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Program Description:

Sometimes, "past is prologue." The presentation identifies and discusses circumstances when pre-bankruptcy legal actions control what happens in a bankruptcy court or, when what happened in the bankruptcy controls post-confirmation legal actions.

Speaker Bios:

Robert D. Gordon has broad experience representing various parties in interest in bankruptcy and other judicial proceedings and in out-of-court workouts. He represents distressed companies, vendors and trade creditors, creditors’ committees, lenders and other secured parties, bondholders, purchasers of assets, insurance carriers, landlords, tenants, equipment lessors, and trustees and liquidating agents in complex matters both in Michigan and throughout the United States. Mr. Gordon also regularly represents parties in fraudulent transfer actions, preference actions, and other commercial and bankruptcy-related litigation.

Robert B. Millner is a partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP in Chicago, where he practices in bankruptcy and commercial litigation and represents financial institutions and insurance companies in significant bankruptcy litigation and lenders and debtors in complex real estate matters. Mr. Millner has handled cross-border matters both on the debtor side (representing a U.S. flag carrier whose principal routes were to South Africa) and the creditor side, including representation the National Organization of Life and Health Guaranty Associations in the Confederation Life insurance insolvency in Toronto, Canada and Lansing, Mich. Mr. Millner serves as co-chair, bankruptcy and insolvency committee, Litigation Section of the American Bar Association, vice chair of the Task Force on Current Developments in Bankruptcy in the ABA Section of Business Law and previously served as vice chair, ABA Joint Ad Hoc Committee on Bankruptcy Court Structure and Insolvency Process. He is also a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and an honorary overseas member of the Commercial Bar Association in London. Mr. Millner earned his B.A. magna cum laude from Wesleyan University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor at the University of Chicago Law Review.

Timothy F. Nixon is the lead attorney for Godfrey & Kahn SC's business finance and restructuring practice group, where he represents clients in state and federal courts He is a frequent lecturer and speaker on matters involving commercial litigation, the Uniform Commercial Code and bankruptcy law, and has been an expert commentator on bankruptcy issues for newspaper, radio and television. In addition, he is an adjunct facility member at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay, teaching classes in law and management. He has written articles such as "Lenders Beware" (Wisconsin Law Journal, November 14, 2001, Vol. 15 No. 46) and "The Malpractice Trap and Divorce Liens" (Vol. 14, No. 3, Family Advocate, 48 1992). Mr. Nixon is a member of the Milwaukee County, Dane County and Brown County Bar Associations, the State Bar of Wisconsin, the American Bar Association, ABI and the Turnaround Management Association. He has served as the president and vice president of the Western District Bankruptcy Bar and is a member of the board of directors of the State Bar of Wisconsin. Mr. Nixon earned his M.A. and his J.D. cum laude from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif.

Hon. Susan Pierson Sonderby was appointed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals as a Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Oct. 1, 1986 and reappointed by the Seventh Circuit to a second 14-year term--she served as Chief Bankruptcy Judge from 1998-2002. She was the first woman appointed to the bankruptcy court in the Seventh and the first woman to serve as Chief. Judge Sonderby was elected a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and has lectured nationally and internationally in the areas of bankruptcy and consumer law. She was invited to participate at a plenary session before the National Bankruptcy Review Commission to discuss the use of alternative dispute resolution, mediation and examiners in chapter 11 cases and has drafted state consumer legislation and testified before the Illinois General Assembly. She was the author of the Illinois Continuing Legal Education Bankruptcy Practice chapter U.S. Trustee Case Administration and is a contributing editor of the Norton Handbook on Trustees, DIPS and Committees. Judge Sonderby is a former master and past president of the Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Inn of Court and former member of the Inn of Court’s Membership Committee, among various other professional memberships. Her name is cited in over 80 biographical listings including Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in America, The World’s Who’s Who of Women, Outstanding Women in America and The International Who’s Who of Intellectuals. Judge Sonderby has been featured in The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal and The Deal. She was appointed by the Federal Reserve Board to the Consumer Advisory Counsel in Washington and served the last of her three-year-term as the appointed chairman. She was the U.S. Trustee to receive a Special Achievement Award from the Department of Justice in 1984. She also received the only Director’s Award ever given by the Executive Office of U.S. Trustees. In 1990 she received the American Bankruptcy Institute Award for Distinguished Service to the Bench. Prior to her present position, she was U.S. Trustee for the Northern District of Illinois and was directly responsible for the administration of approximately 40,000 pending bankruptcy cases, including litigation, appointment of trustees and creditors’ committees and supervision of 150 employees. From 1978-83, she was Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Consumer Protection Division for the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. In that capacity she determined the lawsuits to be filed in the consumer fraud area, handled litigation and supervised 85 employees in 11 offices. Formerly, she was a named partner in the Joliet law firm of O’Brien, Garrison, Berard, Kusta and DeWitt engaged in general practice with an emphasis on insurance defense representation. Judge Sonderby is a graduate of the University of Illinois and The John Marshall Law School.