ABI Podcast

The podcast features a conversation between Nancy Rapoport, former Dean at the University of Houston Law School, and Prof. Ayer. They discusses the run-up to the Enron bankruptcy. Rapoport is an expert on the Enron bankruptcy, the largest case in history, and a frequent writer on ethics and business reorganization issues.

The podcast features a conversation on diocesan bankruptcies between ABI Executive Director Sam Gerdano and Ford Elsaesser, a senior partner of Elsaesser Jarzabek, et al. of Sandpoint, Idaho. Elsaesser, a former ABI president and chairman, represents the Association of Parishes in the Diocese of Spokane, Wash. To date, the diocese of Spokane, Wash., Tucson, Ariz., and Portland, Ore., have filed for bankruptcy in order to maintain operations while working out settlements to pay for the escalating costs of sexual abuse settlements.

The podcast features a conversation between a South Carolina attorney and avid sailor George Cauthen (Nelson Mullins; Columbia, S.C) and Prof. Ayer discussing the value of bankruptcy pro bono programs and how to set one up, even under the new law.

The podcast features a conversation between Prof. Ayer and Chuck Kuoni, a director with Corporate Revitalization Partners. Kuoni reflects on the changes he's seen in 28 years in the interim-management business, fixing everything from public companies with environmental problems to a 600-store retailer in the competitive teen-apparel business. He describes the significant impact of the new law's time limit on assuming retail leases, among other changes.

The podcast features a conversation between Prof. Ayer and David Yen, a legal aid lawyer in Chicago who represents many indigent debtors.

The podcast features a conversation between Prof. Ayer and Leonard Rosen, Of Counsel to New York's Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, reflects on his roughly half-century in bankruptcy law, including the strategy and business plan for building a powerhouse law firm from the ground up. Rosen recalls his work on behalf of discount retailer W.T. Grant, one of largest Chapter 11's of its day (1975) with 1,300 stores, as well as the massive Chrysler restructuring outside Chapter 11, on behalf of institutional lenders. And he describes his involvement in the National Bankruptcy Conference during Congress' development of the 1978 Code.

The podcast features a conversation between Prof. Ayer and Mark D. Taylor, a partner in the D.C. office of Arent Fox, who describes his role as the liquidating trustee in the AmeriDebt bankruptcy. The now-defunct credit counseling agency was the nation's largest provider of debt-management plans, but collapsed in 2003 under the weight of consumer class actions and FTC/IRS actions against certain of the company's practices. Taylor describes how he came to be appointed trustee taking over for prior management, his role in negotiating with regulatory and enforcement agencies, and the mechanics of arranging for a sale of parts of the business.

The podcast features a conversation between Prof. Ayer and Ron Barliant, a former bankruptcy judge from Chicago, who handled the Conseco Financial case, one of the mega-Chapter 11s of recent years and who is now in private practice.