Contact: John Hartgen
             703-894-5935
             [email protected]

ABI’S 21^st ANNUAL WINTER LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE TO EXAMINE CURRENT BANKRUPTCY LANDSCAPE AND PROVIDE OUTLOOK FOR 2010

September 3, 2009, Alexandria, Va. — Lessons from the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies, examination of lending markets, potential congressional reforms to the Bankruptcy Code and what lies ahead for bankruptcies in 2010 are all topics that will be addressed at the American Bankruptcy Institute’s (ABI) 21^st Annual Winter Leadership Conference. Taking place Dec. 3-5 at the La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, Calif., the Winter Leadership Conference features 10 panel sessions and 14 ABI committee educational sessions; attendees have the opportunity to earn 11.25 hours of CLE credit and 2.75 hours of ethics.

Two special presentations will examine the automaker bankruptcies and the billion-dollar fraud cases of Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford. The first presentation, “Successful Pre-arranged Bankruptcy Filings: Lessons Learned from GM and Chrysler,” will take place on Dec. 4 and feature many of the lead restructuring professionals involved in the automaker bankruptcies. The second special presentation on Dec. 5 will feature a panel of the leading professionals involved as examiners and receivers in the fraudulent Ponzi schemes of Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford.

To review a comprehensive schedule of programming and speakers, please click on the following link.
http://www.abiworld.org/WLC09/schedule.html

Some of the featured panel and Committee Educational sessions include:

• Liquidating Chapter 11s: New Rules of the Road
• Bankruptcy's Next Wave: A Look at the Financial Crisis One Year Later
• Loan-to-Own: How Lending and Private-equity Markets Are Changing the Landscape
• Should Congress Reform Bankruptcy Reform?
• News at 11? Valuing and Restructuring Media Companies
• Global Crisis: An Essential International Update

The conference will also feature a keynote titled “How Financial Crises Provide the Pretext for Government Expansion (and Make the Crisis Worse)” by Amity Shlaes, a syndicated columnist for Bloomberg News. Shlaes is a senior fellow at the council on Foreign Relations and the bestselling author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression.

Entertainment at the conference will include a performance by comedian Louie Anderson and ABI’s rock band, the Indubitable Equivalents.

For full information on ABI’s 21^st Winter Leadership Conference, including sponsors, optional events and rates can be found at http://www.abiworld.org/WLC09.