Contact: John Hartgen            
             (703) 739-0800 
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JUDGE WESLEY STEEN BECOMES FIRST JUDGE

TO BE NAMED ABI PRESIDENT

May 1, 2006, Alexandria, Va. — As the first sitting judge to serve as President of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), Judge Wesley Steen of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of Texas (Houston) began his one-year term following ABI’s Annual Spring Meeting, which was held April 20-April 23 in Washington, D.C. Judge Steen, previously serving as president-elect after being selected by the ABI’s 60-member Board of Directors at the 2005 Annual Spring Meeting, succeeds John Penn of Haynes and Boone LLP (Fort Worth, Texas), who now assumes the role of Immediate-Past President within ABI’s Executive Committee.

Judge Steen has been an ABI member since 1991, having served on ABI’s Board of Directors since 1999, and was previously ABI’s Vice President-Research, overseeing the Research Grant Committee in assessing, recommending and approving awards from the Endowment Fund prior to his 2005 selection as ABI President.

Judge Steen became a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Texas in 1997 and hears cases in Houston, Laredo and Victoria, Texas.  He was first appointed to the bench in 1983 as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana.  He is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. He practiced law at Winstead Sechrest & Minick in Houston from 1987-97. Judge Steen received his J.D. from Louisiana State University in 1974 and his B.A. with distinction from the University of Virginia in 1968.

The complete list of directors and officers is available at http://www.abiworld.org/Content/NavigationMenu/About_ABI/Board_of_Directors/Board_of_Directors.htm

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ABI is the largest multi-disciplinary, nonpartisan organization dedicated to research and education on matters related to insolvency. ABI was founded in 1982 to provide Congress and the public with unbiased analysis of bankruptcy issues. The ABI membership includes more than 11,000 attorneys, accountants, bankers, judges, professors, lenders, turnaround specialists and other bankruptcy professionals providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and information. For additional information on ABI, visit www.abiworld.org. For additional conference information, visit http://www.abiworld.org/conferences.html.