Members in the News

Journal Issue

Oct 2004

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The activities of the Business Reorganization Committee are augmented by five subcommittees that focus on the issues of specific industries. The Subcommittee on
Agriculture is chaired by Rick A.
Yarnall, a chapter 13 trustee for the
District of Nevada based in Las Vegas. He recently relocated there
from Portland, Ore., where he also did a significant amount of
chapter 12 work. He graduated from the University of South Dakota
Law School in 1973.

Lawrence R. Ahern III and J. Gregg Miller co-chair the Subcommittee on Insurance,
Construction & Surety. Mr. Ahern is the member in charge of the
Nashville, Tenn., office of Greenebaum Doll & McDonald PLLC. He
is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and has been
certified since 1994 as a business bankruptcy specialist by the
American Board of Certification and by the Tennessee Commission on
CLE & Specialization. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since
1989 in the areas of business reorganization, creditors'
rights and bankruptcy litigation. He concentrates his practice in
bankruptcy and commercial litigation and transactions with an
emphasis on creditors' and debtors' interests,
trustees, indenture trustees and creditors' committees. Mr.
Ahern also works frequently with matters of banking and lending,
particularly asset-based and workout transactions, troubled
institutions and debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing. He also has
extensive experience with corporate reorganizations and
acquisitions, many of which involve leveraged buyouts, distressed
businesses and bankruptcy transactions. He currently serves as
director for both ABI and the American Board of Certification. He
received both his B.A. and J.D. from Vanderbilt University and has
been admitted to practice in the state of Tennessee since 1972.

Mr. Miller is a partner in the Philadelphia
office of Pepper Hamilton LLP, where he heads its bankruptcy
practice. Since joining the firm in 1969, Mr. Miller has
concentrated his practice primarily in the areas of bankruptcy and
reorganization law. He frequently represents creditors, or groups
of creditors, and debtors in workouts and bankruptcy proceedings,
and is particularly experienced with bankruptcies in the health
care and construction industries, as well as cases involving mass
toxic torts. In construction bankruptcies and workouts, he has
represented sureties, banks, general contractors, subcontractors
and suppliers. As a result of his construction bankruptcy work, he
has represented four manufacturers and distributors of insulation
projects as DIPs in chapter 11 proceedings for relief from massive
asbestos litigation.

Mr. Miller has lectured and published
extensively in the insolvency field. At the ABI's 1999 Annual
Spring Meeting, he was moderator of the panel on
"Construction and Surety Law Issues," and presented a
paper titled "Properties in Construction Bankruptcies."
At the 13th Annual Construction Superconference, he was moderator
of the panel "Bankruptcy Law Impact on Construction and
Surety Law Principles." He also addressed the American Bar
Association's Section of Tort and Insurance Practice on the
subject of "Bankruptcy—Crisis in the Construction
Industry." Mr. Miller is the author of the bankruptcy chapter
in The McGraw-Hill Construction
Business Handbook. He also co-authored
the bankruptcy chapter of The Aspen Law Construction Law Handbook, "How to Turn Around a Corporation Plagued with Mass
Toxic Torts," a chapter in Workouts
& Turnarounds, The Handbook of Restructuring and Investing in
Distressed Companies, as well as
"The Kennedy Mortgage Company Case: New Light Shed on the
Position of Mortgage Warehousing Banks" in the American Bankruptcy Law Journal. He
received his B.A. from Yale College in 1966 and his LL.B. from the
University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1969.

Rudy J. Cerone, chair of the Subcommittee on Hospitality, Entertainment Venues
& Gaming, is a member of McGlinchey Stafford PLLC's
Commercial Litigation Section in New Orleans with primary emphasis
in the areas of business bankruptcy and commercial litigation. He
has been certified as a specialist in Business Bankruptcy Law by
the American Board of Certification since 1993, and by the
Louisiana State Bar Association Board of Legal Specialization since
1996. Mr. Cerone received his J.D. cum
laude from Boston College in 1979 and
his B.A. summa cum laude as part of an honors program at the University of
California at San Diego in 1976. While in law school, Mr. Cerone
was a member of the Order of the Coif, the executive editor of the Boston College International and Comparative Law
Review, and the recipient of the Lyne,
Woodworth & Evarts Best Law Review Editor Award for 1979. His
many speaking engagements have included numerous appearances at ABI
events, including the 1996 Southwest Bankruptcy Conference and the
Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop in 1997 and 2000. His publications
include "Res Judicata Revisited by the Fifth Circuit"
in the ABI Journal, and "Bankruptcy Trends in the Gaming Field"
in the Journal of Bankruptcy Law &
Practice. He is a fellow of the
American College of Bankruptcy and is president of the American
Board of Certification. His recent engagements have included
representation of the shipbuilder in the Crescent City Capital
Development riverboat casino bankruptcy and acting as liquidating
trustee of the creditors' liquidating trust established under
the plan.

Deborah A. Crabbe, chair of the Subcommittee on
Small Business, is a member of the Creditors' Rights and
Bankruptcy Practice Group at Foster, Pepper & Shefelman PLLC in
Seattle. Her practice is concentrated in creditors' rights
and bankruptcy, including all facets of secured transactions,
receiverships and workout proceedings. She has substantial
experience representing lenders, trade creditors, trustees,
receivers and individuals. Ms. Crabbe earned her J.D. from Seattle
University cum laude in 1992 after earning her M.S. from the University of
Massachusetts in 1985 and a Bachelor of Commerce from Laurentian
University in 1982. She is admitted to practice in the states of
Oregon and Washington, as well as the U.S. District Court, Western
District of Washington, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth
Circuit. Washington Law & Politics named her a Rising Star in 2001 and a Super
Lawyer in 2003 and 2004.

Information on committee activities, upcoming
programs and electronic newsletters, as well as contact information
for all committee chairs, is available on ABI World.

<h3>More Members in the News</h3>

Michael H. Reed, a partner in Pepper Hamilton's Philadelphia
office, ABI member and president of the Pennsylvania Bar
Association, has been appointed to the Interest on Lawyers Trust
Account (IOLTA) board for a three-year term. Mr. Reed concentrates
his practice in bankruptcy and insolvency law. He has been a member
since 1987.

Following seven years as U.S. Trustee of
Region 21, C. David Butler joined Shapiro Fussell Wedge Smotherman Martin
& Price LLP in the firm's bankruptcy and creditors'
rights practice. In addition to his experience as the overseer of
the bankruptcy system in Georgia, Florida and the Caribbean, Mr.
Butler brings more than 30 years of bankruptcy case expertise and
practice experience to the firm, where he will serve as private
counsel for troubled companies, appointed trustees in bankruptcy
and examiners, as well as clients who hold defaulted claims against
distressed companies. As U.S. Trustee, he appointed and supervised
trustees in the many bankruptcy cases filed each year in the
region. He has been listed in The Best
Lawyers in America. He is a fellow of
the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the State Bar of
Georgia.

GE Commercial Finance Business Credit
announced that it has named Eric R.
Gill as vice president of
origination. Mr. Gill will be based in Charlotte, N.C., and will be
responsible for the North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and
Washington, D.C. markets. He will originate asset-based credit
facilities of $30 million and less by continuing to develop business
relationships with middle-market companies and financial intermediaries
throughout the mid-Atlantic market. He has more than 24 years of
experience in commercial finance. He can be contacted at (704)
553-5319.

Gerard DiConza has joined Bianchi Macron LLP as a partner in its
Restructuring/ Creditors' Rights Department in Garden City,
N.J. Formerly with Togut, Segal & Segal LLP, he will continue
his practice of representing debtors, creditors, creditors'
committees, landlords and other parties in interest in chapter 11
and out-of-court restructurings. Mr. DiConza also is a past student
editor of the ABI Law Review and has been an ABI member since 1993.

Joel R. Spivack, principal of the law office of Joel R. Spivack in
Cherry Hill, N.J., was the keynote speaker at the Greater
Philadelphia Area Summer Send-off event for incoming freshmen and
their parents for the University of Maryland. Mr. Spivack practices
bankruptcy, debtor/creditors' rights, business and corporate
law, collection, entertainment law, real estate zoning and land-use
law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He has been an ABI member since
2000.

Sanford P. Rosen & Associates P.C.
announced that Kenneth M. Lewis has become a member of the New York firm and Alex Vinnitsky has
become an associate. Mr. Lewis is a contributing author to Bankruptcy Business Acquisitions (Lexmed 1998 & Supp. 1999 & 2002). Mr. Lewis has
both chaired and participated in panels sponsored by the New York
State Bar Association, the Corporate Bar Association of Westchester
and Fairfield Inc., and the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Mr. Vinnitsky received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law
in May 1999, where he was a Stone Scholar and editor of the Journal of East European Law.

Charles A. Soule, senior partner and co-founder of Aurora Management
Partners Inc. in Atlanta, and Ronald H.
Turcotte, senior partner and co-founder
of TBA Management Services LLC, announced that TBA and Aurora
merged in July under the Aurora brand. Mr. Soule was appointed
chairman of the board and Mr. Turcotte was appointed CEO and
managing partner. The Board also appointed David M. Baker as
managing director for the Carolinas. The newly merged firm's
regional offices will be located in Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C.,
Chattanooga, Tenn., Orlando, Fla., Toronto and Richmond, Va., with
planned expansion into the Northeast. Aurora will relocate
corporate headquarters to 4485 Tench Road, Suite 340A, Atlanta, GA
30024. For further information, contact Ron Turcotte at (770)
904-5218 or <a href="mailto:rturcotte@auroramp.com">rturcotte@auroramp.com</a>.

Adorno & Yoss, the nation's
largest, certified minority-owned law firm with 185 attorneys,
announced that it has added an office in New York as a result of
its combination with Bryant Law Group P.C. (BLG). This is the first
New York office for the firm, which currently has offices in
Florida, California and Georgia. Adorno's ABI members include
Geoffrey S. Aaronson, Lawrence M. Schantz, Robert A. Schatzman, Steven J. Solomon and Nicole Testa (Miami); Mariaelena
Gayo-Guitian, Bart A. Houston, Stephen C. Hunt and Charles M. Tatelbaum
(Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.); and Glen D.
Rubin (Atlanta).

Journal Authors

ABI

Journal Date

Friday, October 1, 2004 - 12:00

Bankruptcy Rule

2004

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