Patrick F. Fischer is a partner with Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL, one of the largest law firms in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Fischer’s practice is concentrated in the field of commercial litigation with an emphasis on financial/banking litigation, securities and antitrust litigation, complex class actions, ERISA litigation, and related class actions. He has litigated matters in Ohio, Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Alabama, and Oklahoma, and before numerous federal district and circuit courts throughout the country, including the Sixth and Tenth Circuits. Mr. Fischer is a frequent advisor to lawyers on legal ethics matters, and he is a regular speaker on ethics and lawyer professionalism. Mr. Fischer has served as vice-chair of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism. He is also the author of numerous presentations and publications. The Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court appointed Mr. Fischer as co-chair of Ohio’s Task Force on Commercial Dockets; this committee initiated a pilot program for a special set of trial courts to hear business-to-business disputes throughout Ohio. Among many other honors and recognitions, Mr. Fischer is AV Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell; he has been named to the Ohio Super Lawyers? by Law & Politics (2004-2009); he was named one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Ohio and one of the Top 50 Lawyers in Cincinnati by Cincinnati Magazine (2007-2008). Mr. Fischer is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1983) and Harvard College (A.B., cum laude, 1980). He served as a law clerk to the Honorable William O. Bertelsman, Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Patricia Beaujean Lehtola, managing member of Lehtola & Cannatti PLLC, represents the interests of Texas lenders and mortgage companies, and is well versed in many areas of the business of lending and banking. She is also an experienced trial attorney in a wide range of areas including commercial litigation, first and third party insurance litigation, labor and employment, arbitration, and personal and property injury defense in both federal and state courts. Ms. Lehtola represents her clients in complex business disputes with a goal of resolving their matters efficiently, successfully, and in the least disruptive manner possible. Ms. Lehtola received a J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1984 and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 1981.
Ivan J. Reich has been a shareholder in the Ft. Lauderdale office of GrayRobinson PA since 2008, when he joined the firm after thirteen years at Becker & Poliakoff, where he headed that firm’s bankruptcy practice. He concentrates his practice in the area of bankruptcy and corporate reorganizations, with a strong emphasis and background in commercial litigation. Mr. Reich’s commercial litigation background includes not only bankruptcy issues, but areas of the law including banking, lender liability, commercial landlord-tenant, securities, intellectual property, anti-trust, real estate, asset protection, post and prejudgment remedies and collections, foreclosures, and both state and federal appeals. Mr. Reich recently finished his term as recording secretary of the Commercial Law League of America, the nation’s oldest and largest creditor’s rights organization, and has served on the League’s Board of Governors. He is a past chair of the League’s Bankruptcy and Young Members Sections, its Southern Region, and is currently chair of its National Meetings Committee. Mr. Reich also serves on the League’s National Affairs and Legislative Committees, as well as the Joint Planning and Coordinating Committee with the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Recently, Mr. Reich served as counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Femwell Health Group Inc. (Miami), American Financial Group of Aventura (Miami), Shores of Panama Inc. (Panama City,Florida), Berwick Black Cattle Company (Peoria, Illinois), Tutor Time Learning Systems Inc. (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida), and Conseco Finance Corp. (Chicago), which was part of the then third largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Mr. Reich has also recently represented the successful buyers in bankruptcy of the assets of publicly traded perfume manufacturer, Tristar Corporation (San Antonio), and the national restaurant chain Le Petit Bistro (Atlanta). He has worked as a staff member on the United States Senate Governmental Affairs Committee for former Vice President Albert Gore, Jr., and on Vice President Gore’s senatorial and 1988 presidential campaigns. A prolific speaker, Mr. Reich has spoken several times at the Commercial Law League of America's annual conventions, including 1998, Chicago Conference on “Chasing the Wind: The Search for the Ever Elusive Assets of the Sophisticated Debtor,” 2000, New York Conference on “The Triadic System: Back to the Basics,” 2001, Los Angeles Conference on “State Exemption Law,” its 2001 Annual Convention on “Fraudulent Conveyances,” 2003, New York Conference, and 2009 Chicago Conference, on “Creditors Committees,” and its 2004 Chicago Conference on “Revised Article 9 of the UCC.” In 2007, Mr. Reich spoke in Chicago at the DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal Symposium on Fiduciary Duties and the Slide Towards Insolvency, and published a paper for the Journal on “Deepening Insolvency: A Viable Cause of Action, A Rehash of Other Causes of Action or a Theory Of Damages.” He has also spoken at the Vendor Compliance Federation (Ft. Lauderdale 2002) conference on charge backs, and has spoken several times before the National Business Institute, and the national Association of Credit Managers on various bankruptcy and creditors rights issues. In 2003, he authored the chapter on bankruptcy in an Austrian publication geared toward German speakers doing business in the United States, and in the fall of 2009, will begin as an adjunct professor of bankruptcy at Nova Southeastern University’s School of Law. Additionally, Mr. Reich is an active member of the community. In 1998, he was recognized for his outstanding contributions to the community and the Chamber of Commerce by the Miramar/Pembroke Chamber of Commerce when he received both their annual Pinnacle and Chairperson’s Awards, and was awarded the Southwest Broward Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Chairperson’s Award again in both 2000 and 2001. In both2000 and 2001, Mr. Reich was honored by the South Florida Business Journal as one of four finalists for its “Up and Comer” attorney of the year. Mr. Reich received both his B.A., cum laude, and his J.D., with honors, from Vanderbilt University. While in law school, Mr. Reich was associate managing editor of the Law Review, on the Moot Court Board, and a member of the Phil Delta Phi Legal Honor Society.
Thomas J. Sansone, a partner at Carmody & Torrance LLP, concentrates his practice in civil litigation, with emphasis on commercial, construction, and insolvency litigation. He has tried more than eighty cases to conclusion in Connecticut Superior Court, the Federal District Court for the District of Connecticut, and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut, and has argued before both the State Supreme and Appellate Courts. Much of his trial work involves complex banking issues, including lender liability cases, contested foreclosure/collection matters, and representation of creditors in adversary bankruptcy proceedings. Mr. Sansone received his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from the Boston University College of Liberal Arts in 1982 and his law degree from the Boston University School of Law in 1985. While in law school, he completed internships with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and Greater Boston Legal Services. Mr. Sansone joined the law firm of Carmody & Torrance in 1985 and worked for ten years in the firm’s main office in Waterbury. In July of 1995, he became the administrative partner of the firm’s branch office in New Haven, where twenty attorneys are resident. He has served as a panelist for various state and local bar association seminars, and has worked as an arbitrator and mediator in a variety of alternative dispute resolution programs. He is a member of the New Haven County, Connecticut, and American Bar associations, including the Commercial Law & Bankruptcy and Construction Law sections of the CBA. Since 1994, he has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the CBA's Commercial Law & Bankruptcy Section. He is past president of the Waterbury Young Lawyers Bar Association. From 1987 to 1991, he served as an instructor with the American Institute of Banking.
