Bankruptcy Law Section

Message from the Chair

Hello. My name is Alan S. Trust, and I am serving from October 1, 2011 until September 30, 2012 as Chair of the Bankruptcy Section of the Federal Bar Association. I wanted to give you some information on my background, how the Section is doing, and my goals for my tenure as Chair.

My background:

Since April 2008, I have been serving as a Bankruptcy Judge in the Eastern District of New York. Prior to taking the bench, I spent 24 years as a bankruptcy practitioner based in Dallas, Texas. My practice was primarily representing debtors, creditors and trustees throughout Texas, mostly in business cases, as well as in handling real property disputes in state and federal courts.

Continuing CLE Seminars

For the past several years, one of our Section's major projects has been to present CLE for bankruptcy practitioners. We recognize that there are a lot of bar associations and private organizations offering bankruptcy seminars, so we are focused on providing our members with CLE in certain niches or underserved areas of bankruptcy practice. This past year, the Section presented a nuts and bolts seminar in November in Dallas, and our outstanding Bankruptcy Ethics Symposium in December in Los Angeles. We hope to continue and expand our presentation, and anticipate presenting a bankruptcy ethics symposium early next year in New York. In the past, we have also presented programs on BAPCPA and advanced bankruptcy issues, including the Top Ten Cases that every bankruptcy practitioner should know.

Federal Lawyer Submissions

Last year, the Section was responsible for acquiring and editing the main articles for the February 2010 issue of FBA’s magazine, The Federal Lawyer. The articles included discussions of the use of 2004 exams, bankruptcy court jurisdiction, some of the effects of BAPCPA, the use of § 363 in the GM case, and an article about the ten cases every bankruptcy lawyer should know. We also featured judicial profiles on several of our outstanding Bankruptcy Judges from New York (Burt Lifland) to Louisiana (Elizabeth Magner) to California (Barry Russell), as well as Judge Wesley Brown from the District of Kansas. We are always on the look out for articles and judicial profiles for submission to The Federal Lawyer. If you are interested in contributing in this way, please let me or one of the other Section Executive Committee members know.

Circuit Updates

A couple of years ago, our Section pioneered what I and many others believe has been a tremendously valuable project - circulating summaries of important court decisions to our members. We have all greatly benefitted by having members of our Section volunteer to serve as “Circuit writers” and keep all of us current on decisions from around the country that affect our practices. These summaries are periodically disseminated by the FBA to our members, and are made available on the FBA website. We know how valuable this tool has become based on feed back from our members and sister Sections, as well as having seen a national bankruptcy journal provide a similar service.

In the next few weeks, I will be publishing a list of circuit writers past and present, as a way to publicly thank the volunteer authors for their continuing efforts and updates. I will ask that if you want to serve as a Circuit writer, please email me, and include the circuit location of your office. This work continues to be extremely helpful to our members, and is deserving of our collective thanks.

Annual Meeting, annual tradition

At this year’s Chicago convention, the Section continued its tradition of hosting a reception in honor of the local bankruptcy judges in the district where the FBA’s national convention is held. This past reception was well attended and was greatly appreciated by our Chicago area judges. We expect to continue that tradition next year in beautiful San Diego, California. Since it is never to soon to plan your trip, please mark your calendars for September 20-22, 2012. I hope to see each of you there.

Membership

I know that budgets are tight and we all are coping with doing more with less. But I hope you will maintain your membership as we move ahead, and that you will ask your friends and colleagues to join. Our membership has been steadily growing, and now stands at over 700. Our goad should be to reach 1,000 members by the end of the decade.

I am looking forward to an eventful and productive 2011-2012. 

Hon. Alan S. Trust
alan_trust@nyeb.uscourts.gov