Liquidating Plans

Scott A. Rinaldi is a managing director at Ankura in Washington, D.C., and has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic, operational, managerial, and financial solutions to distressed companies as well as creditors in both in- and out-of-court restructurings. He has broad experience including engagements in the financial services, airline, retail, real estate, technology, funeral services, nonprofit, and manufacturing (paper products, telecommunications, industrial equipment, print fulfillment) industries, as well as the government sector.

Mr. Rinaldi received his B.S. from Florida State University and his M.B.A. from Indiana University.

Jeffrey D. Pawlitz is a partner in the Business Reorganization & Restructuring Department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York, where he advises sophisticated investors in distressed and opportunistic financing transactions and complex restructuring matters, including multijurisdictional and cross-border matters spanning numerous industries. He also has significant experience serving as lead counsel to companies in chapter 11 and out-of-court restructuring transactions.

Mr. Pawlitz received his B.S. in 2004 from the University of Missouri - Columbia and his J.D. magna cum laude in 2007 from Washington University.

Mr. Flaxer has devoted his career to business bankruptcy practice, successfully representing bondholders, chapter 11 debtors and trustees, creditors’ committees, distressed debt investors, distressed asset acquirers, indenture trustees, and landlords. Mr. Flaxer has also led numerous successful out-of-court workouts. He is active in several professional organizations and writes and lectures on bankruptcy-related topics. He has recently been appointed to serve as chapter 11 trustee in cases involving a residential building and a large construction company. Mr. Flaxer is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubble.

Hon. Lisa G. Beckerman is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, sworn in on Feb. 26, 2021. From May 1999 until she was appointed to the bench, she was a partner in the financial restructuring group at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. From September 1989 until May 1999, she was an associate and then a partner in the bankruptcy group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.

Prior to her appointment, Judge Beckerman served as a co-chair of the Executive Committee of UJA-Federation of New York’s Bankruptcy and Reorganization Group, as co-chair and as a member of the Advisory Board of ABI’s New York City Bankruptcy Conference, and as a member of ABI’s Board of Directors of from 2013 through 2019. She is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) and the 2021 NCBJ Education Committee. She also is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for Boston University School of Law.

Judge Beckerman received her A.B. from University of Chicago in 1984, her M.B.A. from the University of Texas in 1986 and her J.D. from Boston University in 1989.

Christopher J. Kearns, CPA, CFA, CTP, CIRA is co-head of Berkeley Research Group, LLC’s Corporate Finance practice in New York, where he specializes in financial restructuring advisory services, crisis management and expert testimony in the troubled-company and corporate finance environment. He has represented parties in interest in numerous complex, multinational matters and has served as CEO, CRO, responsible officer, receiver and trustee. Mr. Kearns has rendered expert testimony in multiple jurisdictions on matters involving valuation, lost profits, solvency, credit analysis, liquidation and recovery analysis, and other issues in distressed situations. He also has advised major investment banks and potential purchasers on acquisition strategies and post-merger integration.

Before co-founding Capstone Advisory Group, LLC, Mr. Kearns was a senior managing director at the Policano & Manzo legacy practice of FTI Consulting and was also with the predecessor firm Kahn Consulting. Previously, he spent three years with Bristol-Myers Squibb in assignments that included assistant corporate controller. He also spent 10 years in the mergers and acquisitions group and the audit practice of a major international public accounting firm.

Mr. Kearns is a member of AICPA, the New York State Society of CPAs and the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors. He served as president of the New York chapter of the Turnaround Management Association. Mr. Kearns received his B.B.A. in accounting from Iona College.

Jeffrey S. Sabin is a partner with Venable LLP’s Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Group in New York and has more than 35 years of experience in creditors’ rights, bankruptcy, debt restructuring and financial transactions involving financially distressed entities in the U.S. and globally. He manages high-profile chapter 11 and 15 bankruptcy proceedings, out-of-court restructurings and debt-restructuring transactions, and he provides and implements strategies to achieve client goals in reorganizations.

Mr. Sabin assists public and private companies, lenders, committees of secured and unsecured creditors, bondholder and noteholder committees, board directors, investors and acquirers. Some of his significant matters include representing the unitholders’ committee in the Woodbridge chapter 11 cases, Capital Royalty Group as secured lenders in multiple cases including Synergy Pharmaceuticals, Wexford Capital as a significant creditor and member of the creditors’ committee in the Breitburn Energy chapter 11 cases, the owners and Fa?onnable in its successful equity out-of-court restructuring, multiple talent/artists in the Weinstein proceedings, the official creditors’ committees in the Immunicon Corp. and Global Power proceedings, secured creditors in the General Motors, Chrysler, Spansion, Lyondell and Nanogen proceedings, numerous unsecured creditors and counterparties in the Lehman proceedings, and Pimco as secured creditor and debtor-in-possession (DIP) lender in the Energy Future Holdings proceedings, among other engagements.

Mr. Sabin has frequently been named a leading bankruptcy lawyer by Chambers Global, Best Lawyers and Chambers USA. He is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy and is admitted to practice in New York and in the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, as well as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Sabin received his B.S. and B.A. magna cum laude from Cornell University in 1974 and his J.D. cum laude from Boston College Law School in 1977, where he as executive articles editor for the Boston College International Law Review.