Presidents Column

Journal Issue

Jun 2004

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The
following column is an abridged and edited version of the acceptance
speech given by ABI President Michael P. Richman at the ABI Annual
Spring Meeting on April 17, 2004.I am honored and privileged to be able to serve as
president of the American Bankruptcy Institute for the next
year.Before stating some of my goals for this year, it is important
that I recognize the people who have helped make ABIwhat it is today.
First, I want to acknowledge the contribution of the 13 dedicated and
talented people who precededme in this position: Bettina Whyte, Andy
Caine, Richardo Kilpatrick, Keith Shapiro, Ford Elsaesser, Deborah
Williamson, >Bob Fishman, Bob Zinman, Robin Phelan, Bob Feidler, Bill
Norton, Dick Gitlin and Ed Creel. We are today the world's
largest and most successful association of insolvency professionals
because oftheir vision and contributions. In our leadership, they have
created a culture of excellence. And I pledge to do mybest to meet that
standard.I especially thank Keith Shapiro and Gerry Buccino,

who was an ABI director and our first VicePresident-Development at the
inception of our Endowment Fund. About 10 years ago, outside a courtroom
in St.Louis, Keith and Gerry first suggested to me, and inspired me to
believe, that if I gave my time and energy to ABII might one day be
among its leaders. Special thanks also to Bob Fishman and Ford Elsaesser
for teaching me thatthe personal relationships and friendships that form
out of our common cause are at least as important, if not moreso, than
our professional collaborations. And thank you to Deborah Williamson,
who tested me for this position bymaking me give an oral dissertation on
my goals in a Las Vegas bar at 3:00 a.m. Bob, Ford and Deborah are,
andwill remain, trusted advisors.I also want to make special mention
of the support I received from Tony Schnelling of Bridge
Associates, recentlyelected to our Board of Directors. The financial
support and creative ideas provided by Tony were significant factorsin
the success of the fundraising efforts I managed for the Endowment Fund
as Vice President-Development, priorto my election as president. I am
also very grateful to my partners and colleagues at Mayer, Brown, Rowe &
MawLLP, who have for many years supported my ABI activities.My
congratulations to Richardo Kilpatrick, who just completed his term as
chairman of our Board, and therefore hisfour-year run on our Management
Committee. Richardo has accomplished much, but what I remember most is
theway he distinguished himself as our ABI president on Sept. 11, 2001,
leading us, calmly, through the discussion ofmany issues that we then
faced, about our priorities, about doing the right thing by our
members.I am especially proud to express the gratitude of the entire
membership to Bettina Whyte for a most remarkableaccomplishment during
her just-completed tenure as ABI President: her inspired role in the
creation of the graduatebusiness school bankruptcy competition. To
create such a competition from scratch takes more than a few phonecalls;
to convince a major university to sponsor or host such a competition
takes more than a few dollars.Persuading other major schools to
participate, when this has never been done before, is astounding. This
could nothave been accomplished without Bettina's sheer force of will
and incredible generosity. As ABI's first non-lawyerpresident, she felt
a special responsibility to create this competition, she pledged to do
it and deliver it before theend of her term, and she has indeed done it.
To honor Bettina's extraordinary effort, commitment and generosity,we
are naming the symbol of the competition—a beautiful silver trophy
that will be inscribed with the names ofeach winning team, and
maintained and displayed by each winning school until the following
year'scompetition—the Bettina M. Whyte Trophy.I made a promise
to seek greater recognition for our former presidents by honoring them
permanently in the ABI Journal and on our web site. I am very
pleased to report that this promise has already been fulfilled. If you
look onthe back page of this ABI Journal, you will find a new
"masthead," next to the regular listing of current officers
anddirectors, identifying all our former presidents and their years of
service. A similar listing will soon be a link on theABI web site.We
are at our highest-ever level of success and membership. We have passed
the 10,000-member mark. We have theworld's greatest executive director
in Sam Gerdano, and the most professional, and tireless, headquarters
staff. Oureducational conferences are recognized nationally, and in some
respects now internationally, as the very best. But wecannot stand
still. I want to continue our excellence and continue to expand our
membership.I will do everything possible to support Sam Gerdano and
the staff. I will also give special attention to Mitch Cohen and

Neil Olack, our Vice Presidents of Membership and Education,
respectively. I will attend and give mypersonal support to the chairs of
our regional conferences and encourage continued excellence in those
programs. Iwill also continue to support the efforts begun by Andy
Caine, who this year becomes Chairman of our Board, toraise the level of
our committee programs so that they provide content on a par with our
national and regionalprograms, and call upon our committee chairs to
continue those efforts. Our publications are without peer and havecome
to be so respected in large part due to the good work of John
Penn as Vice President-Publications. I am verypleased that John has
been selected as President-elect. I know that John will work closely
with our new PublicationsVice President, John Ames, to assure
continued excellence in a smooth transition. I will also give strong
supportto the efforts of our Research Grant Committee, under the
direction of Judge Wes Steen, to create a major newbankruptcy law
academic symposium in 2006, to equal or exceed the success they achieved
with last year'ssymposium on the 25th anniversary of the Bankruptcy
Code, and to continue to help the Endowment Fund obtaincontributions
from the membership to support other fine programs.I pledge to you
that before the end of 2005 we will take ABI education across the
Atlantic to London. It is time thatwe do this. We have already ventured
successfully across at least part of the Pacific to Hawaii, and north of
theborder to Canada. Former president Ford Elsaesser is working to bring
a delegation here from Armenia. Formerdirector Josefina McEvoy
brought a delegation of Mexican judges to our Winter Leadership
Conference last year,and with Josefina's help, later this year we are
crossing the Caribbean to do a program in Puerto Rico. DirectorGeorge
Kelakos is exploring the feasibility of programs in Asia. In
addition, thanks to the efforts of Andy Caine,we have strengthened our
alliance with the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring
Confederation,whose members are keenly interested in cross-border
collaboration.So we have the interest, the demand and the resources.
This is an opportunity to share our experience and gain newmembers from
abroad. A number of countries are revising their bankruptcy laws to make
them more like ours.Under the leadership of our Vice
President-International Steve Golick, George Kelakos and Neil
Olack, we willmake this happen.Besides seeking to expand membership
abroad, I want to be certain we hold on to those members we have. In
thatregard, I am mindful that we face contraction in our business and am
concerned about losing members who fall onfinancial hard times and find
it difficult to pay our dues. Thus, I plan to ask our Executive
Committee and Board toconsider the adoption of a financial hardship
policy that will permit at least partial deferral of annual dues
formembers who fall on hard times. The world's largest organization of
bankruptcy professionals should have someform of its own debt relief in
appropriate circumstances.My most important goal for the year is to
be your advocate. Our profession is in need of a national advocate
rightnow. It seems to me that we have had to withstand more than our
fair share of criticism from certain quarters of themedia and academia
who do not seem to understand the history and purpose of bankruptcy and
the importance tothis country of what we do. Some people think it is
wrong, even corrupt, to allow a company to reorganize insteadof putting
it to death. The public needs to be reminded that the creation of a
national bankruptcy system isspecifically authorized in the U.S.
Constitution.At the constitutional convention, there was in fact
little debate about the bankruptcy clause. It was on Sept. 3,1787, that
a resolution was passed at the constitutional convention to add to
Congress's enumerated powers thepower "to establish uniform laws on the
subject of bankruptcies." Gouverneur Morris called bankruptcy
an"extensive and delicate subject," and there was only one vote against
the resolution. It is fair to ask why thebankruptcy power was so
non-controversial to the Founders. I believe the answer is that this was
and remains anation of entrepreneurs. An overriding theme of the
constitutional debates, championed by Benjamin Franklin, wasthat the
Constitution not favor rich over poor, that political and economic
opportunity be equal for all. Bankruptcyis a great equalizer. And today,
nearly 217 years after the adoption of the bankruptcy power, our
economic systemremains the most successful and copied system in the
world. The Founders knew that you could not have a thrivingcapitalist
economic system without uniform bankruptcy laws. If you want to
encourage people to take risks, youhave to protect them when they
fail.So my principal mission for this year is to get the public to
appreciate and understand that we are the medicalprofession of the
American economy. We are not corrupt because we choose to resuscitate
businesses rather thancondemn them to death. We diagnose the ills, we
prescribe, we treat, we help businesses and persons to recovertheir
economic health. I will tell whoever is willing to listen, through every
medium, that this work that we do, wejudges, lawyers, financial
advisors, bankers, accountants and so many others—all of whom come
together in thisgreat ABI think tank—is good and noble work, and in
this work we excel. Through our dedication and commitmentto excellence,
our nation's economic system functions as no other, as the founders
clearly intended.<h4>New Staff Joins ABI</h4>Katy Manning joined the
ABI staff in April as a staff assistant and receptionist. She will also
serve as CLECoordinator. A native of Delaware, Katy is a 2003 graduate
of Catholic University of America, earning a B.A. inworld politics.
After graduation, she worked as a field organizer in Iowa for the
"Gephardt for President" campaign.She has also worked for MBNA in
Wilmington, Del.

Journal Authors

Michael P. Richman

Journal Date

Tuesday, June 1, 2004 - 12:00

Bankruptcy Rule

2004