Can Someone Please Tell Me What to Do? - How Best to Sell Your Assets

Sarah Beth Wilson is a partner with Phelps Dunbar LLP in Jackson, Miss., where she specializes in the representation of lenders and other financial institutions, as well as business and governmental entities in business bankruptcy matters, creditors’ rights litigation and lender liability litigation in federal district courts and bankruptcy courts throughout the region. She regularly handles asset sales of all forms and counsels and represents clients at every stage when it comes to complex insolvency and restructuring matters, as well as in connection with large-scale loan modifications, foreclosures and UCC sales, and other manners of security interest and lien-realization.

Ms. Wilson frequently represents creditors and lienholders with respect to issues affecting priority and rights in various types of collateral, including real property, entity ownership and membership interests, cash collateral, commercial rents and leases, and state and federal tax liens. She is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification and was appointed to Mississippi’s Board of Banking Review; in this role, she currently represents the 22 counties within Supreme Court District 1 (including the State’s Capitol City of Jackson and all surrounding metro areas). She currently chairs the State Banking Board.

Ms. Wilson was selected by the bankruptcy judges within the State of Mississippi for the State’s Local Rules Advisory Committee, which promulgates and proposes new and revised rules that govern practice and procedure in bankruptcy courts across the state. She was asked to step into the role of chairman in 2018 and became the first female to hold the role within the state. Ms. Wilson was recognized as “Young Professional of the Year” in 2018 by the Madison County Business League and Foundation and the Madison County Economic Development Association, and she has been selected as one of the “Leading Women in Business,” as a “Leader in Law” and as one of the “Top 50 Under 40” by The Mississippi Business Journal. In addition, she has been selected every year since 2014 as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers Magazine, been named to the “Under 40 Hot List” by Benchmark Litigation, and is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Business Bankruptcy Litigation and Creditors’ Rights.

Ms. Wilson is an appointed member of the Mississippi Bankers Association’s Bank Attorneys Committee, and she served on the official transition team for Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch in connection with her transition from her former office of Treasurer of the State of Mississippi. She also has served as an attorney coach of numerous appellate and trial advocacy moot court competitions, and has taught numerous years of students as an adjunct and visiting professor at Mississippi College School of Law and Millsaps College.

Ms. Wilson received her B.B.A. cum laude in accounting and economics in 2007 from Millsaps College and her J.D. magna cum laude from the Mississippi College School of Law in 2010.

Dawn Ragan, CTP is a partner with CR3 Partners LLC in Irving, Texas, and has more than 25 years of experience in financial advisory, turnaround management and corporate finance. She develops operational and financial restructuring solutions, and manages multiple adverse constituencies. Her engagements have included assets and operations in China, Japan, Europe, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

Ms. Ragan has served clients in a variety of leadership roles, including CRO, CFO, plan agent, trustee and financial advisor, and she has provided expert witness testimony and litigation support. In 2017, she was the financial advisor to the chapter 11 trustee of three debtors involved in a $2B fraud; her engagement was awarded multiple Turnaround of the Year awards. Prior to her consulting career, Ms. Ragan spent nine years in investment banking and was a real estate portfolio asset manager. She has served as a speaker on a number of national panels and is an active member of the restructuring community holding memberships with ABI, TMA, AIRA and IWIRC.

Ms. Ragan received her B.S. magna cum laude from Regis University and her E.M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University.

Matthew LoCascio is a principal with SC&H Capital, Inc.in Ellicott City, Md., and has been providing investment banking services to companies in transition since 2005, starting with Equity Partners, then in 2020 creating the special situations group within SC&H Capital, an investment banking and business valuation advisory firm for middle-market businesses. He has handled investment banking engagements for over 140 companies in a host of industries.

Mr. LoCascio has been a speaker and author related to distressed sales, bid procedures and marketing processes, has been published in TMA’s Journal for Corporate Renewal, and has also testified in numerous bankruptcy courts regarding sales processes and procedures. He has spent his entire career working with middle-market companies, often family-owned and multi-generational. He currently serves as the Education Director for ABI’s Asset Sales Committee, having previously served as its Special Projects Leader and, before that, as Communications Manager. In his current role, his primary responsibility is to organize and present programs at ABI’s Annual Spring Meeting and Winter Leadership Conference. Prior to joining the insolvency world,

Mr. LoCascio worked for Marsh & McLennan, a global professional services firm, where he provided risk-management, risk-consulting, alternative-risk-financing and insurance program management services to middle-market businesses. He is a FINRA Registered Investment Banking Representative (Series 79). Mr. LoCascio received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

James D. Decker, CIRA is the founder of JDecker & Company, Inc. in Atlanta, which is focused on corporate governance, transactional advisory and litigation support. As an independent director, he serves on the boards of middle-market private companies typically undergoing transformational events.

Mr. Decker’s board service has included the capacities of board chairman and chair of special committees and restructuring committees. He is qualified as an Audit Committee Financial Expert. In addition, he has also served as an arbitrator and testifying expert, and is well versed in the fiduciary obligations of directors.

For the 30 years prior to founding JDecker & Company in 2019, Mr. Decker was an investment banker and advisor in the U.S. middle market, with a focus on advising clients in complex corporate finance transactions, mergers & acquisitions, recapitalizations and restructurings. He advised owners, boards, special committees, management teams and creditors across a wide range of industries and circumstances.

In the course of his investment banking career, Mr. Decker originated and completed hundreds of transactions worth in excess of $30 billion. These included restructurings, exclusive sales, acquisitions, special-situation financings, leveraged buyouts, loan placements, recapitalizations and valuations. He also recruited, developed and managed large teams of professionals at a variety of prominent institutions, including Guggenheim Securities, Morgan Joseph, Alvarez & Marsal and Houlihan Lokey.

Mr. Decker is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy and has twice received Turnaround of the Year Awards from The M&A Advisor. He is also a past director of the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors (AIRA), a former co-chair of ABI’s Investment Banking Committee and a former director of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA).

Mr. Decker enjoys teaching and is a frequent speaker on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and financial restructuring. He maintains Series 7, 24 and 63 FINRA licenses. Mr. Decker received his B.A. in economics and geology from Vanderbilt University and his M.B.A. in business administration with a concentration in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.