About the Authors

• Jurisdiction: United States

About the Authors

Leslie A. Berkoff is a partner with the firm of Moritt Hock & Hamroff LLP in New York and serves as chair of the firm's Bankruptcy Practice group. She represents a variety of corporate debtors, trustees, creditors and creditor committees both nationally and locally. Her practice also includes an emphasis on equipment leasing and health care law, and she has experience in commercial litigation and corporate transactions. Ms. Berkoff frequently serves as a mediator, and is on the Mediation Panels for the Eastern, Southern and Northern Districts of the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts in New York and the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts in Delaware and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as well as the Commercial Mediation Panel for Nassau County. She received her J.D. in 1990 from Hofstra University School of Law.

Scott K. Brown is a partner with Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP in Phoenix, where he represents commercial, agricultural and private lenders, religious institutions, health care companies, and other businesses in a broad array of transactions and litigation. His experience includes both in-house and outside counsel roles in loan origination and documentation, regulatory compliance, advising religious institutions, litigation in state and federal court, receiverships and bankruptcies. Mr. Brown is a contributor to and co-founder of the ABI Journal's humor column, Chapter 8 Humor. He received both his J.D. and B.A. from Brigham Young University.

Francis L. Carter is a full-time mediator and settlement counselor in Miami and has mediated nearly 1,000 bankruptcy and commercial civil cases. He also assists trial lawyers in preparing for and participating in mediations before other mediators. Mr. Carter is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1991, as well as in Chambers USA: Americas Leading Lawyers for Business. He is also listed as a Top Lawyer in the South Florida Legal Guide and in Florida Trends Legal Elite, as well as in the Florida edition of Super Lawyers. Mr. Carter is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia Law School, after which he served for two years as a Captain in the U.S. Army. During his legal career, he has been a partner in or Of Counsel to several leading law firms, including, among others, Steel Hector & Davis (now Squire Patton Boggs) and Akerman.

C. Edward Dobbs is a senior partner in the Atlanta office of Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs LLP and has practiced law for more than 42 years. He has focused his practice on documenting commercial loan transactions, representing creditors and debtors in debt restructurings and chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, and serving as a neutral in arbitrations and mediations. Mr. Dobbs is a Fellow in the American College of Commercial Finance Attorneys (and past president), the American College of Bankruptcy, the American Bar Foundation and the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia; the 2012 recipient of the Atlanta Bar Association's David W. Pollard Award for lifetime achievement in the field of bankruptcy; a Master of the Bench in the Georgia Bankruptcy American Inn of Court; past president of the Georgia Bar's Bankruptcy Section; and a member of the Board of Directors of the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute. He is the author of two legal treatises and numerous law review articles, and has lectured widely on commercial law and ADR subjects. Mr. Dobbs has served as a mediator for over 25 years in a range of complex commercial matters throughout the U.S., including disputes under Articles 2 and 9 of the UCC, breach-of-contract claims, plan-confirmation disputes, voidable transfer claims, intellectual property disputes, real estate investment controversies, disputes under partnership and investment banking agreements, business separations and dissolutions, lender-liability matters, inter-bank claims, and various controversies involving conversion, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. He is also a frequent lecturer on negotiation and mediation, has served as a faculty member for the past five years at the ABI/St. John's University Law School 40-Hour...