Presidents Column

As this issue of the <i>ABI Journal</i> reaches you,
we are in the midst of our largest—and most successful—Winter
Leadership Conference, held this year in Scottsdale, Ariz. This 16th annual
conference has grown so much that it now rivals the attendance of
ABI's other national meeting, the Annual Spring Meeting, in
Washington, D.C. This is a good time to report to you on some of the
exciting new initiatives and programs ahead.

</p><h4>National Study of Professional Fees</h4>

<p>There is probably no more important issue to the
bankruptcy community than bringing rationality and consistency to
professional fees. This is a highly misunderstood aspect of the bankruptcy
system, generating (often out of ignorance of facts and context) negative
media attention that puts the entire profession in a bad light. Litigation
over professional-fee issues creates its own cost in the system, draining
many hours of time—including judicial time—more productively
devoted to the hard issues of restructuring and liquidating.

</p><p>Some courts and districts have initiated new
programs to address professional-fee problems, including the use of fee
examiners and committees. There has also been a respectable debate about
whether the fee problem should be addressed in a national, comprehensive
way, or whether <i>ad hoc</i> experimental programs should continue.

</p><p>We formed an ABI study group to consider this issue
last spring with the support and advocacy of a variety of ABI members.
Since the initial meetings of this steering committee, led by <b>Chip Bowles</b> and
myself—along with the participation of <b>Dierdre Martini, Bettina
Whyte, John Penn,</b> Judge <b>Wes Steen</b> and Sam Gerdano—we are near an agreement to
provide significant funding (from our Endowment Fund and other resources)
for an academic scholar (who would serve as reporter) to undertake a
comprehensive national survey. The issue is simply too important to leave
to random experimentation. We want to understand what works and why, and we
need to know whether high fees are a function of poor practice or the
labor-intensive economics that attend large cases.

</p><p>The National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges
Endowment for Education has designated two of its members, Judge <b>Steven W. Rhodes</b> and Judge <b>Gregg Zive,</b> to work with us.
Our hope is that the NCBJ will assist with the funding. If all goes well,
we may be making formal announcements about this study in the near future,
and I will at that time appoint a larger fee-study committee to work with
the reporter in order to provide important feedback as the work takes
shape. If we do this right—and I believe we will—it may well be
one of the most important ABI projects ever.

</p><h4>ABI History</h4>

<p>At last year's Annual Spring Meeting, I
pledged to do more to recognize our past leaders and memorialize what has,
up until now, been largely an oral history of ABI. I asked the past
presidents (whose names now appear in a masthead set next to our Board of
Directors on the last page of the <i>ABI Journal</i>) to consider writing periodic <i>Journal</i> columns on ABI history. I am very pleased that
this project is now getting off the ground, and you will see in the next
issue the very first such column, written by <b>Ed
Creel,</b> ABI's first president.

</p><h4>ABI International</h4>

<p>As this issue of the <i>Journal</i> demonstrates, many countries are in the process of
modifying, or have recently modified, their bankruptcy laws to more closely
resemble the chapter 11 model. We have experience tto be usefully shared
with our colleagues in other countries. We are planning our first-ever
conference in London, slated to be held next fall. Working closely with ABI
member firms in the legal and financial consulting community who have
significant practices in London and throughout Europe, we will enhance the
likelihood of a critical mass of attendance. (To state it differently,
while we would be delighted if American and Canadian ABI members decided to
"cross the pond" for this program, we are not designing it to
attract North Americans, but rather to serve European interests.) In early
2005, we will again hold our U.S.-Canada cross-border program, this time in
Toronto. We thank our Vice President-International, <b>Steven Golick,</b> for again heading
this up.

</p><h4>New U.S. Programs</h4>

<p>Among our new CLE programs in 2005 is the
Mid-Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop, to be held in August at the Hyatt Resort
on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Thanks go to Program Co-chairs <b>Laura Davis Jones</b> (Pachulski,
Stang, et al.) and <b>Skip DiMassa</b> (Duane Morris), and Judicial Chairs <b>Judi Fitzgerald</b> (W.D. Pa.) and <b>Mary Walrath</b> (D. Del.) for
organizing this exciting new venture.

</p><h4>And a Few Words of Thanks</h4>

<p>I am nearly two-thirds of the way through my
all-too-brief (at least in my opinion) term as ABI president. In that time,
I have had the great pleasure of attending and representing ABI at many
regional programs that I had never before attended, and to work with and
get to know many people. The number of our members who give enormous
amounts of their time and energy for this organization, for no reason other
than their desire to see ABI succeed as the premier association of
insolvency professionals, is truly remarkable.

</p><p>Finally, I continue to believe that we have the
finest professional staff of any nonprofit organization in the country,
bar none. Our executive director, Sam Gerdano, has hand-picked a fiercely
loyal band of meeting planners, marketing specialists, media experts,
webmasters, financial staffers and others, all of whom keep ABI
ever-present in the media, in your mailbox, on your computer screen and at
your service. Over the last nine months I have been repeatedly offered
sympathy from people who think that being ABI president must be a difficult
and demanding job. I must confess that Sam and the ABI staff have made it
easy for me. I'd love to complain, but I have no just cause to do so.
We are all truly fortunate to have them, and I thank each and every one of
them for a job well done.