Letter from the President

This is the first of my columns for 2010 which is the home stretch of my two year term as President of the AIRA. Thus, in preparing to write this article I went back through the columns I have written beginning with July, 2008. In that first column I noted that I have been handed the reigns of a healthy and growing organization whose members treat and deal with the unhealthy. I had no idea of exactly how intense the next eighteen months would be in the AIRA or for each of us as restructuring professionals. A review of the last eighteen months reflects an unprecedented level of economic distress in almost every section of the economy and in every state in the Union. The question being asked is whether it is over, and if not, when will it end?

Over the past week economic reports in the Wall Street Journal indicate that the rate and number of new home sales has continued to decline sinking 11.3% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 355,000, but sales of previously owned homes rose 7.4% in November to a 6.54 million annual rate, according to the National Association of Realtors, with the result that inventories of previously owned homes decreased by 1.3% to 3.52 million available for sale, representing a 6.5-month supply at the current sales pace. Unemployment remains in the 10% range with 85,000 jobs lost in December, 2009. In the real estate area, during 2009, the number of CMBS loans in default increased by more than $23 billion from the $6.7 billion of CMBS loans in default in December of 2008. Bloomberg reported that the FDIC has also increased its budget and staffing and that it had 552 banks on its confidential problem bank list as of September 30, 2009, an increase of more than 25% from the prior reporting period.

At the AIRA, the past eighteen months have been our busiest time since 2001-2003. Our members are taking advantage of the educational opportunities we provide, and our plans are to provide even more for you. In addition to VALCON, our bi-coastal Plan of Reorganization Programs, and our Annual Conference to be held in June in San Diego, we will be offering regular webinars on numerous topics of interest. Our goals remains to provide you diverse, high quality, educational programs to enhance your depth of knowledge and enable you to provide the best services you can to those whom you represent in restructuring and insolvency matters. We all have a lot to do right now, and the level of activity is anticipated to continue to increase.

Author Bio:

Grant Stein is a partner in Alston & Bird’s Bankruptcy, Reorganization and Workouts Group. His diverse practice includes the representation of debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees, and fiduciaries in complex and difficult out-of-court workouts, debt restructurings, bankruptcy cases, and financial transactions throughout the United States and internationally. He also regularly represents officers, directors, and other parties in bankruptcy litigation of all kinds. His restructuring experience includes manufacturing, real estate, wholesale, retail, distribution companies, health care, communications, technology and intellectual property issues.

Mr. Stein is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and is identified as a top practitioner in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, The Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers magazine. He serves as a director and president-elect of the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors (AIRA). He also is a director and president-elect for the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute. He recently served as a Member of the executive committee of Emory University’s Board of Visitors. He has written numerous articles on bankruptcy and workout issues and regularly lectures around the country. Mr. Stein served as law clerk to The Honorable W. Homer Drake, the senior judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia, following his graduation, with honors, from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1981. He received his B.B.A., with high honors, from Emory University in 1978.