ABOUT THE AUTHORS

• Jurisdiction: United States

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Patrick E. Mears is a partner in the Grand Rapids, Mich., office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP and is chair of the firm's Finance, Insolvency and Restructuring Department and co-chair of the firm's New York Law Practice Group. He focuses on insolvency, workouts and restructurings, commercial finance, securitizations and creditors' rights, and is admitted to practice in Michigan, Illinois and New York. Mr. Mears represents financial institutions as individual creditors and as members of loan syndicates in matters throughout the country. Although his primary practice is in representing financial institutions as secured and unsecured creditors, he also represents debtors and creditors' committees in bankruptcy cases and out-of-court workouts. Mr. Mears is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the American Law Institute. He is listed in Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers, Michigan Super Lawyers (2006-12) and Who's Who in America. Mr. Mears is a former chair of the Real Estate Financing Group of the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section and is currently chair of the Uniform Commercial Code Committee of the Michigan State Bar's Business Law Section. He is a contributing author to Collier's Bankruptcy Practice Manual, published by LEXIS/NEXIS, he has authored the treatises Bankruptcy Law and Practice and Michigan's Revised Article 9 of the UCC, both of which are published by the University of Michigan Press, and he is the lead author of Strategies for Secured Creditors (Second Edition), a treatise published by the American Law Institute-CLE. Mr. Mears received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1976 and his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan.

John T. Gregg is a partner in the Grand Rapids, Mich., office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP, where he focuses on corporate restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency law. He has experience representing debtors, lenders, committees, trustees, asset-purchasers, lessors and other parties in interest in some of the country's largest and most complex restructuring matters, including General Motors, Chrysler, Refco, Conseco, United Airlines, Delphi and Plas-tech. Mr. Gregg is a frequent writer and speaker on bankruptcy and other commercial issues. He has written and co-edited numerous treatises and articles, including Michigan Security...