Contact: John Hartgen
703-739-0800
size='3'>ABI’S 25th ANNUAL SPRING MEETING SET FOR APRIL
12-15
January 4, 2007,
Alexandria, Va. --More than 1,000 bankruptcy professionals will
attend the American Bankruptcy Institute's (ABI) 25th Anniversary Annual
Spring Meeting, to be held April 12-15, 2007, at the JW Marriott in
Washington, D.C. ABI’s largest conference features a number of
educational programs to address a wide array of timely insolvency
issues, and will offer 15.5 hours of CLE credit, including 3.0 hours of
ethics.
The special guest speaker at
this year's meeting will be former U.S. Attorney General and
Senator John Ashcroft. Ashcroft, author of Never Again: Securing
America and Restoring Justice, will be featured at the Saturday,
April 14, luncheon sponsored by the
w:st='on'>American
w:st='on'>College
featured will be Chris Gardner, whose rags-to-riches tale from
homelessness to Wall Street is now inspiring millions in the current hit
movie The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith.
w:st='on'>
luncheon keynote on Friday, April 13.
Back for 2007 is the
Bankruptcy Fundamentals: Nuts and Bolts for Young Practitioners
program on Thursday, April 12. At this special day-long seminar for
beginning insolvency practitioners, an outstanding faculty of judges and
practitioners will explain the fundamentals of bankruptcy in separate
consumer and business tracks.
The conference educational
program session begin on April 13 with ABI's Eleventh Annual Great
Debates, moderated by ABI's Vice President of EducationRobert J.
Keach of Bernstein Shur (
w:st='on'>Portland
w:st='on'>Maine
debates. In Debate No. 1, 'Under §363, Property Can Be
Sold Free and Clear of Claims,' Robert M. Fishman of
Shaw Gussis Fishman, et al. LLC (Chicago) will debate Dillon E.
Jackson of Foster Pepper PLLC (Seattle).
In Debate No. 2,
'Individual Chapter 7 Debtors Have an Absolute to Convert to Chapter
13,' Craig Goldblatt of WilmerHale LLP (
w:st='on'>Washington
will debate G. Eric Brunstad, Jr. of Bingham McCutchen LLP
(
pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Debate No.
3, 'Loan-to-Own DIP Lenders Should Not Be Allowed to Credit
Bid,' will be debated by former ABI president Michael P.
Richman of Foley & Lardner LLP (
York
Dempsey, LLP (
w:st='on'>Phoenix
Expert panels
have been organized in concurrent sessions, allowing conference
attendees to choose the ones that most interest them. Speakers
include bankruptcy judges, accountants, attorneys, turnaround managers,
law professors, trustees and others.
'And Now for
Something Completely Different: A Roundtable on Bankruptcy, Labor and
Credit Issues and the New Congress' will feature panelists
William A. Brandt, Jr. of Development Specialists, Inc.
(Chicago), William A. Derrough of Jefferies & Company, Inc.
(New York), Travis B. Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of
America (Washington, D.C.) and Clifford J. White, III, Executive
Office for U.S. Trustees (Washington, D.C.). A member of Congress will
also join the panel.
Bankruptcy Judge
Joan N. Feeney (Boston) will moderate the 'Judges’
Roundtable: Supreme Court Year in Review (and Other Appellate
Issues),' featuring bankruptcy judges Kevin J. Carey
(Wilmington, Del.), Robert E. Gerber (New York), Jeffery P.
Hopkins (Cincinnati) and Gregg W. Zive (Reno,
Nev.).
'Ready, Set,
Go: A Practical Guide to Preparing and Filing a chapter 11 Case and
Surviving the 'First Days'—Part I' will be moderated by
Kathryn Pamenter of Goldberg Kohn Bell, et al, Ltd. (Chicago) and
feature panelists Mark D. Collins of Richards, Layton &
Finger, PA (Wilmington, Del.), Dallas M. Darland of TRG (Boston)
and Tinamarie Feil of BMC Group (Seattle).
Part II of
'Ready, Set, Go: A Practical Guide to Preparing and Filing a Chapter
11 Case and Surviving the “First Days,” will feature
Bankruptcy Judge Charles G. Case, II (Phoenix), Debra I.
Grassgreen of Pachulski, Stang, Ziehl, et al. LLP (San Francisco),
Bankruptcy Judge William C. Hillman (Boston), Melissa Kibler
Knoll of Mesirow Financial Consulting, LLC (Chicago) and Charles
F. Kuoni, III of Corporate Revitalization Partners, LLC (Chapel
Hill, N.C.).
Moderated by
David B. Stratton of Pepper Hamilton LLP (Wilmington, Del.),
'Real Estate Redux: What the New 'Dirt Cases' Will Look Like'
will feature panelists Matthew Bordwin of Keen Consultants, LLC
(Great Neck, N.Y.), David L. Bruck of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith
& Davis LLP (Woodbridge, N.J.), Ronald F. Greenspan of FTI
Consulting, Inc. (Los Angeles) and Bankruptcy Judge Linda B.
Riegle (Las Vegas).
'Key
Restructuring Issues in Energy, Telecom and Utility Cases: Lessons for
the New Cases from the Last Wave' will feature panelists John R.
Castellano of AlixPartners LLP (New York), Jeremy Fagot of PA
Consulting (Denver), Thomas E. Lauria of White & Case LLP
(Miami), Nicholas P. Leone of The Blackstone Group (New York) and
Matthew Mazzucchi of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin
(Minneapolis).
Moderator
Dennis J. LeVine of Dennis LeVine & Associates, PA (Tampa,
Fla.) will be joined by panelists Alane A. Becket of Becket &
Lee, LLP (Malvern, Pa.), Bankruptcy Judge Eileen W. Hollowell
(Tucson, Ariz.), W. Clarkson McDow of the Office of the U.S.
Trustee, Region 4 (Columbia, S.C.) and Chapter 13 Trustee Gerald M.
O’Donnell (Alexandria, Va.) for the 'Getting to the Finish
Line: Current Issues in Chapter 13 Plan Confirmation, Implementation and
Discharge' session.
'Equity Rises
Again: Strategies for Interest-Holders in Chapter 11 Reorganizations and
Sales' will be moderated by Jeffrey L. Jonas of Brown Rudnick
Berlack Israels LLP (Boston) and feature panelists Lorie R. Beers
of the Gordian Group, LLC (New York), Anders Maxwell of Peter J.
Solomon Company, L.P. (New York), Thomas E. Patterson of Klee,
Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP (Los Angeles) and Paul N.
Silverstein of AndrewsKurth LLP (New York).
Jo Ann J.
Brightonof Kennedy Covington Lobdell
& Hickman, LLP (
w:st='on'>Charlotte
w:st='on'>N.C.
Deepening Insolvency? Corporate Governance for Troubled Companies after
the Delaware Cases,' which will feature panelists Jonathan P.
Friedland of Kirkland & Ellis LLP (Chicago), Prof. Michelle
Morgan Harner of the University of Nebraska College of Law (Lincoln,
Neb.), Marc D. Puntus of Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC (New
York) and Russell C. Silberglied of Richards, Layton, Finger, PA
(Wilmington, Del.).
'Health Care
Business Restructurings and Liquidations after BAPCPA: Issues and
Strategies for the 'New' Cases' will feature moderator Sarah B.
Foster of Haynes and Boone, LLP (Austin, Texas) and panelists
Bernard A. Katz of J.H. Cohn, LLP (Edison, N.J), Suzanne
Koenig of SAK Management Services, LLC (Chicago), Hal F.
Morris of the Office of the Texas Attorney General (Austin) and
Nancy A. Peterman of Greenberg Traurig, LLP (Chicago).
Moderator
Richard M. Meth of Day Pitney (Florham Park, N.J.) will be joined
by panelists Barbara S. Gillers of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver
& Jacobson, LLP (New York), Judith Greenstone Miller of
Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer & Weiss, PC (Southfield, Mich.), Prof. Nancy
B. Rapoport of the University of Houston Law Center (Houston) and
Bankruptcy Judge Steven W. Rhodes (Detroit) for the plenary
session 'The Application of State Ethics Rules in Bankruptcy: Are We
Just Holding Our Noses and Looking the Other Way?'
The plenary
session 'Selecting and Qualifying an Expert: Not Just Anyone Will
Do' will be moderated by Robert J. Keach of Bernstein Shur
(Portland, Maine) and feature panelists Bankruptcy Judge Stan
Bernstein (Central Islip, N.Y.), Howard Brod Brownstein of
NachmanHaysBrownstein, Inc. (Narberth, Pa.), Mark M. Maloney of
King & Spalding LLP (Atlanta) and R. Scott Williams of
Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker, LLC (Birmingham,
Ala.).
The Annual Spring Meeting has
consistently been ABI's biggest conference with over 1,100 attendees. It
is one of two annual conferences where ABI committees and subcommittees
meet. More than 20 such committees will hold programs for CLE credit.
The four-day conference offers approximately 15.5 hours credit,
including 3.0 hours of ethics.The conference also
provides attendees with numerous opportunities to network with their
colleagues.
The American
Board of Certification (ABC) will offer its Consumer Bankruptcy,
Business Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights exams on Thursday, April 12,
from 9:00 a.m.5:00 p.m. at The JW Marriott
color='black'>. For details please visit the ABC web site at
title='http://www.abcworld.org/' href='http://www.abcworld.org/'>
color='#0000ff'>www.abcworld.org or e-mail
title='mailto:certification@abcworld.org'
href='mailto:certification@abcworld.org'>
color='#0000ff'>certification@abcworld.org.
Those who
register by January 26 will receive a $100 discount on the late
registration rate. To find out more information about ABI’s
25th Annual Spring Meeting, please visit
title='http://www.abiworld.org/ASM07'
href='http://www.abiworld.org/ASM07'>www.abiworld.org/ASM07.
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ABI is the largest
multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and
education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to
provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy
issues. The ABI membership includes more than 11,500 attorneys,
accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround
specialists and other bankruptcy professionals, providing a forum for
the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on
ABI, visit www.abiworld.org. For additional conference information,
visit
href='http://www.abiworld.org/conferences.html'>
size='3'>http://www.abiworld.org/conferences.html.