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 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.
Hon. Robert R. Summerhays
United States District Judge
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
Judge Robert Summerhays was appointed to the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana by President Trump in September 2018. Prior to this appointment, Judge Summerhays served as the Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the Western District of Louisiana. Judge Summerhays was previously a partner in the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where his primary practice area was federal court litigation. Judge Summerhays served as a law clerk for Judge W. Eugene Davis (U.S. Court of Appeals) in Lafayette from 1994 to 1995. Judge Summerhays received his law degree in 1994 from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was an Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review.
Judge Stephen D. Wheelis
Judge
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana
http://www.lawb.uscourts.gov
Stephen D. Wheelis was appointed by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 25, 2019 to serve as a Bankruptcy Judge for the U. S. Bankruptcy Court, W. D. of Louisiana at Alexandria and Monroe. Prior to his appointment, he was a shareholder of Wheelis & Rozanski, APLC, in Alexandria for over 20 years and initially practiced as a partner with Provosty, Sadler & deLaunay for 14 years.
His practice included representation of creditors and trustees in all bankruptcy chapters, banking, business & commercial law, litigation & appeals. He actively practiced bankruptcy law throughout all Districts of Louisiana and in many other states, pro hac vice.
He is a Board Certified Business Bankruptcy Specialist, certified by the Louisiana Supreme Court and the American Board of Certification since January 1, 1997. He served from 2011-2019 on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Certification, the Standards and Faculty Committees. He has been a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute for more than 20 years. He served as a member of the LSBA Bankruptcy Law Advisory Commission, 1995 - 1998 and 2018-2019, and chaired the LSBA Board of Legal Specialization from 2009-2010. He served as an Assistant Bar Examiner for Code III from 2005-2019 and held memberships in the Louisiana Bankers Association, serving on the Bank Counsel Committee, as well as the Louisiana State, American and Alexandria Bar Associations.
On December 3, 2021, He was appointed to a 3 year term as the 5th Circuit representative on the Bankruptcy Judges Advisory Group for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. He is currently a member of the Crossroads American Inns of Court, The Judge Jerry A. Brown Louisiana Bankruptcy Inn of Court, the Federal Bar Association, The National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, serving as Chair of the NextGeneration Committee, and an Associate Member of NACTT.
He appeared consecutively in the annual editions of Louisiana Super Lawyers, Business Bankruptcy/Creditor Rights, from 2007-2019. He previously served as an adjunct professor for paralegal studies at Northwestern State University and Louisiana College and taught courses for the American Institute of Banking.
Judge Wheelis received his J.D. Degree in 1985 from Tulane University School of Law and his B.A. in Legal Studies from Northeast Louisiana University (now ULM) in 1981.
