Bernstein Shur Monthly – October 2018

Milne Receives ABI’s Highest honor for a young professional and future leader

Lindsay Zahradka Milne, a shareholder in the Business Restructuring and Insolvency Practice Group at Bernstein Shur, a leading New England-based law firm, made The American Bankruptcy Institute’s 40 under 40 List for Emerging Leaders in Insolvency Practice.

ABI is the nation’s largest association of bankruptcy professionals, made up of over 11,000 members in multi-disciplinary roles. The List, comprising attorneys from some of the nation’s most prestigious and well-known law firms, included Milne for her commitment to advancing the bankruptcy profession and having the highest level of standards of achievement at work and in the community.

“This is a singular honor for Lindsay and for Bernstein Shur, placing her firmly within the group of future leaders of the restructuring bar and the organization”, said Bob Keach, co-chair of the practice group. “ABI has properly recognized Lindsay’s professional acumen and achievements, her commitment to the profession, and her tremendous energy and drive to create positive results for her clients and the practice. The firm is very proud of this accomplishment.”

40 under 40 insolvency professionals will be recognized at a special luncheon during ABI’s 2018 Winter Leadership Conference, taking place December 6-8 in Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information about ABI’s 40 under 40 initiatives, visit http://abi40under40.org/.

About Lindsay Zahradka Milne

Lindsay represents a broad array of corporate clients in matters including chapter 11 reorganizations, asset sales and acquisitions, out-of-court restructurings and liquidations, bankruptcy-related litigation and appellate practice. Prior to joining Bernstein Shur, Lindsay worked in the Financial Restructuring group at Akin Gump in New York, where she advised borrowers, debtors, official committees of unsecured creditors, lenders, and ad-hoc groups of bondholders in connection with pre-filing negotiations and chapter 11 proceedings.

On December 3rd, Lindsay will be speaking on a panel at the 20th Annual New England Bankruptcy Law Conference at the Massachusetts Continued Legal Education (CLE) Conference Center in Boston. A number of major retailers and suppliers have been involved in Chapter 11 cases in recent years. This panel will explore new developments from recent cases that impact trade creditors in bankruptcy cases. Topics will include reclamation claims, consignment issues, obtaining critical vendor status, minimizing preference exposure, maximizing lien rights, and the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. The panelists will discuss practical approaches that can reduce a trade creditor’s losses in the event of a bankruptcy case. For more information, and to register for this event, click here!

Bernstein Shur Welcomes New Shareholder Andrea J. Shaw

Bernstein Shur, a leading New England law firm, welcomes Andrea J. Shaw as a Shareholder in the firm’s Portland office.

Shaw is a highly respected attorney with over 15 years of experience focusing on consumer finance and bank regulatory matters. With a background as a regulator and counsel to both state and federally chartered banks, she joins the firm to lead a newly established consumer finance and bank regulatory practice. Shaw is also expected to lead the firm’s growing data security and privacy team.

“We are thrilled to welcome Andrea to our firm,” said Bernstein Shur CEO Pat Scully. “Her experience and proven excellence in the banking industry make her an exciting addition to our financial services team, and a valuable asset to our clients.”

Prior to joining Bernstein Shur, Shaw was Vice President and Senior Counsel at TD Bank, NA, where she provided advice to multiple lines of business on federal consumer protection laws such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Truth in Lending Act, E-Sign Act, relating to product development, servicing, and changes to the bank’s existing product suite.

Additionally, Shaw was the lead attorney supporting the bank’s Fair and Responsible Banking efforts, including guidance to the Fair and Responsible Banking compliance team. She also provided regulatory examination preparation, management, and post examination resolution counsel in connection with examinations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and other North American financial institution regulatory authorities.

”Historically our firm has had such great depth in commercial finance, work-out, and employment  matters for financial institutions, and we are so excited to have Andrea come in and finally fill the regulatory gap,” said Joel Shaw, Co-Chair of the firm’s Business Law Practice Group. “We are greatly looking forward to offering the full suite of banking law services to existing and prospective clients.”

Shaw earned her J.D. from the University of New Hampshire School of Law, her B.S. from Johnson & Wales University, and is admitted to practice in the states of ME, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She resides in Gorham with her husband and five-year old son and is an accomplished equestrian who competes in dressage.

Cyber Security Awareness Month

The Department of Homeland Security is commemorating the 15th National Cyber Security Awareness Month by providing organizations with a Toolkit to promote cyber security (click here to view the Toolkit). With major data breaches at Uber and Facebook, and ransomware attacks at hospitals and municipalities across the country, 2018 was a banner year for cyber criminals. Given the financial and reputational risks associated with data breaches, organizations need to be prepared before something happens.

As your organization takes stock of its own cyber security measures, keep the following in mind: The most significant factor in reducing the cost of a data breach is having an incident response plan and incident response team in place prior to the attack. Organizations that handle personal information should have a written incident response plan and a team of employees and external experts identified to respond to data breaches immediately. Once the incident response team is in place, organizations should practice implementing the incident response plan at least on an annual basis.

At Bernstein Shur, we work with companies, financial & educational institutions, municipalities, and non-profits to bolster cyber defenses and develop robust response plans.  Our team of experts combines regulatory lawyers, cyber security professionals, and litigators to provide our clients with a comprehensive set of skills to reduce the likelihood of a successful cyber attack and improve their ability to respond. Bernstein Shur is ready to assist its clients with:

• Drafting data breach response plans
• Designing protocols for safeguarding, sharing, and properly destroying data
• Developing vendor management programs
• Reviewing service agreements with software and other IT vendors
• Preparing individual and regulatory notices
• Directing forensic analysts and PR communications following a breach
• Analyzing cybersecurity insurance coverage

The data privacy and cyber security experts at Bernstein Shur are ready to assist with any of your data breach prevention and response planning needs. For more information, please email the Bernstein Shur Privacy Team at privacyteam@bernsteinshur.com.

Bernstein Shur was a Proud Sponsor of the 2018 Dempsey Challenge!

This two-day event is a non-competitive run, walk, cycle fundraiser which champions the spirit of celebration and culture of paying it forward, all hosted in actor Patrick Dempsey’s hometown of Lewiston, ME. Every dollar raised by Challenge participants benefits the Dempsey Centers — leaders in Quality of Life care for individuals and families impacted by cancer. To learn more about the challenge, make a donation, or register to participate in future events, click here!

Bernstein Shur Launches New Video Series: “Things We Know For Shur”

Online video content seems to be increasing everywhere, and there’s plenty of data to support that conclusion. Based on a 2018 report by Forbes, people around the world are consuming 100 million hours of video on Facebook alone and 500 million hours on You Tube – every day! This is above and beyond all of the news outlets from print to broadcast, utilizing video to reach their audiences, as well as retailers trying to simulate an in-person shopping experience.

In a legal service business based on trust, expertise and relationships, attorneys also need to connect directly, personally and openly with the audiences they serve. Bernstein Shur employs an advertising headline that sums it up well: “When you need a lawyer who thinks like an executive and speaks like a human.”

Qualifications, referrals and personal contacts are always going to be a critical part of the hiring decision making process. The ability to see and hear an attorney speak is just another, perhaps more accessible channel, to make an initial impression.

Over the next few months we’ll be adding a few attorney video links to each newsletter. There are 17 completed attorney videos on the Bernstein Shur website to explore with many more to be produced in the coming year.

In addition to the individual videos, there’s a short, group compilation below: a few attorneys sharing what they enjoy most about helping others and their profession.

Things We Know For Shur: Trailer

Things We Know For Shur: Featuring Kate Knox

Things We Know For Shur: Featuring Ned Sackman