Howard B. Brownstein, President | The Brownstein Corp.

Howard Brownstein is a nationally-known turnaround and crisis management professional, and is the President of The Brownstein Corporation, which provides turnaround management and advisory services to companies and their stakeholders, as well as M&A services, fiduciary services, and litigation consulting, investigations and valuation services. Previously he held partnership or senior executive roles in larger turnaround management firms, where, in addition to leading turnaround assignments for clients, advising senior management and fulfilling a senior management role, he had overall responsibility for transactional activities and the marketing of the firm’s services, and gained extensive experience in valuing businesses, obtaining financing, and selling businesses.

Howard Brownstein has served as Financial Advisor to Debtors and to lenders and Creditor Committees in bankruptcy proceedings, and as a litigation expert in several cases, including the landmark Merry-Go-Round bankruptcy. Mr. Brownstein served as Chief Re structuring Officer in U.S. Mortgage which involved a $138 million mortgage fraud, and as Plan Administrator in Montgomery Ward LLC, the largest retail liquidation in history.

Mr. Brownstein regularly serves as an independent corporate board member for publicly held and privately-owned companies, as well as large nonprofits. He has been named “Directorship Certified” and a “Board Leadership Fellow” by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), served as Board Chair and President of its Philadelphia Chapter, and regularly served as a faculty member for its programs. He also served as Vice Chair of the ABA Corporate Governance Committee and co-chaired its programming and has been named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, which is limited to one percent of lawyers admitted to practice in any state. He has been a board chair, and also chaired board Audit, Risk, Nominating and Strategic Planning/Risk Assessment committees, and is a Qualified Financial Expert (QFE) for Sarbanes-Oxley purposes.

Howard Brownstein serves on the Board of Paragon Technologies (OTCMKTS: PGNT), a publicly-held holding company, and chairs its Audit Committee. He also serves as Board Chair of Community Council Health Systems, a large nonprofit provider of behavioral health and special education services. He served for over 13 years until its sale in 2023 on the Board of P&F Industries (NasdaqGM: PFIN), a publicly-held manufacturer/importer of air-powered tools, and chaired its Nom/Gov and Strategic Planning Risk Assessment Committees, He serves on the Board of Mera key, a large nonprofit provider of education and human services with more than 10,000 employees in several states.

He served as Board Chair/CEO of Universal Services Associates, a designer and manufacturer of museum exhibits. He also served on the Board of Renew Financial, a leading provider of innovative PACE financing for home improvement projects, where he chaired its Risk and Operating Committees, as well as on the Board of A.M. Castle & Co. (OTCQB: CASL), a multinational metals distribution and supply chain solutions company. He also served on the Board and chaired the Audit Committee of PICO Holdings (Nasdaq: PICO), a publicly-held diversified holding company with investments in water resources and storage operations, and real estate operations, and chaired the Audit Committee of LMG2, successor to Chicago Loop Parking, a $600Mil parking infrastructure entity in downtown Chicago, in which a lender group led by Société Générale succeeded to ownership following a restructuring. He also served as sole Board member of Betsey Johnson LLC, a privately-held designer and retailer of women’s apparel with equity sponsor Castanea Partners, and he previously served on the Board of Directors of Special Metals Corporation, a $1 billion nickel alloy producer, where he also chaired the Audit Committee. He also served on the Board and Audit Committee of Magna Trax Corporation, a $500 million manufacturer of metal buildings. He also served as the Board Chair of the National Philanthropic Trust, then the largest independent provider of donor advised funds. Mr. Brownstein previously served on the boards of a regional bank, a retail department store, and nonprofit Boards including Chair of a United Way agency.

Mr. Brownstein is a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP). He served on the International Board of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), its Executive Committee, and chaired its Audit Committee, and received TMA’s “Outstanding Individual Contribution”. He served on the Board of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), co-chaired its Complex Financial Restructuring Program and its Mid Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop, and is a Coordinating Editor of ABI Journal. He served on the Governing Board of Secured Finance Network Association (formerly CFA) Education Foundation. Mr. Brownstein is a frequent speaker at professional and educational programs, including at Harvard Business School, Wharton, NYU, Villanova Law School, ABI, ABA, the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and TMA. He has published over 130 articles, textbook chapters and e-books, including ABI’s Problems in the Code, has served on the Editorial Board of The Journal of Corporate Renewal, and chairs the Editorial Advisory Board of abfJournal.

Howard Brownstein is a graduate of Harvard Law and Business Schools, and of the University of Pennsylvania, where he obtained B.S. and B.A. degrees from Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Brownstein is admitted to the bars of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Florida, but does not actively practice law. He also served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, attaining the rank of First Lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps. He is reasonably fluent in Spanish and also speaks some French and Japanese.

Laura Davis Jones, Partner | Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, Wilmington

Laura Davis Jones is a name partner, a member of the firm’s managing committee, and the managing partner of the firm’s Delaware office. She gained national recognition as debtor’s counsel in the Continental Airlines bankruptcy case, and has represented numerous debtors, creditors’ committees, bank groups, acquirers, and other significant constituencies in chapter 11 cases and workout proceedings. She lectures at national bankruptcy and litigation seminars, and has authored numerous articles. Ms. Jones was awarded the 2023 Tina’s Brozman Mentoring Award at the Tina’s Wish 15th Annual Benefit, has been named “Deal Maker of the Year” by The American Lawyer, and has been profiled on additional occasions in The American Lawyer.

Ms. Jones has been named continuously by her peers as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” and as one of the “Best Lawyers in Delaware,” and was selected as one of the top ten lawyers in Delaware by “Delaware Super Lawyers.” She is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy (appointed Third Circuit director in 2022) and a Chambers USA “Star Individual,” the highest honor a lawyer can receive. Ms. Jones has been recognized in the K&A Restructuring Register and the Lawdragon 500 since their inception, has been named repeatedly to the International Who’s Who of Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers, and holds an AV Peer Rating, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer recognition for ethical standards and legal ability. In 2018, she received the prestigious “Women Leadership” award at Global M&A Network’s Turnaround Atlas Awards, which honors the achievements of influential women leaders in the restructuring and turnaround communities. In 2018, Ms. Jones was listed by Who’s Who Legal among “Thought Leaders – Restructuring & Insolvency.” She was also listed by Lawdragon as one of the 2023 and 2022 “500 Leading U.S. Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyers” and one of the 2020 “500 Leading Global Restructuring & Insolvency Lawyers.” She started her career as a judicial law clerk in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Ms. Jones is admitted to practice in Delaware and the District of Columbia.

Recent debtor clients include M & G USA Corporation, True Religion, American Apparel, Emerald Oil, Deb Stores, Cache Inc., Magnum Hunter Resources, Delivery Agent, Revstone Industries, Exide Technologies, EveryWare Global, AFA Investment and SS Body Armor, Inc. Recent creditor representations include the creditors’ committees of TK Holdings (Takata Americas), LCI Holding Company (“LifeCare”) and NE Opco, and co-counsel to the second lien notes indenture trustee of Energy Future Holdings Corporation.

Rafael X. Zahralddin-Aravena, Partner | Lewis Brisbois

Rafael X. Zahralddin-Aravena is a skilled business lawyer and litigator with significant experience advising clients in corporate and commercial litigation, insolvency, distressed M&A, compliance, corporate law and entity formation, corporate governance, commercial transactions, cyber law, regulatory actions and cross-border issues.

Rafael represents clients in all aspects of bankruptcy and restructuring and has extensive experience in international commercial law issues, including cross-border insolvency, federal bankruptcy court matters, and assignments for the benefits of creditors and receiverships. Rafael’s international law experience particularly in international commercial transactions brings a unique and nuanced approach to business issues both inside and outside of distressed situations. He has also worked for two decades with early stage companies and venture capitalists and private venture funds as both a transactional lawyer and a corporate litigator.

He has assisted businesses in starting, selling, or buying a business, and dealing with employees and contracts, among other operational issues. This experience has been critical in representation of both debtors and creditors committees in chapter 11. Rafael is noted for his problem solving abilities, especially with varied constituencies on official and ad hoc committees, including trade creditors, bondholders, labor unions and other key stakeholders in insolvency matters.

I. Strengths and weaknesses of bankruptcy as a restructuring solution | 2:00pm – 2:30pm

II. Assignment for Benefit of Creditors as a nonbankruptcy alternative | 2:30pm – 3:00pm

Break | 3:00pm – 3:10pm

III. Consensual restructuring as a nonbankruptcy alternative | 3:10pm – 3:40pm

• The role of nonlawyer professionals