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PORTLAND, Maine – Robert J. Keach, one of Maine’s leading bankruptcy attorneys and a shareholder at the regional law firm Bernstein Shur, has been appointed President Elect of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI).Keach will assume the presidency of the ABI in April, 2009.
Keach previously served as the vice president -education for the ABI, planning and overseeing over 20 national and regional conferences as well as special programs, seminars, and distance learning programs.
The ABI, the nation’s premier association of insolvency professionals, has more than 11,000 members throughout the United States and in several foreign nations. Keach received the appointment at the organization’s recent Annual Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Keach is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and is listed in Best Lawyers in America and Chambers USA, among other publications, as one of the country’s leading business bankruptcy lawyers.
“This is a significant honor for Bob and truly speaks to his strong reputation and the respect he has earned on a national scale,” said Charles Miller, managing shareholder at Bernstein Shur. “It is rare for an attorney from a middle-market, albeit excellent, regional law firm to hold an office in a major national organization.”
Keach, a Falmouth resident who joined Bernstein Shur in 1994, is Chair of the firm’s Business Restructuring and Insolvency Practice Group. His practice focuses on the representation of various parties in workouts and bankruptcy cases including debtors, creditors, creditors’ committees, lessors, and third parties acquiring troubled companies and/or their assets.
Keach has been involved in a number of high-profile bankruptcies and restructurings, including New Century Financial Corporation, Pegasus Satellite Television, Androscoggin Energy, Great Northern Paper, and Lincoln Pulp & Paper Company, to name a few.
A native of Concord, Vermont, Keach is a 1980 cum laude graduate of the University of Maine School of Law and a 1977 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Vermont. He is one of only five Maine attorneys recognized as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America each year for more than 10 years for his work in bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights, and by Chambers USA in their Corporate/M&A section. He received the special designation of “Star Performer” in Corporate/M&A: Bankruptcy in the 2007 edition of Chambers USA. He is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell.