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Speaker Bios

The 37th Annual Norton Bankruptcy

Recent Developments

Feb. 7-9, 2024

Hon. William H. Brown

Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, Western District of Tennessee, 1987-2008. Prior to being a Bankruptcy Judge, he was an associate professor of law at the University of Mississippi College of Law, the University of Wyoming College of Law and Director of the Western Trial Advocacy Institute. Judge Brown practiced law in Jackson, TN for thirteen years, concentrating in litigation and bankruptcy. J.D. and order of Coif, University of Tennessee College of Law. He is a Principal Contributing Editor to Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 3d Ed., and he is co-author of several books published by West Group: Bankruptcy Exemption Manual; Bankruptcy Jury Manual; Tennessee Practice, Debtor-creditor; West’s Legal Forms, vols. 9-9A, and West’s Federal Forms, vols. 6-6B. He is active in continuing legal education seminars throughout the United States, including annual presentations on consumer law developments to bankruptcy judges for the Federal Judicial Center and was an adjunct professor at the University of Mississippi College of Law from 1987 until 1994.

Hon. Leif M. Clark (retired)

Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, Western District of Texas. Judge Clark is a 1980 honors graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, where he also served as an editor on the Houston Law Review. He was appointed to the bankruptcy bench by the Fifth Circuit in 1987. Before becoming a judge, he was a partner with Cox & Smith in San Antonio, Texas – concentrating on bankruptcy and creditors’ rights and representing institutional lenders, committees, and debtors during the explosion of bankruptcy cases in Texas in the early and mid-1980s. Prior to attending law school, the Judge received a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and served the American Lutheran Church in specialized ministries. He is a frequent speaker at bankruptcy seminars and annually teaches American constitutional law and a bankruptcy review course to foreign students in Salzburg, Austria, as part of the International Law program of McGeorge School of Law.

Randolph J. Haines (retired)

Retired U. S. Bankruptcy Judge, District of Arizona. Partner and associate at Lewis and Roca, Phoenix, Arizona, 1978-2000. J.D., Stanford Law School, Order of the Coif and Articles Editor of Stanford Law Review, 1978. Ph.D. philosophy, Yale University, 1975. B.A. with honors, University of Wisconsin, 1970. Fellow, American College of Bankruptcy. Editor in Chief, American Bankruptcy Law Journal, 2007 to present; Adjunct Faculty, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law; Contributing Editor, Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 3d (Thomson-West). Managing Editor, Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser. Faculty and Board of Advisers: Western Mountains Bankruptcy Law Institute and Norton Bankruptcy Litigation Institutes I & II.

Hon. Keith M. Lundin

(J.D., 1976, Vanderbilt) Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee (1982), and he served a term on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Lundin has served as Adjunct Professor at Vanderbilt and Emory Law Schools. He is Managing Editor for Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser, and the author of Chapter 13 Practice Guide (Bankruptcy Press) and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, 3d Ed. (Bankruptcy Press). In October 2002, he received the Award for Educational Excellence from the Educational Endowment of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.

Edward K. Bernatavicius

A trial attorney with the Office of the United States Trustee where he concentrates on a full spectrum of bankruptcy issues concerning consumer and commercial bankruptcy law. Mr. Bernatavicius was a member of a steering committee that formed the Arizona Bankruptcy American Inn of Court. He is a former President of the Inn and has served on both the Ninth Circuit Advisory Committee and Achieving Excellence Evolution Taskforce to the American Inns of Court. Mr. Bernatavicius remains an active member of the Inn participating at the Master level. Mr. Bernatavicius is the 2018 recipient of the Honorable Daniel P. Collins Mentorship Award by the Arizona Bankruptcy American Inn of Court. Mr. Bernatavicius remains active in mentoring as he participates in the Department of Justice Mentorship Program. Mr. Bernatavicius was a Board Member of the Phoenix Chapter of the Federal Bar Association from 2018 to 2022 where he served as the Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee for the section. Mr. Bernatavicius has twice chaired the Bankruptcy Section Seminar for the Arizona State Bar and is currently the United States Trustee liaison to the Bankruptcy Executive Committee for the Arizona State Bar. Mr. Bernatavicius enjoys speaking on wide array of commercial, consumer and ethical issues in bankruptcy, volunteering his time on special projects within his bankruptcy bar.

Rob Charles

Partner, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP, Tucson, Arizona. University of Arizona, B.A., 1979; J.D. with Distinction 1982. Mr. Charles served as law clerk in 1982-1984 to Hon. Earl H. Carroll, U.S. District Judge, Arizona. He primarily represents secured and unsecured creditors in all aspects of Chapter 11 business bankruptcy cases in Arizona and Nevada. Mr. Charles is a contributor to the Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser; and has written “Section 362-Automatic Stay” article for the Norton Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law (Clark, Boardman, Callaghan) since 1990. He is a Contributor Editor, Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice, 3rd Ed. (2008-13 Vols). In addition to writing for the Norton publications, Mr. Charles has written numerous other articles on bankruptcy law and has lectured at numerous seminars on bankruptcy law. He is Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Arizona College of Law teaching Introduction to Business Reorganization in Bankruptcy. Mr. Charles is a member of the State Bar of Arizona (past chair of the Bankruptcy Section), State Bar of Nevada, America Bar Associations, and the American Bankruptcy Institute. 

Andrew J. Currie

Partner in Venable LLP’s Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Group and concentrates his practice on debt restructuring, reorganization, insolvency, general bankruptcy matters and transactional work, with an emphasis on commercial bankruptcy litigation and transactions. Mr. Currie represents commercial debtors, creditors’ committees and individual unsecured and secured creditors in all aspects of bankruptcy and reorganization , including negotiating, structuring and closing large, complicated DIP financing and cash collateral transactions on behalf of major lenders and debtors across many industries, liquidating and restructuring companies with more than $1 billion in debt, managing distressed investments, conducting contested § 363 sales and going out-of-business sales, negotiating and managing sales of assets in and outside bankruptcy court, negotiating and pursuing known and unknown asserts in remnant deals, negotiating, reconciling and objecting to claims, litigating preference demands, and working on out-of-court restructuring and assignments for the benefit creditors. Matters representative of Mr. Currie’s diverse practice range from working with a number of creditors and swap participants owned in excess of $1 billion in the bankruptcy cases of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Lehman Brothers OTC Derivatives Inc., to acting as debtors’ counsel in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Smitty’s Building Supply, Inc., et al. In addition to Mr. Currie’s experience as a bankruptcy and restructuring practitioner, Mr. Currie is also a contributing editor for Commercial Bankruptcy Litigation 2d (Thomson/West), a guest lecturer on bankruptcy and restructuring at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, and an Ambassador for the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Susan M. Freeman

Partner at Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie, LLP, Phoenix, Arizona. Graduated Mt. Holyoke College (B.A. with distinction), University of Edinburgh, Scotland; New York University, J.D. (Root Tilden Scholar 1975). Authored numerous articles on bankruptcy law and frequent speaker on bankruptcy. Fellow, Secretary, and former Director and Vice President, American College of Bankruptcy. Former Chair of ABA Business Bankruptcy Committee. Certified specialist, Bankruptcy Law, Arizona Board of Legal Specialization. Also practices in appeals, is past president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and has argued bankruptcy appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Contributing Editor and Author of Ethical Responsibilities chapter, Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice, 2d and 3d Eds. Faculty and Board of Advisers: Norton Bankruptcy Litigation Institutes and Norton Bankruptcy Law Institutes across the country since 1987.

Jeffrey R. Hellman

Has a law office in New Haven, CT. His practice is focused on the representation of individuals and businesses in complex commercial litigation. Mr. Hellman’s practice regularly includes contract disputes, prosecution and defense of preference and fraudulent transfer litigation, partnership and inter-company disputes and various types of debtor and creditor disputes. He is a contributing editor of Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice, 3rd, and has lectured on various topics including the Rules of Civil Procedure and Professional Ethics. Mr. Hellman regularly appears in the Connecticut Superior Court, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut. Mr. Hellman has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Federal Practice Section of the Connecticut Bar Association from 1996 to the present and a member of the Section since 1989. Mr. Hellman is also a member of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree (A.B. magna cum laude 1983) from Duke University and his law degree (J.D. cum laude 1986) from the Harvard Law School.

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

Served as Standing Trustee for Chapter 13 matters in the Middle District of Tennessee since 1982 and as Standing Chapter 12 Trustee for that district since 1986. Mr. Hildebrand graduated from Vanderbilt University and received his J.D. from the National Law Center of George Washington University. He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and has served on its Education Committee. He is Board Certified in consumer bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification and has served on its Board of Directors. He is Chairman of the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee for the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees and serves on the Consumer Bankruptcy Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Committee. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the American Bankruptcy Institute. Mr. Hildebrand has served as case notes author for The Quarterly, a newsletter dealing with consumer bankruptcy issues and Chapter 13 practice in particular since 1991. He is a regular contributor to the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal. He is an adjunct faculty member for the Nashville School of Law.

William L. Norton, III

Member of the law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, 1600 Division St., Suite 700, Nashville, Tennessee, 37203 (615-252-2397). He graduated from Vanderbilt University (B.A., 1975; J.D., 1982). He practices in the commercial finance area and focuses primarily in creditor’s rights and insolvency law and is the firm’s leader of the Bankruptcy Practice Group. Mr. Norton is Certified as a Business Bankruptcy Specialist, is a Fellow with the American College of Bankruptcy, the Nashville Bar Foundation, Tennessee Bar Foundation and teaches bankruptcy law as an Adjunct Professor in Bankruptcy Law at Vanderbilt University School of Law. He is the Managing Editor for Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 3d (Thomson-Reuters) and Co-Author of the Creditor’s Rights Handbook (Thomson-Reuters 2014). He serves as Institute Manager for Norton Institutes on Bankruptcy Law. Mr. Norton is the past Chair of the Subcommittee on Individual Chapter 11 Cases in the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the ABA Business Section and is Past President of the American Board of Certification; a Past President of the Tennessee Turnaround Management Association; a Past President of the Mid-South Commercial Law Institute; a Past First Vice President of the Nashville Bar Association and a past Board Chair of the Nashville Conflict Resolution Center. He is an approved Rule 31 mediator by the Tennessee Supreme Court.