In this edition of the Commercial Fraud Committee Newsletter, we introduce a new feature: an interview with a Commercial Fraud Committee member. Our inaugural interviewee is Richard Lauter, Commercial Fraud Committee Chair. Rich is a partner at Freeborn & Peters LLP in Chicago, where he leads his firm’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group. We sat down with Rich and asked him some questions regarding his involvement in ABI and the Commercial Fraud Committee in general. The following is an excerpt of our discussion.
Commercial Fraud Committee (Committee): How did you first get involved in ABI?
Richard Lauter (Rich): I attended ABI’s Central States Bankruptcy Workshop and met the Advisory Board chair. I then volunteered to raise sponsorship money for the conference and was appointed Sponsorship co-chair.
(Committee): How have ABI and the Commercial Fraud Committee, in particular, been most beneficial to your practice?
(Rich): ABI has helped my practice by expanding my network of relationships around the country. This has been extremely valuable because our firm only has two offices, so we don’t have a national reach like many of the larger firms. One of our biggest cases came about from a call I received from my Sponsorship co-chair on a chapter 11 in Ohio that he was conflicted out of. With respect to the Commercial Fraud Committee, our firm has a sub-group that specializes in Commercial Fraud, created and led my colleague, Neal Levin. I hadn’t really done much in the area prior to my involvement in the committee, which started when I was asked to write a chapter for ABI’s Commercial Fraud Manual. That was just before Madoff and the wave of Ponzi schemes and bank frauds swept the country during the latest recession, so it was easy to generate interest in the area.
(Committee): Is there any person that you’ve met through ABI or the Commercial Fraud Committee that stands out as having made an impact on your career, and why?
(Rich): There isn’t really just one person that stands out; there are many. It starts with former ABI Presidents Geoff Berman, Trish Redmond and Michael Richman (I have known Brian Shaw since he was a baby lawyer) and includes Jeff Pomerantz and Ted Gavin, two current ABI Vice Presidents, Scott Gautier, Rick Meth, Sheryl Toby, Claire Ann Resop, current or former ABI Board members, and Doug Lutz, Ann Miller and Hannah McCollum from the ABI Central States conference. With respect to the Commercial Fraud Committee, Sheryl Toby, David Leibowitz, Jason Bruckner, Tom Horan and Marion Hecht, all former or current chairs of the committee, along with Kathy Phelps, who played an extremely important role on the committee.
(Committee): What were the committee’s successes last year?
(Rich): Last year, we completed a draft of the Forensic Fraud Manual, the first ever committee survey, the first ever committee national telephonic meeting, the reprise of the Mock Ponzi Scheme Trial as a plenary session at the 2014 ABI Central States Bankruptcy Workshop in Lake Geneva, Wis., and finally the mock mediation program presented with the Mediation Committee at the 2014 ABI Winter Leadership Conference in La Quinta, Calif. It was a very successful year, and we hope to build on that success in 2015.
(Committee): Speaking of 2015, can you tell us some of things planned for the committee this year?
(Rich): This year, we plan on publishing the Forensic Fraud Manual. We will present a joint program at the 2015 ABI Annual Spring Meeting with the Unsecured Trade Creditors Committee titled Advanced Defenses to Avoidance Actions. We also plan on having another national telephonic committee meeting and, as always, adding new members to the committee.
(Committee): How can committee members get more involved?
(Rich): There are a lot of ways for members to participate. Some simple things that members can do are write articles for the newsletter and the ABI Journal, volunteer for committee leadership positions, participate in committee telephonic meetings, and contribute topics and questions for the listserve.
(Committee): Thanks, Rich. We look forward to another successful year for the committee.