ABI's Real Estate Committee, which analyzes issues unique to the reorganization of commercial real estate, is co-chaired by Alec P.Ostrow and John Collen.

Alec P.Ostrow is a member at Stevens & Lee in New York, where he specializes in bankruptcy, corporate reorganizations, workouts, creditors' rights and commercial litigation. He is an adjunct professor of law at St. John's University School of Law's LL.M. Bankruptcy Program. Mr. Ostrow is the author of several articles on various topics in bankruptcy law, including "Bankruptcy Adds New Vistas to Real Estate Landscape," Journal of Corporate Renewal, Vol. 17, No. 8, p. 16 (August 2004), and "Qualitech and Sales Free and Clear of Leasehold Interests: Bankruptcy Process and Due Process," NABTalk, Vol. 19, No. 4, p. 14 (2004), among others. Mr. Ostrow is a contributing author to a major treatise on bankruptcy sales. He has been a featured speaker at conferences sponsored by the American Bar Association, ABI, New York Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Judicial Conference of the Second Circuit. He is a member of the panel of mediators for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Ostrow is a magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College and received his law degree from New York University School of Law.

John Collen is a partner at Duane Morris LLP in Chicago, where he concentrates his practice on representing all types of parties in complex chapter 11 cases. He is an adjunct professor in the St. John's LL.M. Program, where he teaches partnership bankruptcy. Mr. Collen is the author of a single-volume treatise, "Buying and Selling Real Estate in Bankruptcy" (West, 1997), and has written numerous articles and spoken widely on bankruptcy topics. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College and earned his J.D. at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he won the prestigious Leahy Moot Court Competition.

More Members in the News

Reginald W. Jackson, of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP in Columbus, Ohio, was elected as the District 7 representative on the board of governors of the Ohio State Bar Association in July. He is an ABI Board and Executive Committee member and the executive editor of the ABI Journal. Mr. Jackson earned his B.A. at Cornell University and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Richard N. Tilton recently joined Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP in Morristown, N.J. The firm also has offices in Trenton, N.J., and New York. Mr. Tilton will expand his practice with the firm's distressed mergers and acquisitions group.

Fred C. Caruso recently returned to Development Specialists Inc. in Chicago as chief operating officer, where he will provide operational and financial services management to secured lenders, creditors and debtors. Mr. Caruso spent the last four years as president of Hilco Appraisal Services LLP.

GE Commercial Finance Corporate Lending promoted Bruce Buchanan to managing director at its New York office this past June, making him head of the firm's national restructuring group. He most recently served as co-head of originations and was senior vice president and team leader for the East Region of the national restructuring group. Mr. Buchanan joined GE in 2001. Prior to joining the company, he held a variety of corporate finance positions with Bank of America, ING Capital and Houlihan Lokey. Mr. Buchanan holds an M.B.A. in finance from New York University and a B.A. in accounting and business administration from SUNY Albany.

Elizabeth M. Bohn, a partner in Jorden Burt LLP's consumer finance, banking and credit group in Washington, D.C., has been appointed chair of the Subcommittee on Loan Workouts and Bankruptcy of the American Bar Association's Banking Law Committee. Her three-year term commences after the ABA Annual Meeting in August 2005.

Jean FitzSimon joined Whitehall Jewelers Inc. in Chicago as senior vice president and the company's first general counsel in July. Previously, Ms. FitzSimon was principal and general counsel at Bridge Associates LLC.

Hon. Joan N. Feeney, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Massachusetts, received the Boston Bar Association's Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award on June 28. BBA President M. Ellen Carpenter praised Judge Feeney as "a legal scholar with extraordinary analytical ability and mastery of detail." Judge Feeney, an ABIdirector, was appointed to the bankruptcy bench in 1992. She is a graduate of Connecticut College and earned her J.D. at the Suffolk University School of Law.

Dorsey & Whitney LLP announced the addition of Michael R. Mills to the firm's Anchorage, Alaska, office. He was previously with the Anchorage firm of Bankston Gronning O'Hara, where he served as managing shareholder. Mr. Mills has extensive litigation experience, specializing in complex commercial matters, business restructurings and commercial transactions. Mr. Mills earned his B.A. at the University of Notre Dame and his J.D. at the University of Michigan Law School.

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC recently expanded its bankruptcy and restructuring practice group with the addition of Timothy M. Lupinacci and Eric Lloyd Pruitt to the firm's Birmingham, Ala., office. Mr. Lupinacci joins the firm as a shareholder with more than 14 years of bankruptcy- and workout-related experience. His practice focuses on the representation of banks, financial institutions and asset-based lenders in loan workouts and insolvency, with an emphasis on creative restructuring of problem loans, including long-term care and seniors' housing defaults. Mr. Lupinacci is a graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law and a cum laude graduate of the University of Montevallo. Joining the firm as an associate, Mr. Pruitt will concentrate his practice in bankruptcy and creditors' rights with an emphasis on restructuring and workouts of loan transactions. Mr. Pruitt is also a member of the firm's financial services and transactions and taxation practice groups. His experience includes representing borrowers and lenders in documenting and negotiating commercial loans, corporate formations and acquisitions and federal and state taxation. Mr. Pruitt is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law and received his LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law.

Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, selected Sheila T. Smith to lead its reorganization services group in Boston. Ms. Smith is a prominent restructuring and turnaround professional and has been a principal within the practice since 2000. She brings more than 15 years' experience providing advisory services on turnaround, bankruptcy and restructuring for multiple industries, including manufacturing, retail, distribution and telecommunications. She has an advanced degree in special education from SUNY Buffalo. A certified insolvency and structuring advisor, Ms. Smith holds an M.B.A. from Boston University.

Leonard P. Goldberger joined Stevens & Lee in Philadelphia as a shareholder in the firm's bankruptcy department. Mr. Goldberger has nearly 30 years of experience in business bankruptcy law and represents insurers in asbestos, mass torts and environmental bankruptcy cases, and works with clients in the acquisition and financing of financially distressed businesses. A former vice president and director and Executive Committee member of ABI, Mr. Goldberger is the current chair of the American Bar Association's litigation, tort trial and insurance practice sections. He is also a contributing editor to the ABI Journal's "On the Edge" column. He received his J.D. from Villanova University School of Law and graduated summa cum laude from Temple University.

Rocky Mount, N.C., attorney David M. Warren was reappointed chair of the Local Rules Committee by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of North Carolina. Mr. Warren has served on the Local Rules Committee since 1996 and previously served as chair in 2001. He also has served as a member of the Panel of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustees for the Eastern District of North Carolina since 1989. He is a member of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees and is a board-certified specialist in business and consumer bankruptcy law by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization business and consumer law by the American Board of Certification. Mr. Warren earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Wake Forest University.

Howard M. Fielstein, CPA/ABV, CFE, CIRA, CTP, chairman of the New York-based firm Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP's litigation consulting, valuation and bankruptcy services practice group, has earned certification in distressed business valuation designation. At MWE, Mr. Fielstein specializes in investigative accounting, business valuations and damage claims associated with white-collar crime, business bankruptcies and insolvencies, professional liability, business interruption claims, intellectual property suits, torts and matrimonial actions. Mr. Fielstein has qualified as an expert witness and provided testimony in federal and state courts in numerous instances. Additionally, he has been court-appointed as a neutral appraiser and as an examiner of businesses in connection with various types of matters, and he is an approved member of the Mediation Panel of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. He maintains offices in New York and Garden City, N.Y.

In May, Morris-Anderson & Associates Ltd. merged with BTB Associates, a Delaware-based practice co-operated by David B. Paddy, a consulting manager who represents debtors and creditors' committees. He has served in virtually every role available to a chapter 11 or 7 professional, with a particular specialty in the process of estate wind-downs and closure. Mr. Paddy will report to Chicago-based senior principal Daniel F. Dooley.

Ryan G. Foley joined the firm of Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba PC in Center Valley, Pa., in May as an associate attorney. Mr. Foley's practice areas include bankruptcy and litigation. He received his undergraduate degree from College Misericordia and his J.D. degree from Villanova University School of Law. In addition, Douglas J. Smillie, shareholder and chair of the litigation section of the firm, spoke April 22 at a seminar presented by the National Business Institute in Philadelphia, entitled the "Fundamentals of Bankruptcy Law and Procedure in Pennsylvania," where he covered the essentials of bankruptcy in chapters 7, 11 and 13. He has been an ABI member since 1986. Mr. Smillie was named a "Pennsylvania Super Lawyer" by Philadelphia Magazine and Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Magazine. He received his B.A. cum laude from Muhlenberg College and his J.D. from Villanova University.

The Newport Beach, Calif.-based firm of Irell & Manella LLP had 56 of its attorneys named "super lawyers," including William N. Lobel and Jeffrey M. Reisner.

Scott A. Mell of AlixPartners LLP in Southfield, Mich., was appointed director in May. Mr. Mell has more than 11 years of experience providing restructuring and financial advisory services to lenders, creditors, companies and other parties-of-interest in troubled credit or operational situations, bankruptcy proceedings, distressed M&A and debt-refinancing situations. Prior to joining AlixPartners, he was a senior director at AEG Partners LLC in Atlanta. Mr. Mell earned his B.B.A. from James Madison University and is a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor (CIRA).

On July 1, Johnson & Newby LLC, a Chicago-based firm, was founded by Cindy M. Johnson and David A. Newby. The four-attorney office specializes in business bankruptcy, commercial litigation and creditors' rights. Ms. Johnson was previously owner and managing counsel of Johnson and Associates in Chicago. She is the immediate past president of the Illinois Creditors' Bar Association and earned her J.D. at the Chicago Kent College of Law. Mr. Newby was previously a member at the Chicago firm of McCarthy Duffy LLC. He earned his J.D. at the Columbia University School of Law.