Two local attys. to present at American Bankruptcy Institute's annual

Daily Record (Rochester, NY), Apr 2, 2004 by Staff

Two local attorneys will participate in a panel presentation during the American Bankruptcy Institute's annual spring meeting.

William S. Thomas, a partner at Nixon Peabody, and John R. Jack Weider, a partner at Harter, Secrest & Emery, will serve as panelists during the ABI Health Care Insolvency Committee's presentation on Restructuring a Financially Troubled Hospital Under Chapter 11 Without a Sale or Merger - a Multi-perspective Case Study. In addition, the panel will present an update on the status of the Second Edition of the Health Care Insolvency Manual.

Other panelists include Jeffrey Cohen, First Albany Corp., Albany; and David Speltz, Speltz & Weis, LLC, Boston and Chicago. This panel includes a lawyer for the debtor, an investment banker, a crisis manager and CEO along with a lawyer for the secured creditors in the Crouse Hospital case.

The panel will discuss strategies and mechanisms that have been used successfully to address the needs of the constituencies who are normally involved in a major hospital reorganization.

The conference is set for April 15 to 18 in Washington D.C. The ABI Health Care Insolvency Committee's presentation takes place on Saturday, April 17.

Thomas concentrates his practice in the areas of bankruptcy, business litigation, securitization and structured finance. He has appeared on behalf of many clients as special counsel in a host of local and national bankruptcy proceedings and has a wide range of experience representing creditors as to their rights and remedies as secured creditors in both out-of-court workouts and formal insolvency proceedings.

Weider, who will serve as moderator of the presentation, has more than 25 years of experience representing creditors, trustees, committees and debtors in possession in bankruptcies, financial reorganizations, workouts, commercial loan transactions, secured transactions and commercial litigation.

His experience includes representing institutional secured creditors in out-of-court workouts and Chapter 11 cases along with structuring and documenting commercial loan transactions and advising lenders on avoiding lender liability lawsuits.