“If it can go wrong, it will.” Murphy seems more Nostradamus, at least looking back on 2020. Deadly pandemic, economic crisis, political turmoil: for most all of us, January 1st just can’t come soon enough.
But there are almost always bright spots. For me, high on the list has been watching the great work of the Foundation – and even more
importantly its grantees – continue unabated not just under difficult circumstances, but when the need has been and will continue to be the greatest.
Elsewhere in this edition of College Columns, Judge Janet Bostwick details the great recent work of our Pro Bono Committee, which she so ably chairs. The Committee is charged with reviewing applications for Foundation grants and then making decisions regarding which applicants should receive them, and in what amounts. Those tasks are, of course, both labor-intensive and challenging; and the members of the Committee are tireless. The important takeaway for 2020, however, is that the Foundation remained able to assist multiple local pro bono legal services organizations (also identified individually elsewhere in this edition) just as their needs began to intensify – largely unexpectedly. And it was able to do so entirely because our Fellows contributed so generously to the Foundation in last year’s fundraising campaign, which broke an all-time giving record for the third year in a row.
The unfortunate news for 2021 is that we believe those needs will intensify even further. As the pandemic tragically rages on, the sad reality is that countless consumers, and especially the indigent, are more uncertain about the future every single day. “Without help, how will I make the next mortgage or rent payment?” “How will I pay for day care for my children?” “How will I even put food on the table?” And perhaps most pertinently for us, as leaders in the restructuring community: “Will I have no other choice than bankruptcy? And how will I even pay a lawyer to help me?”
Experts uniformly believe that, under these extraordinary circumstances, there will be an unprecedented spike in consumer bankruptcy filings. And of course, this will place an
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From the Foundation Chair
What a Year This Has Been!
Paul E. Harner, Ballard Spahr LLP
Chair, American College of Bankruptcy Foundation
Foundation Officers
Paul E. Harner
Chair
Jan M. Hayden
Vice Chair
Eric W. Lam
Secretary
Rebecca A. Roof
Treasurer
Foundation Directors
Marc Abrams
Russell M. Blain
Hon. Sheri Bluebond
Hon. Janet E. Bostwick
E. Frank Childress, Jr.
Jeanne P. Darcey
Guy A. Davis
Kenneth H. Eckstein
Rozanne M. Giunta
Craig Goldblatt
Ronald F. Greenspan
Richard F. Holley
Vincent E. Lazar
David E. Leta
Paul S. Singerman
Prof. Elizabeth Tashjian
J. Scott Victor
William L. Wallander
David A. Warfield
Richard L. Wasserman
Hon. Judith H. Wizmur (Ret.)
Senior Director
Richard Carmody
Ex Officio
Melissa S. Kibler
Executive Director
Shari A. Bedker