Alexandria, Va. — The American Bankruptcy Institute announces that it presented Ira Herman of Blank Rome LLP with its highest membership award, the ABI Distinguished Service Award, at ABI’s 2025 Annual Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2025. The Service Award is presented to an ABI member whose contributions have been extraordinary, as determined by ABI’s advisory board of past presidents. An ABI member since 1993, Herman is the chair of ABI’s Restructuring Masterclass as he oversaw the development and launch of the series, which includes nearly 50 videos designed to help both new and experienced practitioners navigate the complexities of bankruptcy law, taught by top exerts in the industry. In addition to his commitment to the development and launch of the series, Herman personally narrates the Bankruptcy Basics course, which provides a clear and insightful introduction to the fundamental principles of bankruptcy law.
Herman is a partner with Blank Rome LLP in its New York office, where he concentrates his practice on restructuring and bankruptcy matters, with an emphasis on distressed public debt issues, secured and unsecured loans, cross-border insolvency matters, distressed M&A and corporate governance. He regularly advises clients, including lenders, on the management of bankruptcy risk in their transactions, asset-dispositions and distressed M&A. He also regularly counsels indenture trustees regarding defaulted public debt issues, and lenders and others regarding intercreditor and related issues. As a court-appointed mediator, Herman has been able to facilitate the resolution of controversies involving U.S. and non-U.S. parties concerning bankruptcy and commercial law issues. He annually updates “Anticipating and Managing Bankruptcy Risk,” a series of articles he has written for the Financial Restructuring & Bankruptcy module of LexisNexis Practical Guidance®. Herman has served for five years on its editorial advisory board and has also served on Law360’s Bankruptcy Editorial Advisory Board. In 2022, Mr. Herman updated the “Bankruptcy” chapter in the treatise Negotiating and Drafting Commercial Leases (Full Court Press 2022). He received his B.A. in political science cum laude from Yeshiva University in 1979, where he served as editor-in-chief of The Polis, a political science journal, and his J.D. cum laude with distinction from Boston University School of Law in 1982, where he served as an editor of the Boston University International Law Journal.
