ATLANTA—Jack Williams, professor of law, and Jessica Gabel Cino, associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law, will be featured panelists at the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute (SBLI) March 22-24 in Atlanta.
Jack Williams
The SBLI seminar brings together bankruptcy experts, including judges, professors and practicing attorneys from across the nation.
Williams will deliver the keynote, "The Trump Economy: Where It's Going and What It Means for Bankruptcy Professionals," with Roger Tutterow, professor of economics at Kennesaw State University and director of the Econometric Center, at 9 a.m., Thursday, March 22.
"Wall Street seems to be doing well under the new administration, but certain segments of the economy are struggling," said Williams, who serves on the Board of the Department of Human Services for the State of Georgia. "We will discuss where the economy is heading, and what bankruptcy professionals can expect going forward. I will focus my remarks on the tax changes, particularly in how those changes will affect businesses in financial distress, and on student loans."
Williams also will be a panelist in the breakout session, "Financial Distress Autopsy: Business and Legal Issues." Williams and co-panelists Reginald Dawson, senior vice president in the Credit Resolution Group of Wells Fargo Bank, Judge Barbara Ellis-Monro of the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia and Neville Reid, a capital partner who co-chairs the Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditors' Rights Group at Fox Swibel Levin & Carroll, will examine common causes of, and business and legal responses to, multiple financial distress scenarios.
"We will talk about early warning signs, how businesses and the professionals who advise them deal with financial distress, how to advise clients and manage expectations, and how to manage conflict when the legal and business perspectives may diverge," Williams said.
Jessica Gabel Cino
Cino, author of the treatise The Law of Lender Liability and co-author of the Bankruptcy Appeals Manual, will close the conference with a panel on professionalism, "How Technology is Shaping & Changing the Practice of Law" at 11:20 a.m., Saturday, March 24.
Cino and husband Ryan Cino, chief technology officer of 1Q, a mobile market research technology and survey tool, and Taimur Ghaznavi (J.D. '11), a manager in the Forensics Technology and Discovery Services group at Ernst & Young, will discuss the "new normal" of legal practice, how automation, AI and analytics work and the application of these new tools in the legal profession.
"As technology shapes the practice of law, it is incumbent on attorneys to both keep pace and also provide clients with technological tools that can save time and money," Cino said. "Clients are going to demand it no matter what, so we should be prepared as a profession."
For more information, visit sbli-inc.org/index.html.