ABI Committee Leaders Profile

ABI's Asset Sales Committee studies asset sales and other issues arising from the liquidation of assets in and out of bankruptcy proceedings and is co-chaired by Weston Anson and David Peress.

Mr. Anson is chairman at CONSOR Intellectual Asset Management in La Jolla, Calif., where he has a long history of successful programs at firms such as Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Playboy Enterprises and Hang Ten International.ÊHe holds an M.B.A. with honors from Harvard University and is active in all of the major international trademark and intellectual property associations as a speaker and an officer.ÊMr. Anson is a has published over 150 articles in the United States and overseas on the subject of licensing and intellectual property.ÊSince founding his intellectual property consultancy more than 20 years ago, he has constructed and implemented numerous licensing programs for major corporations and has performed valuations of hundreds of intellectual property components. He has been an ABI member since 1995.

Mr. Peress is a managing director of Crystal Capital Fund Management LLC in Boston, where he leads the firm's distressed and turnaround investing business. Crystal Capital manages an investment fund that specializes in making subordinated and Tranche B debt investments and equity investments in middle-market companies. Until 2000, Mr. Peress was a partner in the bankruptcy department of Wilmington, Del.-based Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor LLP, where he was lead or co-counsel in many significant chapter 11 cases. In 2000, he became the managing director and general counsel of The Ozer Group LLC, an asset disposition firm, and the COO of Ozer's Real Estate Services Co. In 2005, David became a principal in the turnaround management practice of XRoads Solutions Group. Mr. Peress is a contributing editor to the ABI Journal's Value & Cents column. He graduate of the University of Michigan and earned his J.D. at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He has been a member since 2000.

More Members in the News

Catheryn Harshman joined Clear-Bid Inc. in New York as vice president of business development in August. At ClearBid, she will be responsible for expanding investment activities in distressed assets and special-situation investments. Ms. Harshman joined ABI this July. She earned her B.A. at Ohio University.

Bill Bensinger recently joined the Birmingham, Ala. office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC as an associate in the firm's bankruptcy and restructuring group. The group handles all aspects of corporate bankruptcy, creditors' rights and insolvency matters. Mr. Bensigner is a graduate of the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University and received his LL.M. in Bankruptcy from St. John's University School of Law. He earned his undergraduate degree in accounting from Samford University.

Michael P. Richman, ABI's current chairman and president from 2004-05, recently joined the New York office of Foley & Lardner LLP as a partner and will serve as the leader of that firm's national business reorganization practice. He had been a partner with the New York office of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP for the last 17 years. He is also known for having created ABI's house band, the Indubitable Equivalents. He has been a member of ABI since 1992.

Foley & Lardner LLP recently named Judy A. O'Neill as vice chair and leader of strategic development of the firm's New York-based business reorganizations practice. In her new role, she will assist chair Michael Richman in leading national strategic development for the practice. She is certified by the American Board of Certification and was inducted into the American College of Bankruptcy in 2002. She has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America and was selected by Crain's Detroit Business as one of the "100 Most Influential Women in Michigan." Ms. O'Neill has been an ABI member since 1992.

Lewis S. Rosenbloom joined LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP in Chicago as a partner. He was previously a senior partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP. Mr. Rosenbloom has served as chairman of the ABA and on the board of directors to the Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Advisor, and he is a fellow and director of the American College of Bankruptcy. He has been an ABI member since 2005. Mr. Rosenblum earned his B.A. at Lake Forest College and his J.D. cum laude at DePaul University.

Patrick Mosley joined Berman PLC in Tampa, Fla., in July as a pending first-year associate in the firm's creditors' rights, commercial bankruptcy, bankruptcy appeals and commercial litigation practice areas. Mr. Mosley is a cum laude graduate of Southern Methodist University and earned his J.D. cum laude from Vermont Law School. He has been an ABI member since 2005.

Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC in Charleston, W.Va., recently announced that Arch W. Riley Jr. and Debra Lee Hovatter have both joined the firm. Mr. Riley is counsel in the firm's Wheeling, W.Va., office, where his primary areas of practice are bankruptcy law and related commercial areas. Mr. Riley earned his B.A. at Tufts University and his J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law. He has been an ABI member since 1992. Ms. Hovatter is counsel in the Morgantown, W. Va., office, where her primary areas of practice involve consumer finance, bankruptcy, banking, commercial litigation and general corporate law. She earned her B.S. at Cornell University, her M.S. at the University of Wisconsin and her J.D. at South Texas College of Law. She has been an ABI member since 1998.

Lake Pointe Partners LLC in Chicago recently welcomed Cheri Anderson as director of marketing, where she will help guide the firm as it implements an aggressive growth strategy. Prior to joining Lake Pointe, she spent the last few years with a national turnaround consulting firm. Before joining the turnaround industry, Ms. Anderson served as vice president of marketing for an interactive ad agency based in Naperville, Ill. She has been an ABI member since 2002. She earned her B.A. at Northern Illinois University.

Michelle M. Harner, formerly a partner in the business restructuring and reorganization practice in Jones Day's Chicago office, has accepted an appointment to the faculty of the University of Nebraska College of Law in Lincoln. Ms. Harner will join the faculty as an assistant professor and will be teaching courses in, among other things, bankruptcy and corporations. She has been an ABI member since 2003.

Weltman, Weinberg & Reis Co. LPA welcomes Beth Ann Schenz back to the firm, where she will be working in the bankruptcy department of the Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, office. She was previously employed at Roetzel & Andress. Ms. Schenz is a member of the Cuyahoga County Bar Association, the Federal, Ohio State and Cleveland Bar Associations and IWIRC, and has been an ABI member since 2005. Ms. Schenz has a B.S. from Xavier University and a J.D. from the Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

CIT Group Inc. in New York appointed Deirdre A. Martini, a former U.S. Trustee for the Southern District of New York, as senior restructuring advisor and managing director in CIT's business capital group in July. Before her appointment as a Trustee, Ms. Martini chaired the restructuring practice at Ivey, Barnum & O'Mara LLC. Ms. Martini was recently recognized by IWIRC as its "2006 Woman of the Year." She is an adjunct professor of Law at St. John's University School of Law and has been an active member of ABI since 1999.

Clear Thinking Group LLC in Cromwell, Conn., has promoted veteran corporate counsel Dorene Robotti to managing director. Ms. Robotti, who joined Clear Thinking Group in 2004 as a senior manager in the firm's creditors' rights practice group, has more than 25 years of experience in corporate, labor and bankruptcy law. She holds a J.D. from Western New England School of Law and has been an ABI member since 2004