Behind the Bench: Special Edition: Challenges Courts Face in Diocese Cases
For years, the Catholic Church has dealt with mass tort liability for, among other things, sexual abuse by priests. Nearly fifty Catholic organizations have now filed for relief in bankruptcy. This panel of experts will discuss the unique issues that arise in diocese chapter 11 cases and the challenges that such cases present to the courts.
Varinder P. Singh, Otterbourg, P.C., will moderate this panel featuring Corinne Ball (Jones Day), Hon. Martin Glenn, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Hon. Meredith S. Grabill, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and Hon. Jerrold Poslusny (Bankr. D. N.J.).
Bios:
Varinder P. Singh, Otterbourg, P.C., New York, NY
Varinder P. Singh is an Associate in the Restructuring and Bankruptcy Department. Mr. Singh’s practice focuses on the representation of debtors, creditors, receivers, fiduciaries, and other parties in interest in complex chapter 11 bankruptcy cases and other insolvency matters. He is an Adjunct Professor at St. John’s University School of Law and a National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Blackshear Presidential Fellow.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Singh served as a law clerk for three bankruptcy judges: Judge John T. Gregg of the Western District of Michigan; Judge Jil Mazer-Marino of the Eastern District of New York; and Chief Judge Alan S. Trust of the Eastern District of New York. He has co-authored numerous articles published in the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal.
Hon. Martin Glenn, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY
Chief Judge Glenn has served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge since November 2006 and was appointed Chief Judge in March 2022. He received his B.S. from Cornell University and his J.D. from Rutgers Law School, where he was an Articles Editor of the Rutgers Law Review. Judge Glenn served as a law clerk to Hon. Henry J. Friendly, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Until his appointment to the Bankruptcy Court, Judge Glenn practiced law with O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
Judge Glenn is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches International Insolvency Law. Judge Glenn will retire from the bench in September.
Judge Glenn presided over the Diocese of Rockville Centre chapter 11 case.
Hon. Meredith S. Grabill, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA
In 2019, Chief Judge Grabill was appointed as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Prior to her appointment on the bench, Judge Grabill was a shareholder at Lugenbuhl, Wheaton, Peck, Rankin & Hubbard and practiced law primarily in the areas of bankruptcy, commercial, and oil-and-gas litigation in Louisiana and New York. Prior to entering the private practice of law, she served as a judicial clerk to Judge Edith Brown Clement, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, from 2007-2008; and Judge Martin L.C. Feldman, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, from 2006-2007. After practicing in New York for several years, she served as judicial clerk to Judge Martin Glenn, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
Judge Grabill earned her J.D. from Tulane University School of Law in 2006, where she served as Editor In Chief of the Tulane Law Review from 2005-2006. Before law school, Judge Grabill worked with adjudicated and at-risk youth, providing direct cognitive-behavioral treatment to youth experiencing mental health symptoms, chemical dependency, sex-offending issues, and developmental delays. She later served as an executive-level administrator for a juvenile justice agency in Washington State, working with clinicians to develop and implement cognitive-behavioral treatment programs for youth residing in institutions and in the community.
Judge Grabill presided over the Archdiocese of New Orleans chapter 11 case.
Hon. Jerrold Poslusny (Bankr. D. N.J.), United States Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey
Jerrold N. Poslusny, Jr. was appointed to the bench for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey in Camden, New Jersey in June 2015. Prior to his appointment, Judge Poslusny served as Law Clerk to the Honorable E. Stephen Derby and James F. Schneider, United States Bankruptcy Judges for the District of Maryland, then as an associate
and member with firms in Southern New Jersey.
Judge Poslusny received his B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law. He is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, American Bankruptcy Institute, Turnaround Management Association, and Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors (where he is a Distinguished Fellow).
Corinne Ball, Jones Day, New York, NY
Corinne Ball is a Partner in Jones Day’s New York office. She has more than 40 years of experience in business finance and restructuring with a focus on complex business reorganizations and acquisitions from distressed companies, both court-supervised and extrajudicial, including matters involving multi-jurisdictional and cross-border enterprises. Her signature characteristic is innovation and being resolution driven.
Her success has been recognized repeatedly from being Chambers Band I for many years and currently as a senior Statesperson in Chambers, National Law Journal’s “Most Influential Lawyer of the Decade in Bankruptcy & Restructuring,” “Dealmaker of the Year” and “Global Finance Dealmaker of the Year” by American Lawyer, Hall of Fame member and Leadership Award Winner for Outstanding Achievements in Restructuring, among others. Corinne has served as a director of the American College of Bankruptcy and the American Bankruptcy Institute, as well as chairing the ABA Chapter 11 Subcommittee, the Secured Creditor Subcommittee and the International Subcommittee of the ABA Business Bankruptcy Committee. Courts have turned to her for assistance including serving multiple times on the Merit Selection Panel for U. S. Magistrate Judges in the Southern District of New York, the Business Advisory Committee for the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York and the Restructuring Advisory Committee for the International Commercial Court in Singapore, among others.
Among numerous other notable engagements, Corinne led the successful reorganization of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in a chapter 11 case where a global resolution was reached amongst the Diocese, its 135 parishes, its 6 solvent third-party insurers, and hundreds of abuse claimants, relying on prepackaged bankruptcy cases to garner third party releases post-Purdue. Other notable engagements include the reorganizations of the City of Detroit, Chrysler, Metaldyne, US Manufacturing, Dana Corp. and Kaiser.