Welcome to the February edition of  Focus on Fellows . We invite all Fellows to submit information (whether about themselves or other Fellows) regarding awards, news, job changes, and/or recent publications. Member highlights will be distributed to all Fellows through email and social media. Please email  focus@amercol.org  and include a brief description of the items you would like considered for inclusion in our announcements. Thank you.
OF INTEREST
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION #1: PUBLISH AN ARTICLE
Here is your chance!  

Dear Fellows:

The American Bankruptcy Law Journal is always on the lookout for quality articles on issues pertaining to bankruptcy and insolvency law. The Journal seeks to cover topics of interest to the consumer, commercial, and international bench and bar. Lately, most of the articles submitted to us have focused on international insolvency issues. While the Journal wants to continue covering this important area, we also want to provide more articles that will benefit our readers practicing primarily here in the United States. Thus, we are reaching out to College members to see if you might have briefed a timely issue that could be turned into an article for publication.

The Journal is seeking articles that generate the interest of practitioners but still demonstrate a substantive, in depth, critical approach to the topic at hand. If you think you have a brief or substantive idea that could serve as the basis for an article, but do not want to start work on it without some expression of interest from us, please submit it for consideration to me at the email address below.

Thanks for your consideration.  

Beth Brown, Editor in Chief 
MEMBER NEWS
DBusiness magazine recently named Douglas C. Bernstein (Plunkett Cooney) to its 2020 list of “Top Lawyers.”
Peggy Hunt (Dorsey & Whitney LLP) was honored by the Utah Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (FBA) as a recipient of the 2019 Distinguished Service Award. Presented on November 20, 2019, the Award typically is given to lawyers who have a career of distinguished service in the federal court system; made significant contributions to the practice of federal law; and exhibited the highest standards of civility, professionalism, and public service. 
Chief Judge Laurel M. Isicoff (U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida) became President of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) in November 2019. She will hold this position for a one-year term.
Sally S. Neely (ret.) was presented with the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) 2019 Excellence in Education award.
William J. Perlstein joined FTI Consulting as a Senior Managing Director and Vice Chair, Client Services. He brings more than 40 years of experience as a legal practitioner and business leader at WilmerHale and BNY Mellon.
Prof. Steven L. Schwarcz (Duke University School of Law) co-authored with Prof. Jonathan Seymour a new article, Corporate Restructuring under Relative and Absolute Priority Default Rules: A Comparative Assessment , which is available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=3498611 . 
Howard J. Weg announced the January opening of his new firm, HJW Advisor. In addition to his 40 years of experience as an attorney and advisor, Howard also serves as independent or special director, negotiator, receiver, mediator, and in other roles.