Understanding the Nuts and Bolts of the “New” Subchapter V Small Business Chapter 11

Hon. Paul W. Bonapfel is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, appointed in 2002.

Prior to his appointment, he practiced law in Atlanta with Lamberth, Bonapfel, Cifelli & Stokes, P.A., now known as Lamberth, Cifelli, Ellis & Nason, P.A. As an attorney, Judge Bonapfel represented all types of parties in bankruptcy cases, including consumer and business debtors in liquidation cases, business debtors in reorganization cases, chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcy trustees, creditors’ committees, and creditors in both consumer and business cases.

Judge Bonapfel is a co-author of Chapter 13 Practice and Procedure (Thomson Reuters). A Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, he has served as chairperson of the Bankruptcy Sections of the State Bar of Georgia and the Atlanta Bar Association and was a director and president of the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute, which presents an annual seminar on bankruptcy law and procedure. In addition, he teaches a course at Mercer Law School in Macon, Ga., on consumer bankruptcy practice.

Judge Bonapfel received his B.A. cum laude from Florida State University in 1972 and his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1975, where he was a notes editor of the Georgia Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Wilbur D. Owens, Jr., in Macon.

James B. Bailey is a partner with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Birmingham, Ala., and has experience with both debtor and creditor representation in bankruptcy, out-of-court workouts and restructurings, and bankruptcy-related litigation. He also regularly represents commercial lenders and mortgage-servicers in federal court commercial litigation.

Mr. Bailey has represented chapter 11 debtors including Walter Energy, Inc. in Alabama and Vanguard Healthcare, LLC in Tennessee, which have involved numerous complex issues, including the termination of employee and retiree benefits and going-concern sales free and clear of claims. He also has chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy experience as one of the attorneys representing Jefferson County, Ala., in several contested matters and adversary proceedings that involved issues unique to chapter 9.

Mr. Bailey’s creditor bankruptcy practice involves representing commercial lenders in business bankruptcy cases under chapters 7 and 11 of the Bankruptcy Code and in individual cases of commercial loan obligors under chapters 7, 11 and 13. This representation has recently involved several mortgage- servicing clients in bankruptcy courts. He also represents creditors in substantive bankruptcy litigation, including proceedings that involve preferences, fraudulent transfers, relief from stay and lien-avoidance issues. His bankruptcy litigation experience includes appeals to both district courts and appeals courts.

Outside of bankruptcy, Mr. Bailey has transactional experience negotiating and documenting out-of-court workouts. He has experience pursuing pre- and post-judgment creditor remedies, including receivership and receiver sales, nonjudicial foreclosures and garnishments, and he has commercial litigation experience pursuing judgments against defaulting commercial loan obligors.

Mr. Bailey received his B.A. in political science and B.S. in finance cum laude in 2005 from the University of Florida and his J.D. in 2010 from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Judith Greenstone Miller is an attorney with Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C. in Southfield, Mich., in its Insolvency & Reorganization and Privacy & Data Security practice groups. She specializes in bankruptcy, insolvency, creditors’ rights and commercial litigation, and her practice involves representing debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees and trustees in bankruptcy proceedings, primarily involving chapter 11 reorganizations. She also represents parties in litigation in complex commercial disputes.

Ms. Miller has testified numerous times on pending bankruptcy legislation before the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and the Judiciary Committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. She is a frequent lecturer nationally and has authored and co-authored many articles on bankruptcy law and procedure, revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, and state law creditor rights issues, including receiverships and domestic asset-protection trusts.

Ms. Miller received her B.A. cum laude from the University of Michigan and her J.D. cum laude from Wayne State University Law School.

Jon Jay Lieberman is senior counsel at Sottile & Barile LLC in Cincinnati and has represented consumer debtors, commercial debtors, large and small creditors, mortgage lenders and servicers, automobile creditors and student loan creditors, as well as chapter 7 and 13 trustees. He has worked for some of the largest creditor firms in the region and is licensed to practice in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. He is also able to practice in front of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Lieberman currently serves as an associate editor of the ABI Journal and is a member of a variety of committees and bar associations. He received his J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1990.