Event
London, England
Jonathan Cooper, Richard Kohn and William Starshak, principals in the firm's Commercial Finance Group, and Dimitri Karcazes, principal in the firm's Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights Group, participated in organizing the 5th Annual Commercial Finance Association International Lending Conference held in London on June 14-15, 2011.
Richard Kohn gave the keynote remarks and spoke on a variety of international lending topics, including structuring cross-border transactions and borrowing base issues. He also moderated a panel surveying recent international deals. Richard has served as General Co-Counsel of the Commercial Finance Association since January 2002. He was selected in 2010 and 2011 by Chambers Global as a leading U.S. lawyer in the category of Banking & Finance. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Attorneys, and for the past ten years has been active on various projects for the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in the area of international secured transactions. Richard practices extensively in the field of cross-border asset-based lending, and is a frequent author and lecturer on the subject.
William Starshak moderated two panels: one on cross-border lending in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia, and the other on due diligence issues with respect to cross-border loans. Bill is an annual panelist at the CFA's International Asset-Based Lending Conference and lectures several times a year in the United States, Latin America and Europe on cross-border lending issues. Bill has been active with the UNCITRAL project to develop a secured transactions legislative guide by helping to draft significant portions of the guide.
Dimitri Karcazes moderated a panel of workout and insolvency specialists in a discussion about current issues in cross-border insolvencies and workouts. A frequent speaker on bankruptcy and commercial finance issues in the United States and abroad, Dimitri has given presentations for INSOL Europe, American Bar Association, American Bankruptcy Institute, Chicago Bar Association, Commercial Finance Association, Risk Management Association and Turnaround Management Association, on such topics as cross-border insolvencies, DIP financing/use of cash collateral, bankruptcy sales, and intercreditor and subordination agreements. As a commissioner from the state of Illinois to the Uniform Law Commission, Dimitri served on the committee to harmonize the laws of the United States, Mexico and Canada with respect to the Convention on the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade.
Rounding out the Goldberg Kohn cross-border team is Jon Cooper, who played a major role in organizing this year's conference but was unable to attend due to work commitments. Jon is an annual panelist at CFA's International Asset-Based Lending Conference. He practices extensively in the field of cross-border finance, and is a frequent author and lecturer on the subject. Jon is the Chair of the American Bar Association Subcommittee on Cross Border and Trade Finance, and has also been active in the UNCITRAL projects.
