I have a status conference coming up soon, doI need a bankruptcy lawyer to be present?

If you are being represented by an attorney, the attorney should appear at the status conference for you.  If you don't have an attorney and are representing yourself, you must appear at the status conference.

At the status conference, you should be completely familiar with the case.  Prior to the court appearance, you should complete and file a case management conference statement if this status conference is actually a case management conference.  The case management conference statement is a court form.  In addition to some basic information about the case, the form is used to list the remaining Discovery that needs to be completed and the estimated time for completing those items.  The opposing parties each file a case management conference statement although sometimes a joint case management conference statement can be filed between the parties.  The judge will review the case management conference statement and set some deadlines for completion of Discovery, exchange of experts if applicable, Discovery cut-off date, the date of the pre-trial conference and the date of trial.  Depending on how far along the case is in litigation, some of these items I have mentioned with deadlines might not be addressed by the judge at this particular status conference.  The status conference will probably be quite brief and might only last a few minutes.