Mr. Dwayne M Murray
Chapter 7 Trustee
Murray & Murray
http://www.murraylaw.net
Dwayne M. Murray is a Past President and CEO of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees and the Managing Member in the Baton Rouge Law Firm of Murray & Murray, LLC. He holds the bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Juris Doctorate from the Southern University Law Center. He has served as a Chapter 7 Panel Trustee since 1993 for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Louisiana. He has been appointed Chapter 11 Trustee, Liquidating Trustee and as Special Master in state court. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, United States District Courts for the Middle, Eastern and Western Districts of Louisiana. Murray is affiliated with the Turnaround Management Association, American Bankruptcy Institute, National Bar Association, Louisiana State Bar Association, and the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees.

Mr. Thomas P Owen Jr.
Stanley Reuter Thornton Alford LLC
Thomas P. Owen, Jr. joined Stanley Reuter Thornton Alford LLC in 2004 following a clerkship with the Honorable James L. Dennis of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He concentrates his practice in providing legal advice and representing business clients - particularly concerning closely held companies - both in transactions and in litigation. He also represents and provides advice to lawyers regarding legal malpractice claims, disciplinary complaints, fee disputes, law firm governance and dissolutions, legal ethics advice, and law firm business issues.
Mr. Owen graduated with a B.A. from Emory University in 1995. He graduated summa cum laude and Order of the Coif from Tulane Law School in 2002, where he served as Editor in Chief of the Tulane Law Review.
Mr. Owen is currently the Bar Examiner for Code I (Property and Family Law) of the Louisiana Bar Exam, is a member of the Board of Advisory Editors of the Tulane Law Review, is a former President of the Tulane Law Review Alumni Association, and has made multiple presentations on the issues of business transactions and litigation, legal ethics, and professionalism, and for the past several years has co-taught a Computer Law class with fellow firm member Bryan Reuter.
Mr. Owen has been selected for inclusion in Louisiana Super Lawyers every year since 2013 when he was initially listed as a Rising Star, has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America every year since 2016 for Commercial Litigation and has also been selected in the areas of Appellate Practice, Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law and Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants. He has also been named a Top Lawyer by New Orleans Magazine for Legal Malpractice Law in 2018, 2021, and 2022 and for Appellate Practice in 2019.

Mr. Louis M. Phillips
Partner
Kelly Hart Pitre
https://kellyhart.com/
Louis M. Phillips is a partner at Kelly Hart & Pitre and leader of the firm's Bankruptcy & Business Reorg. practice. Mr. Phillips provides legal representation and consultation for debtors, creditors, and trustees over a broad practice area, including transaction and business structuring and restructuring, bankruptcy reorganization, and bankruptcy and commercial litigation. He also handles civil cases in state and federal courts and has handled matters before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. Phillips represents debtors, debtors-in-possession, and creditors in Chapter 11 cases, borrowers and lenders in loan restructuring and workouts, and entities of all types in all practice areas of bankruptcy cases and proceedings.
Mr. Phillips serves as the permanent chair of the Annual Bankruptcy Law Seminar sponsored by the Louisiana State University Center for Continuing Professional Development, a program he developed in 1995. He has taught educational programs on bankruptcy law for state judges, and has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at LSU Law School since 1988. Phillips was formerly a contributing editor to the Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 2nd and is the author of numerous articles for law reviews and other periodicals. Mr. Phillips is a frequent speaker and writer for legal education seminars across the country, including the Advanced Bankruptcy Course of the State Bar of Texas, Western District of Texas Bankruptcy Bench Bar; LSU Annual Bankruptcy Law Seminar, LSU Family Law and Recent Developments in Law Jurisprudence Seminars, and seminars sponsored by such esteemed groups as Stetson University College of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Texas Tech School of Law, Norton Institutes on Bankruptcy Law, American Bankruptcy Institute, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees, Rocky Mountain Bankruptcy Symposium Law Education Institute, 5th Circuit Bench-Bar Bankruptcy Conference, Mississippi Bankruptcy Conference, Bankruptcy Law Institute, MidSouth Commercial Law Institute, the Annual Oil & Gas Law Conference, and the American Bar Association as well as numerous federal district bar associations and those of and in the states of Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin. Among his many other speaking engagements are lectures to the National Association of Attorneys General, Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and VISA International.
From 1988 - 2002, Mr. Phillips served as the Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana. During his tenure, he authored numerous opinions of first impression of Louisiana state law and bankruptcy law, and was the author of a number of opinions that ultimately were adopted by the Fifth Circuit and other courts as the law of those courts (i.e., Matter of Mercer, 246 F.3d 391 (5th Cir.2001) involving credit card fraud cases under section 523(a)(2) and Matter of Orso, 283 F.3d 686 (5th Cir. 2002) (wherein the Court reversed the panel and prior jurisprudence concerning the Louisiana law exemption over structured settlement annuities).
Mr. Phillips presided over the first conversion to a totally electronic filing and docketing system within the Federal Courts of the United States.

Mr. Ryan J Richmond
Sternberg, Naccari & White, LLC
http://www.rjrichmondlaw.com
Ryan J. Richmond is a partner at the law firm of Sternberg, Naccari & White, LLC where he is the managing member of the firm’s Baton Rouge office. Since 2020, he has served as a Subchapter V trustee throughout Louisiana. Ryan earned his JD from LSU in 2006 and later an MBA in 2017. He clerked for the Hon. Douglas D. Dodd from 2006-07. Ryan's practice focuses on small business clients, both in and out of bankruptcy.

Mr. Ryan C. Robison
Staff Attorney
Ch. 13 Trustee Keith A. Rodriguez, Western District of Louisiana, Lafayette/Lake Charles Divisions
Ryan Robison is Staff Attorney for Chapter 13 Trustee, Keith A. Rodriguez in the Lafayette and Lake Charles Divisions of the Western District of Louisiana. He previously held the same position for Chapter 13 Trustee, Jon C. Thornburg, in the Alexandria Division from 2013-2019. Prior to joining the Chapter 13 Trustee’s office in 2013, he served as associate counsel for the Wheelis & Rozanski Law Firm representing local and national creditors.

Mr. Bill J. Rochelle III
American Bankruptcy Institute
Bill Rochelle joined the American Bankruptcy Institute in 2015 as its Editor-at-Large, writing every day on developments in consumer and reorganization law. For the prior nine years, he was the bankruptcy columnist for Bloomberg News.
Bill got his undergraduate and law degrees from Columbia University, where he received Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar awards from the law school. Before turning to journalism, he practiced bankruptcy law for 35 years, including 17 years as a partner in the New York office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
In addition to writing, Bill travels the country for ABI, speaking to bar groups and professional organizations on hot topics in the turnaround community and trends in consumer bankruptcies.

Ms. Lacey E. Rochester
Shareholder
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC
Lacey Rochester is a member of Baker Donelson's Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy group where she helps formulate practical legal solutions to resolve the challenges of distressed business dealings. She regularly counsels companies facing financial challenges and has extensive experience in representing various constituencies, including creditors, debtors, trustees, and interested parties in bankruptcy cases and adversary proceedings. Lacey advises on the full spectrum of bankruptcy and restructuring matters in bankruptcy, federal and state courts. Ms. Rochester's prior experience includes serving as a law clerk to the honorable Judge Wendy Hagenau with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia

Mr. Michael H. Schmidt
Managing Director & Board Member
Chaffe & Associates, Inc
Michael H. Schmidt is a Managing Director and member of the board of directors at Chaffe & Associates, Inc, a middle market financial services and investment banking firm.  Mr. Schmidt also heads the firm’s energy investment banking practice with an emphasis on the entire energy value chain including energy services, exploration and production, transition energy as well as midstream and downstream associated business.  Mr. Schmidt has worked on many financial restructurings, both in and out of court. Within Chapter 11 Bankruptcies, Mr. Schmidt has testified and provided expert witness testimony on serval occasions. In particular, he has sold assets of oil and gas companies through Section 363, or otherwise worked to disposed of assets through Plans of Reorganization, including those of TXCO Resources (Western District of Texas, San Antonio), VPR Operating (Western District of Texas, Austin), Buccaneer Energy (Eastern District of Texas, Victoria), Miller Energy Resources (District of Alaska), Venocco, LLC (District of Delaware), Furie Operating Alaska (District of Delaware) and Krewe Energy (Eastern District of Louisiana), to name a few.  Mr. Schmidt has also worked extensively in the maritime industry and has restructured several transportation related businesses including Bender Shipbuilding (Southern District of Alabama) and TrailerBridge (Middle District of Florida). Mr. Schmidt serves as an Adjunct Professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business.

Ms. Lucy G. Sikes
Lucy Griffin Sikes, Attorney at Law, LLC
Lucy G. Sikes began her career in bankruptcy representing creditors in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1998. She was first appointed to serve as a Chapter 7 Trustee in the Western District of Louisiana (Monroe Division) in 2000. After 7 years in that assignment, she became the standing Chapter 13 trustee for the Shreveport Division. She returned to serve in the Chapter 7 panel in 2016, this time in the Lafayette and Lake Charles Divisions. She has managed various Chapter 11 cases during her career and also is currently serving as a Subchapter V Chapter 11 Trustee in the Western District of Louisiana.
She has litigated a number of reported cases on behalf of clients, including Johnson v. Cottonport Bank (whether tribal payments were property of the estate); Reason v. Cottonport Bank (dischargeability case with unique facts); In re Burgess (whether crop disaster payments were property of the estate); In re Hill (application of vehicle exemption statute). She also has testified in several cases that lead to convictions in bankruptcy fraud cases.

She’s a native of Louisiana, having graduated from Louisiana State University and Loyola Law School New Orleans. An endurance runner, she has completed four marathons, four duathlons and 24 half marathons, and is a devoted practitioner of Baptiste style power yoga. She has two adult children and is married to a senior journalist photographer for Associated Press.

Mr. Paul Douglas Stewart Jr.
Partner
Stewart Robbins Brown & Altazan, LLC
http://www.stewartrobbins.com
A Certified Business Bankruptcy Specialist, Mr. Stewart is licensed in Louisiana and clerked for the Honorable Louis M. Phillips from 1998–2000.

Mr. Stewart is a founding member of the firm. He has authored numerous bankruptcy related articles over the past 20 years and lectures extensively on bankruptcy topics. Mr. Stewart regularly represents creditor committees, debtors-in-possession, and trustees in commercial bankruptcy cases across the country. Mr. Stewart holds the designation of Advocate from the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, and is perennially recognized by Super Lawyers, Top Attorneys, U.S. Leaders in Law, and others as an outstanding lawyer in the area of Bankruptcy.

Mr. Coleman L. Torrans
Lugenbuhl, Wheaton, Peck, Rankin & Hubbard
http://www.lawla.com/
Coleman L. Torrans works in the New Orleans office of Lugenbuhl, Wheaton, Peck, Rankin & Hubbard as an associate with the Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditors' Rights Section. He chiefly represents stakeholders in complex bankruptcy matters pending in the Gulf Coast region and beyond. Coleman received his Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Tulane University Law School. While in law school, Coleman served as the Senior Articles Editor for the Tulane Law Review. His comment discussing the Fourth Amendment implications of the use of an undisclosed surveillance technology was published by the Review and was recognized for distinction by the Burton Awards at its annual ceremony at the Library of Congress. Additionally, Coleman served indigent clients while working as a Student Attorney in the Tulane Criminal Justice Clinic. He also assisted in teaching as a Senior Fellow in the Legal Research and Writing Department of the law school. For his academic work, legal writing ability, and contributions to the law school community, the faculty of the law school awarded Coleman the John Minor Wisdom Award.

Mrs. Madison M Tucker
Jones Walker LLP
Madison Tucker is an associate in Jones Walker's Litigation Practice Group. Madison’s practice focuses primarily on the areas of bankruptcy and creditor and debtor rights. She represents, debtors, Unsecured Creditors Committees, secured and unsecured creditors in all types of bankruptcy cases.
Madison is a graduate of Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center, where she received her juris doctor degree, cum laude. She also earned a diploma in comparative law and received CALI awards for immigration law, conflict of laws, and legal research and writing.