American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review

American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review

2023-2024

St. John's University School of Law Editorial Board

Membership on the ABI Law Review is offered to students with a minimum grade point average of 3.3 who successfully complete a writing competition held at the end of first-year day and second-year evening programs.

As members of the ABI Law Review, students are highly encouraged to author notes on major bankruptcy issues affecting various legal disciplines. They also help choose topics for each issue. Student editors and staff have complete control over the journal editing process.

In addition to assisting with the prestigious Duberstein Moot Court Competition each year, members of the ABI Law Review contribute to the ABI Bankruptcy Case Blog and the St. John’s Bankruptcy Research Library, offering current research on bankruptcy’s most cutting edge cases and issues.

Please contact us for more membership information.

Twice a year, the ABI Law Review publishes scholarly articles on timely legal issues related to the field of bankruptcy. The only student pieces we publish are notes written by our own members.

We accept submissions by email (preferred), regular mail and facsimile. Please send your submission to:

American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review
Attention: Executive Articles Editors
St. John’s University School of Law
8000 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11439
[email protected]
718-990-8095

For subscriptions or individual copies of the ABI Law Review, please contact:

West Group
610 Opperman Drive
Eagan, MN 55123
800-328-9352

For membership in the American Bankruptcy Institute, please contact:

Samuel Gerdano
Executive Director
American Bankruptcy Institute
44 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 400
Alexandria, VA 22314
T: 703-739-0800
F: 703-739-1060
[email protected]

Fall 2014

Bankruptcy and Education

Bankruptcy law interacts with education law in a number of respects. A bankrupt educational institution loses access to student financial aid, and its accreditation status is excluded from and thus may not be sold by the bankruptcy estate. Actions by accreditation agencies against bankrupt educational institutions are not subject to the automatic stay. And absent a showing of hardship, student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.

The exceptional treatment of educational institutions and their students in bankruptcy reflects a fundamental tension between the goals of bankruptcy law on the one hand and education policy on the other. While bankruptcy law generally seeks to maximize value for creditors and afford a fresh start to individual debtors, it balances these objectives with the goals of education policy, which include assuring educational quality, access, and affordability, as well as protecting the investment of public funds in the educational sector.

Whether current law achieves the correct balance or ought to be rethought and reformed is the subject of a symposium that the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review will host at St. John’s School of Law on October 24. The symposium will bring together distinguished experts in the fields of bankruptcy and education law and is especially timely in light of recent news events and currently pending legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act.

Moderators

• G. Ray Warner, Associate Dean for Bankruptcy Studies, Professor of Law, St. John's School of Law
• Keith Sharfman, Associate Director of Bankruptcy Studies, Professor of Law, St. John's School of Law

Panelists

• Professor Steven J. Harper, Northwestern University
• Professor C. Randel Lewis, University of Denver & Western Receiver, Trustee & Consulting Services, Ltd.
• Ada Meloy, Esq., American Council on Education
• Professor Scott F. Norberg, Florida International University College of Law & American Bar Association
• Professor Mike O’Neal, Oklahoma Christian University

Keynote Speaker

• Dr. Meta Brown, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Fall 2013

Hedge Funds in Bankruptcy

Hedge funds are playing an increasingly important role in bankruptcy cases. As investors in financially distressed securities, they provide a valuable outlet for holders of such securities who wish to exit those markets. They also facilitate the consolidation of distressed securities into the hands of owners who are well equipped to push for outcomes in Chapter 11 cases that maximize their value. At the same time, the active participation of hedge funds in the bankruptcy process at times gives them access to nonpublic information that may afford them an undue advantage in their ongoing trading activities.

To balance these competing considerations, various practices have developed and others are under consideration to regulate hedge funds in ways that preserve the value that they add to the bankruptcy process while also eliminating any undue trading advantage that participation in that process may afford them. These measures and the various proposals for their reform, which are now being hotly debated within the bankruptcy and hedge fund communities, are the subject of this symposium.

On October 4, distinguished scholars and professionals in the hedge fund and bankruptcy fields will gather on the St. John's campus to discuss the growing role that hedge funds now play in the bankruptcy process and to assess the desirability of maintaining, expanding, limiting, or otherwise changing this role by means of changes in bankruptcy law, policy, or practice.

Moderators

• Professor Keith Sharfman, St. John's School of Law
• Professor G. Ray Warner, St. John's School of Law

Panelists

• Professor Edward I. Altman, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business
• Alistaire Bambach, Esq., Securities and Exchange Commission
• Professor Anthony Casey, University of Chicago Law School
• Eric B. Fisher, Esq., Dickstein Shapiro LLP
• Professor Michelle Harner, University of Maryland Law School
• Professor Edith Hotchkiss, Boston College, Carroll School of Management
• Professor Wulf Kaal, University of St. Thomas School of Law
• Daniel Kamensky, Esq., Paulson & Co., Inc.
• Steven Wilamowsky, Esq., Bingham McCutchen LLP

Keynote Speaker

• The Honorable James M. Peck
  United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York

Fall 2012

Bankruptcy and Race: Is There a Relation?

In a recent study of personal bankruptcy cases and practitioners, Professors Jean Braucher, Dov Cohen and Robert Lawless made a troubling finding: the debtor's race appears to affect the advice that lawyers give about whether to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Is this finding correct? And if so, what are its implications for bankruptcy law and policy? This symposium will bring together leading bankruptcy, empirical, and race scholars to address these questions through commentary on the Braucher study and a reply from the primary study authors.

Moderator

Keith Sharfman, Professor of Law, Associate Director of Bankruptcy Studies, St. John's School of Law

G. Ray Warner, Associate Dean for Bankruptcy Studies, Professor of Law, St. John's School of Law

Panelists

• A. Mechele Dickerson, Arthur L. Moller Chair in Bankruptcy Law and Practice, The University of Texas School of Law
• Joseph Doherty, Director, Empirical Research Group, UCLA School of Law
• Theodore Eisenberg, Henry Allen Mark Professor of Law, Cornell University Law School
• Daniel Keating, Tyrell Williams Professor of Law, Washington University School of Law
• Stephen Lubben, Harvey Washington Wiley Chair in Corporate Governance & Business Ethics, Seton Hall University School of Law
• Jean Braucher, Roger C. Henderson Professor of Law, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
• Dov Cohen, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Robert Lawless, Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law

Keynote Speaker

• Emma Coleman Jordan, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Fall 2011

Religion and Bankruptcy: Perspectives Thereon and Treatment Therein

From the time of its creation and throughout its evolution, bankruptcy law has affected and been affected by religion. Important aspects of current bankruptcy law, such as the discharge of debt and the exemption of personal property, originated in religious traditions before making their way into secular law. At the same time, religious individuals and institutions are themselves often parties in bankruptcy cases, and a number of Bankruptcy Code provisions specifically address religious matters. This symposium will bring together leading bankruptcy experts and thinkers who will examine both sides of this relationship.

Moderators

• G. Ray Warner, Associate Dean for Bankruptcy Studies, Professor of Law, St. John's School of Law
• Keith Sharfman, Associate Director of Bankruptcy Studies, Professor of Law, St. John's School of Law

Panelists

• Theresa J. Pulley Radwan, Professor of Law, Stetson University College of Law
• Thomas L. Shriner, Jr., Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
• Haider Ala Hamoudi, Associate Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
• Lyman P. Q. Johnson, Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law
• Steven H. Resnicoff, Professor of Law, Co-Director of Center for Jewish Law and Judaic Studies, DePaul University College of Law

Speaker

• Geoffrey Parsons Miller, Stuyvesant P. Comfort Professor of Law, Director, Center for Financial Institutions, New York University School of Law

Fall 2010

The SEC in Bankruptcy: Past, Present and Future

Since its founding, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has played an important role as both a regulator and participant in bankruptcy cases, valuing debtor assets, opining on plans of reorganization, regulating the trading of claims and the disclosure of information, and much else. In recent years, the SEC's role in bankruptcy has intensified with the increased use of receiverships in Ponzi scheme and other cases. This symposium brought together prominent scholars and practitioners to discuss the SEC's past and present involvement with bankruptcy and to suggest approaches for the future

Moderators

• Professor G. Ray Warner, St. John's University School of Law
• Professor Barry Adler, New York University School of Law

Panelists

• Professor Douglas Baird, University of Chicago Law School
• Alistaire Bambach, Esq., Securities and Exchange Commission
• Colin Diamond, Esq., White & Case
• Professor Kelli Alces, Florida State University College of Law
• Professor Jonathan Lipson, University of Wisconsin Law School
• Professor Keith Sharfman, St. John's University School of Law

Keynote Speaker

• Professor David Skeel, University of Pennsylvania Law School

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