FALL 2015
  

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Scot Lund
      
I hope everyone had an enjoyable summer! Fall is upon us and the 2015-16 season of TMA began at our Fall Kickoff held at Tre Monti in Troy on September 10. It was a beautiful evening and everyone seemed to be in good spirits. Members and guests supported our charity for the event, the Ally Jolie Baldwin Foundation which helps children with cancer make their days as full of love as possible. No child should ever endure cancer feeling alone and your support of the Ally Jolie Baldwin Foundation helps make this possible. We are proud to support this fine organization.

Over the summer, the Michigan Chapter of TMA split into TMA Detroit and TMA West Michigan chapters. West Michigan has operated as a sub-chapter for many years and we wish them well as TMA's newest chapter. We look forward to more events and networking opportunities throughout Michigan.

On September 15, 2015, TMA announced its Transaction of the Year awards. Winner in the Mega Company category was the City of Detroit Turnaround. We congratulate firms Conway MacKenzie, Ernst and Young, Jones Day, and Miller Buckfire for their hard work and dedication in making the restructuring a success.

Below are more details on both the new West Michigan chapter, the TMA Transaction of the Year award as well as a Member Spotlight piece on Dan Weiner, Co-Founder and Senior Partner, Schafer and Weiner, PLLC.

Regarding upcoming events, in October we have a panel discussion on "Healthcare: Challenges, Opportunities and What Comes Next" since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. November features a discussion titled " 100 Years in Business-How Companies Survived and Thrived in Detroit". In December, it is our annual Holiday Party, again at the Birmingham Country Club. Mark your calendars! Additionally, keep an eye out for nextGen and Network of Women announcements. As you participate in events this year, we encourage you to spur others at your firms or restructuring professionals in your own networks that aren't attending, to join us.  

Sincerely,
 
Scot R. Lund
TMA Detroit Chapter President

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Written by John Klehm
 
Daniel Weiner, Co-Founder and Senior Partner 
Schafer and Weiner, PLLC

Dan's profile page on the Schafer and Weiner website includes his motto, a quote from Sun Tzu "One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Subduing the other's military without battle is the most skillful". That says much about Dan's approach to his craft.

Dan grew up in metro Detroit, but left Michigan for New York and Hofstra University for law school. Dan's first love in the law was litigation and at that time, Hofstra was one of a select group that offered coursework blessed by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). His attraction to trial work was later combined with an interest in restructuring after studying bankruptcy under professor Alan Resnick who later became editor-in-chief of the Collier on Bankruptcy treatise.

After graduation, he came back to Michigan to start his career. Like a character in a well-known movie, he had to "go see about a girl", someone he had met during undergrad at Michigan State and soon after became his wife (Lisa), and with whom he will soon celebrate 34 years of marriage.

His career started over 35 years ago with one of Detroit's premier creditors' committee specialist law firms. After four years of valuable experience and having developed an entrepreneurial itch, he went out on his own. To manage expenses, he shared office space with another solo bankruptcy practitioner, Arnold "Arnie" Schafer, a decision that would become fortuitous. At the time Dan was doing mostly creditor work and Arnie was a respected debtor's counsel specialist.  After a year of sharing space, they combined their skills and formed their own firm, Schafer and Weiner, in 1985.

Working together, Arnie and Dan developed their firm's reputation for excellence and grew in size. Dan would say his early work as a creditor's rights attorney has made him a better debtor's advocate, the area of much of the firm's activity today. Knowing your opponent's offensive playbook provides invaluable strategy to design unexpected defensive maneuvers.

The firm was shocked in 2007 with the death of Arnie Schafer. It is not uncommon for a death or departure of a co-founding member to be fatal to a law firm.  But that wasn't the case with Schafer and Weiner. It was a challenge and an opportunity for Dan to grow from co-leader to leader, and others in the firm rallied around the firm's supportive work culture to not only survive those difficult days, but thrive.  This month, the firm is proud to celebrate its 30th anniversary - - an accomplishment impossible to have achieved without Dan's valued partners and associates. 

One of the things Dan is most proud of is the professional culture built at Schafer and Weiner. As he describes it, the firm is a "potent team of hard working, intensely loyal professionals, interacting and unselfishly contributing to best serve our clients' needs". The most exciting part of Dan's day is working on the conference room white boards developing creative client strategies with team members. He characterizes his team as "preparation maniacs" that love to out-work and out-think their opponents.  In doing so, they turn adversity into opportunity.

Dan enjoys publishing and public speaking, which helps him learn and grow. In preparation for publishing a piece, "the author learns more than the reader does". What gives Dan the most pleasure, however, is working intimately with his clients as a solution provider.  Clients often arrive thinking they are "finished", with few options and unattractive choices - - but many times, they are just getting started.  When a client walks out of his office with a game plan saying "I feel better than when I walked in", Dan considers that a success.

WEST MICHIGAN FORMS TMA'S LATEST CHAPTER-CONGRATS!

Written By John L. Klehm

For the past nine years, restructuring professionals in West Michigan have organized and operated as a subchapter of TMA Detroit. During this time, they developed their own sub-Chapter Board, arranged separate events as well as their own sponsors. On July 1, 2015 TMA West Michigan was formed as the newest TMA Chapter. The Detroit Chapter wishes our fellow Michigander restructuring professionals all the best as they move forward!
 
TMA West Michigan is led by Ross Meehan, of Rehmann as Board President.
 
Geographically, Michigan is now split, almost down the middle, with restructuring professionals west of Lansing recommended to join West Michigan, east of that, Detroit. The Upper Peninsula is also part of West Michigan. That said, members and prospective members are free to join either.
 
The Detroit Chapter looks forward to working with West Michigan from time to time on joint programming and doing whatever we can to facilitate the growth and development of the TMA throughout Michigan.


TMA TRANSACTION OF THE YEAR AWARD: 
Mega Company Category

On September 15, 2015, the Turnaround Management Association announced the winners of their 2015 Transaction of the Year Awards. Recognition is made in several categories, based on organization size. The Mega Company award this year went to the City of Detroit restructuring.

Congrats to the restructuring professionals involved!
 
Transaction of the Year: Mega Company - City of Detroit, Michigan
Kevyn D. Orr, City of Detroit
Van E. Conway, Conway MacKenzie
Kevin J. Hand, Conway MacKenzie
Gaurav Malhotra, Ernst & Young
Heather Lennox, Jones Day
Thomas A. Wilson, Jones Day
Kenneth A. Buckfire, Miller Buckfire & Co. LLC
James Doak, Miller Buckfire & Co. LLC

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
Douglas Bernstein, Partner, Plunkett Cooney, recently received the 2016 Best Lawyers in America designation, by  Best Lawyers
 
Van Conway, CEO & President , Conway MacKenzie, was featured in the August 3, Bloomberg Brief. Click here to read the article. 
 
Amherst Partners was selected by the M & A Advisor as a finalist for the best deal of the year in the retail/distribution category. The sale was Marshall Distributing and the professionals from Amherst Scott Eisenberg and Sheldon Stone. The awards are on November 17th at the New York Athletic Club in New York City.

Danielle Iafrate
, Conway MacKenzie  John Jansen, Conway MacKenzie and  Alex Petrovich, KeyBank have joined the nextGen board. 
 
Eric Novetsky , Partner, was recently named Partner at Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss.

Meredith Taunt , Corporate Counsel, AlixPartners, LLP, recently joined the firm and was named a Super Lawyers rising Star for 2015.  

PAST EVENT PHOTOS

17th Annual Golf Outing | June 21, 2015

 

First Place
From left to right: Karl Tech, Charlie Flint, 
 Chuck Mouraine and Jim Bitterle

 

 

Second Place
From left to right: Paul Hage, Brendan Joyce,
 Greg Ryan and Jacob Villemure

 

 

Third Place
From left to right: Matt Dekutoski, Bob Tull,
Matt Rybinski and Mike Hausman


From left to right: Tim Ashley, Angus White,
Ian Maloney and Larry Fraley


From left to right: Doug Bernstein, Dennis Lutz,
Patrick Lannen and Rob Marsh
 

2015 Fall Kick-Off & Charity Event

Chapter president Scot Lund with our 2015 charity,
 The Ally Jolie Baldwin Foundation




  
business-white-banner.jpg  

Upcoming Events


October 5-7, 2015
TMA Annual
Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
Scottsdale, Arizona

October 8
Healthcare Panel
Oakland Hills Country Club

October 22
nextGen Social
Dick O' Dow's Irish Pub House

November 5
100 Years in Business
Oakland Hills Country Club

November 18
Network of Women Luncheon
Skyline Club

December 3
Holiday Party & Charity Event
Birmingham Country Club


Visit our new website to sign up for these and other events!

  

Board of Directors

 2015-2016
  
Scot Lund, President
Crestmark Bank
  
Jason Bank, President-Elect
Kerr, Russell and Weber, PLC

Russ Long, Treasurer
O'Keefe

Brendan Best, Director
Schafer and Weiner, PLLC
  
John Dimovski, Director
Harmon Partners
  
Robert Gordon, Director
Clark Hill PLC
  
Paul Hage, Director
Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC

Meagan Hardcastle, Immediate Past President 
Harmon Partners

Mike Hausman, Director
Conway MacKenzie
  
John Klehm, Director
SPECTRUM Commercial Services
  
Kerri Ross, Director
O'Keefe

Merdith Taunt, Director 
AlixPartners, LLP
  
Jacob Villemure, Director
Comerica Bank

Angus White, Director
PNC Business Credit
  
Sharon Kimble, Chapter Executive
TMA Detroit

  
  
GOLD Sponsors
Thank you for your support!
  
Conway MacKenzie
  
   DW
  
     First Business
Click on the logo to visit
our sponsors  
  
  
  
SILVER Sponsors
Thank you for your support!
    
 
 
   


 
 
 
 


 




NEW MEMBERS

Patrick Kelleher

Conway MacKenzie

 

Brett Howard

Conway MacKenzie

 

Jeffrey Peck

Great Lakes Business Credit

 

Seth Drucker II

Foster Swift

 

Glenn Currin

Great Lakes Business Credit

 

Donald Britt

Great Lakes Business Credit

 

Joshua Irving

 

Stephanie Squires

The Financial Solutions Network

 

Christopher Kollmann

Leonhardt Rattunde

 

John McTevia

McTevia & Associates LLC


  
JOIN TMA
    
Looking to renew or Join TMA?
Click here for an application
  
Contact
Sharon Kimble
Chapter Executive
TMA Detroit
734.757.4689
  
Thank you 
2015 Golf Sponsors
    
AlixPartners

Conway MacKenzie

Crestmark Bank

 Dickinson Wright

The Dragich Law Firm

 Foster Swift

Great Lakes Business Credit

Hilco 

 Jaffe Raitt

Liquidity Services, Inc.

Loeb Term Solutions

Mackinac Commercial Credit 

 Maynards

New England Consulting Partners

 Plante Moran

 Plunkett Cooney

PNC Business Credit

Spectrum Commercial Services

  
 Please send us your submissions for our next newsletter - skimble@turnaround.org