From the Director Jul/Aug 2001

From the Director Jul/Aug 2001

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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.
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Sunday, July 1, 2001