Mr. Stewart F. Peck
Lugenbuhl, Wheaton, Peck, Rankin & Hubbard
Stewart focuses on bankruptcy, restructuring, and creditors’ rights; admiralty and maritime; marine finance and vessel documentation; asset-based finance; litigation, corporate and commercial law; and oil and gas. Stewart is listed as one of the Top 50 Lawyers in the State of Louisiana by Super Lawyers and is ranked in Chambers and Partners.
Stewart has been practicing law in New Orleans for more than 40 years. He is a 1974 graduate of Kenyon College, magna cum laude, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated top in his class in 1977 from Tulane Law School where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a member of the Tulane Law Review.
Stewart has been lead trial and appellate counsel in over 80 reported cases in the federal and state courts. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers in New Orleans, Louisiana Super Lawyers, and Chambers USA. He has participated in oral argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 19 times, as well as before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the Louisiana Supreme Court, and the Louisiana Courts of Appeal. He is either presently acting or has previously acted as debtor’s lead counsel or creditors’ counsel in a number of Chapter 11 bankruptcies involving companies operating in and outside of the Gulf Coast region. These cases include a number of relatively large reorganizations, including Torch Offshore, Inc., Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co., Inc., Gulf Fleet Holdings, Inc., Trico Marine Services, Inc., Force Energy, Inc., and Borders Group, Inc. Stewart has also handled significant marine finance transactions, as well as substantial mergers and acquisitions. He acts as general counsel to a number of regional businesses in providing counsel and his legal expertise.
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.
Mr. Michael D. Rubenstein
Shareholder
Liskow & Lewis, APLC
Michael Rubenstein is a bankruptcy practitioner with a diverse commercial practice. He handles bankruptcies, restructurings, and reorganizations, as well as complex business litigation and criminal law.
With a reputation for efficiency and effectiveness, his bankruptcy practice is largely devoted to the representation of creditors, often in the energy sector, in complex reorganizations throughout the U.S.
Michael also routinely handles the defense of preference litigation in some of the largest bankruptcy cases in the U.S. and is certified in the area of business bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification. “Liskow’s depth of bankruptcy and courtroom experience is truly an asset for every client that hires us in these areas,” Michael notes.
Major financial institutions throughout Texas and Louisiana regularly seek Michael’s guidance. In addition, he has extensive experience in general business litigation and government enforcement proceedings, and has managed complex, large and difficult electronic discovery projects in both criminal and civil cases.
Michael served as a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. He has also served on the firm’s compensation, technology, library, medical, and office administration committees. He was a law clerk to the Honorable Edith Brown Clement, Judge, United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana from1993–1995.
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.
Mr. Daryl J Smith
DARYL J SMITH CHAPTER 13 TRUSTEE
Daryl J. Smith, Esq. Chapter 13 Trustee Western District of Louisiana, Shreveport.
Daryl J. Smith is the Chapter 13 Trustee in Western Louisiana, Shreveport. Smith, previously served as a senior staff attorney to the Chapter 13 case Trustee for Western Tennessee, Memphis, for a decade. Prior to practicing in the area bankruptcy law, Smith was an assistant district attorney for the State of Mississippi in which he tried thirty-six jury trials to verdict. He is a member of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT) and the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI).
Smith has been a guest speaker and published author on various panels in bankruptcy and finance. Some of his awards include the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ), Honorable Cornelius Blackshear Presidential Fellow. American Bankruptcy Institute's ABI 40 under 40. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science in Political Science at Murray State University, and later earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence at Mississippi College School of Law. Smith is barred in the States of Mississippi and Tennessee. He is admitted to practice in federal court for the Western District of Tennessee and the Western District of Louisiana.
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. David F Waguespack
Attorney
Carver, Darden, Koretzky, Tessier, Finn, Blossman & Areaux, LLC
David F. Waguespack is managing partner of Carver Darden. He has represented lenders, debtors, creditor committees, investors, officers and directors, and other parties in complex Chapter 11 cases and related litigation and has served as a Chapter 11 trustee. Mr. Waguespack is recognized for his work in bankruptcy and restructuring in Best Lawyers, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (Tier 1), Louisiana Super Lawyers (Top 50) , and the Legal 500. He is board certified in business bankruptcy by the American Board of Certification and by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization. He has chaired several subcommittees of the Business Bankruptcy Committee of the American Bar Association, including Courts and Administration, Corporate Governance, Limited Liability Companies, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Mr. Waguespack served as an adjunct professor of business law at Tulane University for 20 years. Mr. Waguespack graduated from Rhodes College in 1988 with the John Henry Davis Award for the outstanding History major and from Tulane University Law School in 1991 as an Associate Editor of the Tulane Law Review and member of the Order of the Coif.
Mr. Gregory J Walsh
Staff Attorney
Chapter 13 Trustee – S.J. Beaulieu, Jr. - Eastern District of Louisiana
Greg Walsh joined the Chapter 13 Trustee's Office as a Staff Attorney in 2023. He worked for the previous 11 years at a creditor's rights firm, representing local and national lenders in consumer and business bankruptcy proceedings, and in associated adversary proceedings, throughout Louisiana and Mississippi. Before that, Greg practiced in the civil and commercial litigation sections of a defense firm in New Orleans, representing clients in a wide variety of civil and commercial cases, including life, health and disability insurance claims; contract and lease disputes; premises liability claims; and products liability claims for motor vehicle, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.
