The New York Institute of Credit and the Connecticut and Northeast chapters of the Turnaround Management Association have teamed up for the Sixth Annual Credit & Bankruptcy Symposium to be held on Thursday and Friday, May 10-11, at Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino in Uncasville, CT.

The symposium will offer three panels covering bankruptcy, lender and turnaround topics.

  • The Judicial Panel, titled Views From the Bench, will examine recent developments in bankruptcy law that affect the bench, the bar and the lending community. Topics of the panel include: Examiners in Chapter 11 cases, debtor-in-possession financing and section 363 asset sales.

    The moderator for the panel is Melanie Cyganowski, an attorney at Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, P.C. Judge Cyganowski (ret) became a member of the firm in 2008, after serving a 14-year term as a U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge in the Eastern District of New York. From November 29, 2005 through the end of her term, she was the Chief Judge of the court.

    The panelists are: the Honorable Frank J. Bailey, the Honorable Carla Craig, the Honorable Alan S. Trust, and attorneys Andrew Silfen, Douglas Skalka and James Wallack.

    Judge Bailey was appointed Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Massachusetts in 2009. He is an adjunct faculty member of the New England School of Law. Prior to his appointment as chief judge, he was a partner in the law firm of Sherin & Lodgen, LLP.

    Judge Craig was sworn in as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York in 2000, and she was appoint Chief Bankruptcy Judge on March 1, 2007. Prior to her appointment, she was a partner in the firm of Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner LLP, where she headed the bankruptcy practice.

    Judge Trust ascended to the bench on April 2, 2008, and sits in the Eastern District of New York. He is an adjunct professor of law at the St. John’s University School of Law. Judge Trust is the chair of the bankruptcy Law Section of the Federal Bar Association and sits on the board of directors of that section, as well as the board of directors of the Eastern District of New York Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

    Silfen, a partner at Arent Fox, serves as chair of the bankruptcy and financial restructuring group. He has extensive experience in all aspects of financial restructuring, distressed situations and bankruptcy issues.

    Skalka is an attorney at Neubert, Pepe & Monteith. Prior to joining the firm, he was a partner with the firm of Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan where he was responsible for the firm’s business reorganization practice in its Greenwich, CT office.

    Wallack is a director of the Boston office of Goulston & Storrs P.C., and heads up the firm’s bankruptcy and restructuring practice. He is a fellow of the American College of bankruptcy and has served as a trustee on the TMA International Board, as chairman of the Chapter President’s Council and is a past president of the Northeast Chapter of the TMA.

  • The Lender’s Panel, titled The Lender’s Perspective – Doing the Tough Deal in 2012, will bring together lenders from a range of national and regional institutions representing both bank and non-bank lenders in the asset-based lending arena to discuss the way each of their institutions would approach three hypothetical requests from three borrowers with less than ideal credit profiles and histories. Each panelist will be asked to suggest how their institution would view each request, particularly in light of the increased competition for deals in 2012. Each panelist will address what their institution might require as additional support to fund each request and whether any of the borrowers would have a chance of being funded by their institution in 2012 and how that compares to 2011. They will also discuss what alternative suggestions they could offer to each borrower if their institution could not do the deal. Finally, the panelists will be asked for their view of the ABL market from each of their viewpoints in the future.

    The moderator for this panel is Frank Segall, the chairman of Burns & Levinson’s Business Law and Finance Groups. Segall also currently services as an executive committee member of Burns & Levinson. He has a business practice serving as general counsel and transactional counsel, representing startup ventures, middle-market companies, public companies, financial institutions, private equity firms, private investors and real estate developers.

    The panelists include: Charles Garoklanian, Michael Haddad, Lawrence E. Klaff and Kathleen Lepak.

    Garoklanian has been senior vice president, Northeast market manager for PNC Business Credit since joining the company in 2001. He and his team of bankers are responsible for sourcing and managing all senior secured transactions in the Northeast with special emphasis on asset-based loans.

    Haddad serves as managing director of NewStar and head of NewStar Business Credit, the company’s asset-based lending division. He also services as a member of the firm’s management committee, Haddad joined the company from CORE Business Credit, which was acquired by NewStar in November 2010. He founded CORE in August 2007 and served as its CEO.

    Klaff is principal and managing director, Debt Investment Group at GB Merchant Partners. He is responsible for the origination, documentation and management of structured lending investments for the 1903 Debt Funds for GB Merchant Partners and is a founding member of the structured loan team. He began his career at Gordon Brothers in 1996.

    Lepak currently serves as the sales/marketing director for People’s United Business Capital, working with an experienced team to grow its business in the Northeast. She has been an asset-based lending professional for over 30 years. For the last 15 years, she held executive positions with Wells Fargo Business Credit, GE Capital and Citigroup.

  • The Turnaround Panel, titled The Keys to Victory? When Change is not for Change Sake? seeks developments in the turnaround industry through an interactive discussion among senior industry professionals who bring a variety of perspectives and roles to the art o the corporate turnaround. As all of today’s economic environments continue to change, and with the lines of roles and rules sometimes becoming blurred, this group will discuss the keys to reaching the successful turnaround outcome and the important elements and lessons learned along the way. The discussion will focus upon the subtle and not so subtle corporate changes necessary to achieve the successful turnaround outcome. The panel will take on roles such as the Turnaround Professional, Reluctant Assuming Owner, the Better Mousetrap Investor and the Communicator.

    The moderator for the panel is Jim Fleet, a managing director and shareholder at Phoenix Management Services. He has over 20 years of executive and advisory experience. He has led the Phoenix Boston office since its inception in march 2000 and has managed and provided material guidance in over 50 assignments.

    The panel includes Michael Freitag (the Communicator), William H. Henrich (the Professional), Brett L’Esperance (the Reluctant Owner) and Ben Proctor (the Better Mousetrap Owner).

    Freitag is a partner at Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher. He is a recognized expert in developing and implementing communication plans related to out-of-court restructurings and in-court Chapter 11 and CCAA reorganizations.

    Henrich is co-chairman of Getzler Henrich & Associates. He provides clients with nearly 30 years of experience in turnaround and crisis management, loan workout and bankruptcy consulting. He has extensive experience in advising secured and unsecured creditors during Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

    L’Esperance joined Sankaty Advisors in 2008. He is an executive vice president and member of Sankaty’s Middle Market Group where he is responsible for leading restructurings and driving improvement efforts across their portfolio companies. He is also responsible for new deal sourcing and support, and serves on a number of Sankaty portfolio company boards. Previously, he was a principal at Woodside Capital.

    Proctor is a partner at the Watermill Group where he leads the sourcing, due diligence and acquisition of new investments. He joined HMK Enterprises, an affiliated holding company of Watermill in 1987. During his 20 years with Watermill, Proctor has lead or been involved in over 25 acquisitions and numerous public and private financings.

    For more information and to view the schedule of events, click here.