President's Letter
Grant T. Stein
We all knew that the economic situation was heading in a direction that provided opportunities for those of us in the insolvency and restructuring arena. Economic turmoil is a classic understatement of what we have seen. Baer Stearns was just the start. The Lehman Brothers filing is the largest bankruptcy filing in history, and the AIG bailout was simply the first step in a series of bailouts. The takeovers of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Washington Mutual, and the pending sale of Wachovia are merely some of the most public changes in the financial markets to this point. The devastation of the stock market and the impact of all of this on individuals and the credit markets with the corresponding lack of liquidity have been unprecedented, or have they? Haven’t those of us in the insolvency business dealt with credit crunches before? The scale of what we are seeing and the governmental intervention to address the crisis are beyond anything we can remember in terms of scope, but it has happened before to some degree. The Chrysler bailout comes to mind. A little research leads one to discover the bank bailouts of the 1930s, and reminds one of the Continental Bank bailout in 1984. It also brings to mind the failure of Drexel Burnham Lambert, junk bonds, and the credit crisis of the early 1990s.
To what extent will the current economic crisis alter the approaches taken to deal with the economic distress? To what extent will the governmental interventions to try to provide confidence and open up the credit markets lead to the desired result? How will the unregulated Hedge Funds with liquidity be able to take advantage of the current situation through aggressive actions?
So, what does this all mean for us and our professional roles? What does it mean for the AIRA? Our organization strives to provide first rate cross-discipline education and training. The East and West Coast Plan of Reorganization seminars are excellent in providing the fundamental analysis needed to address plan issues, VALCON is unparalleled in focusing on sophisticated valuation issues, the AIRA Annual Breakfast at the NCBJ always provides quality in-depth treatment of its topic, and the AIRA Annual Seminar (Orlando June 2009) covers numerous practical areas at a high level with special emphasis given to our Small Business Track. Of course, the AIRA’s CIRA and CDBV classes set the standard for our industry. The inter-disciplinary faculty for all of these programs is superior.
The skills that we emphasize in the AIRA are essential to make our restructuring system work. Our job is to assist in rehabilitation where rehabilitation is possible and to maximize creditor recoveries in all events. The AIRA is committed to providing you the continuing tools to be able to do that now and in the future. We have our work cut out for us.
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.