From the Director Jul/Aug 2001

The world's largest insolvency organization is also the fastest-growing. ABI membership surged past 8,000 during June, just 19 months after passing the 7,000 mark. This is a record for the fastest additional thousand members added. ABI reached 7,000 members in December 1999, some 22 months after passing the 6,000-member mark in March 1998. By comparison, it took 33 months to grow from 5,000 members.
Spring Issue of Law Review Covers Revised Article 9

Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code is now effective in a majority of states and will have a profound impact on the world of secured finance. The current issue of the ABI Law Review is devoted entirely to a very timely analysis of the bankruptcy implications from several perspectives. Featured authors include Profs. Steven L. Harris and Charles W. Mooney Jr., who serve as Article 9 reporters, and ABI Director Prof. G. Ray Warner. These top academics debate the theoretical underpinnings of the revisions, while other articles address more practical concerns such as the impact on workouts, avoidance powers, asset securitization, non-assignable collateral and foreclosure sales.

The 461-page issue is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Lawrence P. King, one of the nation's leading scholars for a generation, who passed away on April 1.
Resident Scholar Update

Prof. Jack F. Williams, the Robert M. Zinman Resident Scholar at the ABI, has maintained an active schedule of writing and speaking this spring. Jack has written articles for both a forthcoming issue of the ABI Law Review and "Cracking the Code" on ABI World. Other written works include a major empirical article on creditors' rights and work as editor on a forthcoming ABI book by Prof. Jack Ayer (Univ. of California-Davis) and Michael Bernstein (Arnold & Porter; Washington, D.C.). He participated as a speaker in the teleseminar series held in May and has held numerous briefings on the tax and commercial aspects of the legislation for Congressional staff, administrative agency counsel and the national news media. Jack also will be a featured speaker at two September programs—the Southwest Bankruptcy Conference and Views from the Bench at Georgetown University Law Center. Prof. Williams has generously donated five percent of his scholar salary to the ABI Endowment Fund.
Support the Endowment Through Your Membership Renewal

Beginning in July, membership renewal invoices now include a voluntary $30 contribution to the ABI Endowment Fund. This tax-deductible contribution is part of a special campaign authorized by the ABI Management Committee to grow the fund in time for the 20th anniversary Annual Spring Meeting next April. The goal of the campaign is to help permanently fund the ABI Resident Scholar program. Increasing the percentage of our 8,000 members participating in the Endowment is also important to our ability to earn foundation grants for more scholarly research. We hope all members will support this important campaign.
Meet New ABI Staff Members

Heather Smith-Awsumb joined our staff in May as an assistant in the accounting department. A native of Utah, she graduated from Southern Utah University with a minor in accounting. Heather will be processing membership renewals, conference registrations and assisting with accounts receivable. Anna McGarity Lamb joined the staff in July as a desktop publishing specialist. She has four years of experience in graphic design, web content writing, freelance and technical writing, and editing. Anna has a B.A. from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in Publications Design from the University of Baltimore. Her aunt, Judge Margaret Dee McGarity, is an ABI member and bankruptcy judge in Milwaukee.
Thanks to Teleseminar Series Speakers

More than 1,400 practitioners participated in ABI's teleseminar series on the coming new bankruptcy law. The series was held May 22-25 to very favorable reviews. Audiotapes and written materials can still be ordered from the home page of ABI World. We thank our presenters for their outstanding work: Judge Eugene Wedoff, Judge William Brown, Henry Hildebrand, Ronald Peterson, James Caher and Richardo Kilpatrick (consumer bankruptcy); Robin Phelan, Prof. Grant Newton, Alan Barton, Robert Pope and Prof. Jack Williams (tax and administrative issues); and Bettina Whyte, Judge David Houston, Judge Wesley Steen, Steven Case and Joseph Guzinski (business bankruptcy).
Medal of Excellence Certificate Winners

ABI congratulates the winners of the 2001 ABI Medal of Excellence in Bankruptcy. Top law students from around the country are recognized through this program, coordinated by Christopher F. Graham (Thacher, Proffitt & Wood; New York). The program honors the achievements of law students selected by their deans and bankruptcy law faculty and consists of engraved medals and certificates suitable for framing, as well as a one-year complementary ABI membership. Congratulations go to the following winners:

Thais Michelle Alexander
University of Buffalo Law School, State University of New York

Brett Nathan Anderson
Washington and Lee University School of Law

Julie Bahner
Seattle University School of Law

Kristin R. Baker
The University of Tulsa College of Law

Rajiv K. Batra
Rutgers Law School-Newark

Heather M. Bell
Duke University School of Law

Della K. Berry
Mississippi College School of Law

Michelle Briggs
Santa Clara University School of Law

Audara Charlton
University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law

Erin K. Chrislock
Cornell Law School

David Carter Cole
The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Aaron DeLeest
Southwestern University School of Law

Christopher B. DeSaulniers
University of San Diego School of Law

Susan R. DeSimone
Emory University School of Law

Travis B. Dye
The University of Montana School of Law

Louis W. Erb
Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Shannon Falon
University of South Dakota School of Law

Amanda Floyd
University of Utah College of Law

Michael B. Franklin
Texas Tech University School of Law

Marisol Garcia
University of New Mexico School of Law

Jason Gilbert
University of Cincinnati College of Law

Melanie B. Gitomer
Villanova University School of Law

Ethan Glass
University of Minnesota Law School

Allison D. Good
University of South Carolina School of Law

Cullen M. Grace
Rutgers University

Aaron Harder
Creighton University School of Law

Jason Andrew Hartsough
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law

Brian Theodore Holmen
William and Mary School of Law

Cynthia Hoover
University of California, Davis School of Law

James Hughes
Washington University (St. Louis) School of Law

Wallis A. Jacobs
St. Mary's University School of Law

Lee J. Karl
University of Pittsburgh School of Law

Edward B. Karns
University of Connecticut School of Law

George Kindley
California Western School of Law

Gregory B. Koreness
Case Western Reserve University Law School

Jennifer LeBlanc
Ohio Northern University College of Law

Lance Steven Lehnhof
Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School

Emma Marie Lloyd
Wake Forest University School of Law

Robert Franklin MacKinnon
Stetson University College of Law

Matthew Murray Martin
University of Iowa College of Law

Patrick H. McCaffery
Georgetown University Law Center

Christopher McGinn
Rutgers Law School-Newark

Calvin Scott Meyers
George Mason University School of Law

Renee L. Miller
University of Detroit School of Law

Adam A. Moniz
Syracuse University College of Law

Todd A. Moore
University of Oregon School of Law

Wendy Morris
The John Marshall Law School

David Neiman
Fordham University School of Law

Amber Nickell
Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law

Justin B. O'Dell
University of Georgia School of Law

Jacqueline Ogunge-Raphael
Howard University School of Law

Douglas Paradis
University of Houston Law Center

Avisha Patel
University of Southern California Law School

Matthew Patterson
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Law

Susan Peipher
The Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University

Suzanne Perker
University of Idaho College of Law

Kimberly A. Petty
Salmon P. Chase College of Law of Northern Kentucky University

Damon S. Pitler
The George Washington University Law School

Katherine Porter
Harvard Law School

Catherine Richmond
Vermont Law School

Nathan T. Riggs
Louis D. Brandeis School of Law

Kenneth Leon Roche III
Louisiana State University Law Center

Armand D. Roth
University of California Hastings College of Law

Shira Roth
University of California at Los Angeles School of Law

Alan Sandler
Nova Southeastern University Law Center

Keri Schechinger
University of Nebraska College of Law

Marc A. Schultz
School of Law-Washburn University of Topeka

Michael A. Sjuggerud
Florida State University College of Law

Jennifer Slaughter
Willamette University School of Law

Ryan Tang
Drake University Law School

Jennifer L. Tate
University of Dayton School of Law

Douglas A. Terry
The Ohio State University College of Law

Christopher A. Thompson
Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center

Kevin Vaillancourt
Willamette University School of Law

Matthew Michael Wawrzyn
DePaul University College of Law

Robert Welhoelter
Vanderbilt University Law School

Ashley Elizabeth Wiggins
The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law

Edward Burns Willis
Samford University Cumberland School of Law

Sharon A. Witty
University of Mississippi School of Law

Jason Dwight Woodard
The University of Alabama School of Law

Robert C. Yan
St. John's University School of Law.