ABI's 26th Annual Spring Meeting, the networking and CLE event of 2008, will be held April 3-6 at Washington, D.C.'s Renaissance Hotel in the Nation's Capital! Join us during cherry blossom season for exciting and informative sessions, including a luncheon keynote by Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.
The Real Estate Committee will meet jointly with the Ethics Committee on Saturday, April 5, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. and present a program entitled: "A Failure of Proof? The Mortgage Industry at a Crossroads."
The panelists will be Honorable Cecelia G. Morris, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York; Mary Daffin, Esq., of Barrett Burke Wilson Castle Daffin & Frappier, LLP, Houston, Texas; and Ronda Winnecour, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (W.D. Pa.) Pittsburgh, PA. The program will be moderated by Real Estate Committee Co-Chair, Alec P. Ostrow, Esq., of Stevens & Lee, PC, New York.
The discussion will embrace topical issues involving the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the clash between mortgagees and consumer debtors in bankruptcy court, and what happens when the lender's records are not in proper order. A stimulating discussion is predicted.
Written by: Alec P. Ostrow
Stevens & Lee,
P.C.; New York
In Kelo v. City of
New London,[1] the Supreme Court, by the barest of majorities, upheld the constitutionality of
a condemnation of private property for the purpose of conveying it to another
private party, as part of a development plan that would create jobs, increase
the tax base and revitalize an economically distressed city.[2] The decision has provoked profound controversy.[3] The question addressed here is whether a Kelo-type condemnation would be
stopped by a bankruptcy case.
Read the full article.
At the Winter Leadership Conference in Rancho Mirage, California last December, the Real Estate Committee and the Young and New Members Committee, met jointly and offered a presentation entitled: "The New American Skyline: Builder/Developer Workouts and Restructurings".
The New York based speakers were: Leslie Berkoff, Esq., a member of Moritt Hock Hamroff & Horowitz LLP, who served as the moderator; Jeffrey Hubbard, an executive managing director at Sheldon Good & Co.; Heidi Sorvino, Esq. a member of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP; and Joseph H. Smolinsky, a member of Chadbourne & Parke LLP.
The panel presented a case study of a publicly-traded home builder, with subsidiaries including a developer of condominiums and a licensed mortgage broker, and considered issues related to financing the operations, problems with construction lending and issues with mechanics' liens, and issues with the disposition of the real property. The meeting was well attended and the presentation was enthusiastically received.
