronically with the Court in compliance with these Local Rules and the ECF Administrative Guide. Admission in a particular bankruptcy case shall also serve as admission in any and all adversary proceedings filed in the bankruptcy case.

C. Entry of Appearance. An attorney appearing for a party in a case or adversary proceeding who desires to receive notices pursuant to Bankruptcy Rule 2002(g) must file an entry of appearance requesting notices.

D. Withdrawal. An attorney shall be permitted to withdraw from a case or a proceeding, or both, only upon leave of Court. A request to withdraw shall state the reason therefor, the current status of the case including the pendency of any hearings, and whether substitute counsel has been obtained by the client. The request shall be served upon the client and other parties in interest. Withdrawal may be conditioned upon such terms as the Court may require.

E. Rules of Professional Conduct. The Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct are incorporated herein as rules governing attorney conduct before this Court. See Title 5 of the Oklahoma Statutes, Chapter 1, App. 3-A.

F. Scheduling Conflicts. Pursuant to the General Order entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on May 21, 1998, and for the purpose of resolving conflicts that arise in scheduling between this Court and federal district courts in the State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma district and appellate courts, or the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the Court adopts the following guidelines:

1. An attorney shall not be deemed to have a conflict unless:

a. the attorney is lead counsel in two or more of the actions affected; and b. the attorney certifies that the matters cannot be adequately handled, and the client's interest adequately protected, by other counsel for the party in the action or by other attorneys in the lead counsel's firm; certifies compliance with this rule and has nevertheless been unable to resolve the conflicts; and certifies in the notice a proposed resolution by list of such cases in the order of priority specified by this rule.

2. When an attorney is scheduled for a day certain by trial calendar, special setting or court order to appear in two or more courts (trial or appellate, state or federal), the attorney shall give prompt written notice, as specified in (1) above, of the conflict to opposing counsel, to the clerk of each court and to the judge before whom each action is set for hearing (or to an appropriate judge if there has been no designation of a presiding judge). The written notice shall contain the attorney's proposed resolution of the appearance conflicts in accordance with the priorities established by this rule and shall set forth the order of cases to be tried with a listing of the date and data required by (2)(a)-(d) as to each case arranged in the order in which the cases should prevail under this rule. Attorneys confronted by such conflicts are expected to give written notice as soon as the conflict arises but in any event at least seven (7) days prior to the date of the conflicting settings. In resolving scheduling conflicts, the following priorities should ordinarily prevail:

a. Criminal (felony) actions should prevail over civil actions set for trial or appellate proceedings;

b. Jury trials shall prevail over non-jury matters, including trials and administrative proceedings;

c. Trials should prevail over appellate arguments, hearings, conferences;

d. Appellate proceedings prevail over all hearings, other than actual trials;

e. Within each of the above categories only, the action which was first set shall take precedence.

3. In addition to the above priorities, consideration should be given to the comparative age of the cases, their complexity, the estimated trial time, the number of attorneys and parties involved, whether the trial involves a jury, and the difficulty or ease of rescheduling.

4. The judges of the courts involved in a scheduling conflict shall promptly confer, resolve the conflict, and notify counsel of the resolution. The judge presiding over the older case (i.e., the earliest filed case) will be responsible for initiating this communication.

5. Conflict resolution shall not require the continuance of the other matter or matters not having priority. In the event the matter determined to have priority is disposed of prior to the scheduled time set, the attorney shall immediately notify all affected parties, including the court(s) affected, of the disposal and shall, absent good cause shown to the court(s), proceed with the remaining case or cases which did not have priority if the setting was not vacated.

6. Nothing in these guidelines is intended to prevent courts from voluntarily yielding a favorable scheduling position, and judges of all courts are urged to communicate with each other in an effort to lessen the impact of conflicts and continuances on all courts.