ABI Luncheon
Tuesday, Oct. 10, 1:15 – 3:15 pm       Vendome A
Presidential Power: George Washington to Donald Trump

Douglas Brinkley
Historian and Director, The Eisenhower Center for American Studies

Dr. Douglas Brinkley currently is a Professor of History at Rice University and a Fellow at the James Baker III Institute of Public Policy. His most recent book The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America was published in July 2009 and became an instant New York Times best-seller. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Ohio State University and received his doctorate in U.S. Diplomatic History from Georgetown University in 1989. He then spent a year at the U.S. Naval Academy and Princeton University teaching history. While a professor at Hofstra University, Dr. Brinkley spearheaded the American Odyssey course, in which he took students on numerous cross-country treks where they visited historic sites and met seminal figures in politics and literature. Dr. Brinkley’s 1994 book, The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey chronicled his first experience teaching this innovative on-the-road class which became the progenitor to C-SPAN’s Yellow School Bus.

Five of Dr. Brinkley’s books have been selected as New York Times “Notable Books of the Year”: Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years (1992), Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal, with Townsend Hoopes (1992), The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House (1998), Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Progress (2003), and The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2006). And five of his most recent publications have become New York Times best-sellers: The Reagan Diaries, (2007), The Great Deluge (2006), The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion (2005), Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (2004), and Voices of Valor: D-Day: June 6, 1944 with Ronald J. Drez (2004). The Great Deluge (2006), was the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book award.

Before coming to Rice, Dr. Brinkley served as Professor of History and Director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University in New Orleans. From 1994 until 2005 he was Stephen E. Ambrose Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans. During his tenure there he wrote two books with the late Professor Ambrose: Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 (1997) and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today (2002). On the literary front, Dr. Brinkley has edited Jack Kerouac’s diaries, Hunter S. Thompson’s letters and Theodore Dreiser’s travelogue. His work on civil rights includes Rosa Parks (2000) and the forthcoming Portable Civil Rights Reader.

He won the Benjamin Franklin Award for The American Heritage History of the United States (1998) and the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Naval History Prize for Driven Patriot (1993). He was awarded the Business Week Book of the Year Award for Wheels for the World and was also named 2004 Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. He has received honorary doctorates from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Dr. Brinkley is contributing editor for Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times Book Review, and American Heritage. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly, he is also a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Club. In a recent profile, the Chicago Tribune deemed him “America’s new past master.”  His forthcoming publications include a biography of Walter Cronkite.

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 9 – 10 am     Champagne 2
The “Biggest” Plan Confirmation Issues of 2016 and 2017

Our distinguished panel will analyze the hot and emerging plan-confirmation issues that bankruptcy courts are currently facing, and will explore the various ways that bankruptcy professionals use these issues to their advantage in bankruptcy cases.

Hon. Robert Drain – U.S. Bankruptcy Court, (S.D. NY), White Plains, NY
David Kuney – Whiteford Taylor & Preston LLP, Washington, D.C
Heather Lennox – Jones Day, Cleveland, OH
Damian Schaible – Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, New York, NY

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 10:45 – 11:45 am     Champagne 2
Successful Health Care Restructurings and Chapter 11 Cases

The health care industry has long been a leading user of the chapter 11 process. Given the continued challenges within the industry, as well as the uncertainty that was created as a result of the 2016 election, that trend appears likely to continue. This panel will revisit what it takes to lead a successful health care chapter 11 case in the current political and economic environment.

Leslie Ann Berkoff – Morritt Hock Hamroff LLP, Garden City, NY
Felicia Gerber Perlman – Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Chicago, IL
Joseph Geraghty – Conway MacKenzie, Birmingham, MI
Hon. Martin Barash – U.S. Bankruptcy Court (C.D. Calif.), Woodland Hills, CA

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 10:45 – 11:45 am     Versailles 1- 2 (Part I)
Tuesday, Oct. 10, 12 – 1 pm     Versailles 1- 2 (Part II)

The ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy
The Commission is charged with researching and recommending improvements to the consumer bankruptcy system that can be implemented within its existing structure. These changes might include amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, changes to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, administrative rules or actions, recommendations on proper interpretations of existing law, and other best practices that judges, trustees and lawyers can implement. The hearing at NCBJ will be on matters common to both chapter 7 and chapter 13, including student loans.

Prof. Bruce Markell, Presiding Commissioner – Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Chicago, IL
Edward Boltz, Commissioner – Law Offices of John T. Orcutt, Durham, NC
Richardo Kilpatrick, Commissioner – Kilpatrick & Associates, P.C., Auburn Hills, MI
Ronald Peterson, Commissioner – Jenner & Block, Chicago, IL
Wendell Sherk, Commissioner – SherkLaw, St. Louis, MO
Robert Lawless, Reporter – University of Illinois College of Law, Champaign, IL

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 12 – 1 pm     Champagne 3
2016 and 2017 Supreme Court Review

This panel of experts will discuss and analyze important bankruptcy-related Supreme Court and certain important circuit court decisions from the past year. In addition, the panel will discuss the effect the new conservative Justice could have on bankruptcy cases.

Hon. Dennis Dow – U.S. Bankruptcy Court (W.D. Mo.), Kansas City, MO

Hon. John E. Hoffman – U.S. Bankruptcy Court (S.D. Ohio), Columbus, OH

Laura Davis Jones – Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP, Wilmington, DE

William J. Rochelle, III – American Bankruptcy Institute, New York, NY

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 9 – 10 am     Champagne 3
D&O Fiduciary Duties for Financially Troubled Companies: What to Do and What Not to Do

This panel will delve into recent trends on the issues that face those who govern financially troubled companies. Topics will include breach-of-duty litigation against officers and directors, developments in fiduciary duty case law, standing to assert D&O claims, the in pari delicto defense and D&O insurance coverage issues.

Hon. Kevin Carey – U.S. Bankruptcy Court (D. Del.), Wilmington, DE
Jennifer McLain McLemore – Christian & Barton, LLP, Richmond, VA
David Pauker – New York, NY
Prof. Jack Williams – Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, Atlanta, GA