Commercial Bankruptcy Update 2026

Salene Kraemer is the founding principal of MAZURKRAEMER, an entrepreneurial business law and consulting firm. Your go-to business confidantes, the firm offers attentive legal and business consulting services, without compromising technical skill or experience. With offices in New York, NY, Weirton, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh, PA, MAZURKRAEMER counsels entrepreneurs and small to middle market companies at every stage of the business cycle in a broad range of business transactions, particularly reorganization and general business litigation. Salene concentrates her personal practice on Chapter 11 commercial bankruptcy law, along with general business transaction work. She represents businesses and individuals in courts all over the country. Salene earned J.D. from Villanova University School of Law and M.B.A. from West Virginia University. Salene is Board-Certified in Business Bankruptcy by the American Board of Certification. An active podcaster “The Pivot Playbook” (www.salene.podbean.com), business blogger (www.mazurkraemer.wordpress.com) and former turnaround management consultant, she earned a Certified Turnaround Analyst designation from the Turnaround Management Association. Salene lives in Mt. Lebanon, PA (Pittsburgh). She enjoys swimming, pilates, travel, and attending her kids’ track and football events. She is passionate about empowering business owners and connecting with other restructuring professionals.

Steve received his B.S. in multinational business operations from Florida State University and received his J.D. from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he continues to guest lecture. He is board certified by the American Board of Certification in both creditors’ rights law and business bankruptcy law and is a member of the Florida, California, District of Columbia, New York, Puerto Rico (federal), and Texas bars. Steve serves as the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Anthony H.N. Schnelling Endowment Fund’s national Regional Endowment Coordinator and also serves on the Board of the American Board of Certification. He works on several committees and task forces and routinely volunteers and speaks at seminars. Additionally, he volunteers in providing pro bono bankruptcy and insolvency services and training for United States Navy service members, including Judge Advocate General officers and staff, and serves as the Judge Advocate for the Coronado Yacht Club.

J. Scott Bovitz is the senior partner of Bovitz & Spitzer. Since 1980, Mr. Bovitz has been litigating contested matters and adversary proceedings in the Central District of California bankruptcy courts. Bovitz is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification. Bovitz is also a Certified Specialist in Bankruptcy Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. Bovitz is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. Bovitz has served as an adjunct professor at William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, California Western School of Law, San Diego, and Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.

Adam Nach received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Arizona. He received his Juris Doctor from California Western School of Law. Mr. Nach served as the judicial law clerk to the former Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Arizona, the Honorable Robert G. Mooreman. He is a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy law and creditors’ rights and presented extensively on such matters for the Norton Bankruptcy Institute, the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, the Arizona State Bar, the National Business Institute, the Strategic Alternatives For And Against Distressed Businesses, the Commercial Receivers Association, and the Turnaround Management Association. Mr. Nach is admitted to the United States Supreme Court, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and State Bar of Arizona. Mr. Nach is a Board Certified Bankruptcy Law Specialist – State Bar of Arizona and Board Certified – Creditors’ Rights Law – American Board of Certification.Mr. Nach acts as an Independent Director, Receiver, Assignee, Trustee and other fiduciary roles for Peak Performance Restructuring Services, LLC.

Tim P. Palmer, shareholder and co-chair of the Financial Institutions, Bankruptcy and Real Estate section, concentrates his practice on creditors’ rights, bankruptcy, commercial loan restructuring and insolvency issues. Tim primarily represents secured lenders, including commercial banks and special servicers, in connection with commercial loan workouts. Tim’s practice includes bankruptcy, receiverships, foreclosures, Article 9 sale transactions and collecting and enforcing judgments. He also represents asset-based lenders in commercial-loan transactions. Tim has experience drafting and negotiating intercreditor agreements in connection with first-lien/second-lien transactions, mezzanine financing and equity-sponsored debt. Tim is a frequent speaker on creditors’ rights issues and has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America list each year since 2014 under the Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law category. In 2026, he was named Best Lawyers in America “Lawyer of the Year” in Pittsburgh for Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/ Insolvency and Reorganization Law. He was named to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers 2018 list and has also been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business since 2025 for Bankruptcy/Restructuring in Pennsylvania.

Sari B. Placona concentrates her practice in the areas of corporate restructuring, bankruptcy, debtor-creditor rights, assignments for the benefit of creditors (ABCs), and commercial litigation. She represents a wide range of clients, including Chapter 11 and 7 debtors, trustees, receivers, assignees, and creditors. Her practice also includes the prosecution and defense of preference and fraudulent conveyance actions. In addition to her litigation practice, Sari serves in fiduciary roles such as Plan Administrator and Assignee. She earned her Juris Doctorate from Rutgers School of Law-Newark in 2014. While pursuing her law degree, she gained experience as a paralegal at Walder Hayden, P.A. As a law student, Sari served as a Member and Editor of the Women’s Rights Law Reporter and received the Eric R. Neisser Pro Bono Program Certificate for her completion of Pro Bono services. Sari served as a court advocate for victims of domestic violence and participated in the Newark Bankruptcy Pro Bono Project. Following law school, Sari clerked for the Honorable Ned M. Rosenberg, J.S.C., Retired, in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Essex Vicinage, Civil Division, during the 2014-2015 court term. A respected voice in her field, Sari is a frequent lecturer at conferences hosted by the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Essex County Bar Association, the New York Institute of Credit “Virtual Credit Smorgasbord”, Turnaround Management Association, and the Annual William H. Gindin Bankruptcy Bench-Bar Conference. She has served as Co-Chair for the Bench Bar Committee for the Annual William H. Gindin Bankruptcy Bench-Bar Conference sponsored by the Association of Federal Bar of New Jersey (“AFBNJ”) and serves as Trustee for the AFBNJ. Sari remains deeply committed to pro bono work and community service. She is a Trustee of Partners for Women and Justice, a non-profit that provides free legal services to low-income survivors of domestic violence. Since 2018, she has been an active member for New Jersey’s
International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (“IWIRC-NJ”) where she currently serves as Co-Chair. Sari also serves on the Executive Board of New Jersey’s Turn Around Management Association (“NJTMA”) and the Executive Board of TMA Global. In 2021, she was appointed by the Chief Justice Stuart Rabner to the Supreme Court of New Jersey District Ethics Committee to Essex County, District VA, where she continues to serve. Sari’s professional excellence has earned her recognition in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers, where she has been ranked as “Up and Coming” in the New Jersey Bankruptcy and Restructuring Market for 2022, 2023 and 2024. She has also been named to the 2025 New Jersey Super Lawyers list and recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law. Sari is admitted to practice in the State of New Jersey, the State of New York and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Eastern District of New York and the Southern District of New York.

Deirdre M. Richards concentrates her practice in bankruptcy litigation, loan workouts and commercial litigation. She serves clients in state and federal courts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware in areas including –

• Litigation breach of contract and other actions for clients in the equipment leasing and financing area.
• Defending clients in Fraudulent Transfer litigation in bankruptcy courts. Litigating for clients in state and federal courts.
• Prosecuting Objections to Discharge and Discharge ability in bankruptcy courts.
• Litigating cash collateral issues for factors in bankruptcy courts.
• Litigating actions pursuant to Uniform Commercial Code for factors in state and federal district courts.

Ms. Richards is a member of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA), former member of the Legal Committee and is a current member of the Amicus Curiae subcommittee for the ELFA, a member of the Lease Enforcement Attorney Network (LEAN), a member of the Northeast Chapter of the International Factoring Association, The National Equipment Finance Association (NEFA) and the American Bankruptcy Institute. Ms. Richards was appointed as the Attorney State Chair of Delaware for the International Association of Credit and Collection Professionals for the 2017 – 2018 term, and the 2018-2019 term.

Shayna Steinfeld, Board Certified by the American Board of Certification in both Consumer and Business Bankruptcy Law, is a shareholder of Steinfeld & Steinfeld, PC, and practices with her husband, Bruce, a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Her practice involves representing debtors and creditors, handling litigation in bankruptcy in all bankruptcy chapters, including representing small businesses in Chapter 11 cases and individuals as debtors in chapters 7 and chapter 11. She has represented portfolios of banks and student loan lenders and has handled numerous unusual and eclectic situations in the bankruptcy arena. She is a national expert on the divorce-bankruptcy overlay. She is a past-President of the Atlanta Bar Association, and the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers; a co-founder and past-president of the Georgia IWIRC (International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation) Network; a past-chair of the Sole Practitioner/Small Firm Section of the Atlanta Bar and the Bankruptcy Sections of both the Atlanta Bar and the State Bar of Georgia; she is past Chair of the Bankruptcy Committee the ABA Family Law Section and currently the Bankruptcy Committee Co-Chair for the ABA Litigation Section. She has received many accolades, including “Section of the Year” and “Outstanding Woman in the Profession;” and is regularly named a “Georgia Super Lawyer,” one of the top 50 women attorneys in Georgia and has been previously recognized as one of the top 100 Lawyers in the State of Georgia. A graduate of Emory University (BA, JD and MBA), Shayna frequently lectures and has authored many publications, including The Family Lawyer’s Guide to Bankruptcy, which is published by the ABA Family Law Section and is in its 4th edition and she is a co-editor of the recently published series: Her Story: Lessons in Success from Lawyers Who Live It, released by the ABA Litigation Section in the Summer of 2017; Her Story 2: The Resilient Woman Lawyer’s Guide to Conquering Obstacles, released by the ABA Litigation Section in the Winter of 2023 and a contributing author to the Georgia Business Litigation (ALM, 2026).

Nancy B. Rapoport is a UNLV Distinguished Professor, a 2026 Barrick Distinguished Scholar, the Garman Turner Gordon Professor of Law at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and an Affiliate Professor of Business Law and Ethics in the Lee Business School at UNLV. After receiving her B.A., summa cum laude, from Rice University in 1982 and her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1985, she clerked for the Honorable Joseph T. Sneed III on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then practiced law (primarily bankruptcy law) with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco from 1986-1991. She started her academic career at The* Ohio State University College of Law in 1991, and she moved from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure in 1995 to Associate Dean for Student Affairs (1996) and Professor (1998) (just as she left Ohio State to become Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law). She served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1998-2000. She then served as Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center from July 2000-May 2006 and as Professor of Law from June 2006-June 2007, when she left to join the faculty at Boyd. She served as Interim Dean of Boyd from 2012-2013, as Senior Advisor to the President of UNLV from 2014-2015, as Acting Executive Vice President & Provost from 2015-2016, as Acting Senior Vice President for Finance and Business (for July and August 2017), and as Special Counsel to the President from May 2016-June 2018. In 2022, UNLV’s Alumni Association named her the Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year. Boyd law students have honored her three times: she tied (with Professor Jean Sternlight) for “Faculty Member of the Year” in 2024; she was named “Faculty Member of the Year” (and faculty commencement speaker) in 2021; and she was named “Dean of the Year” by Boyd law students in 2013. She served as the President of UNLV’s Chapter 100 of Phi Kappa Phi from 2024-2025. She is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and the American Bar Foundation. Her specialties are bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, law firm behavior, artificial intelligence and the law, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture. Among her published works are Bernard A. Burk, Veronica J. Finkelstein & Nancy B. Rapoport, Ethical Lawyering: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned (Aspen Publishing 2021; 2d ed. 2025), Nancy B. Rapoport & Joseph R. Tiano, Jr., A Short & Happy Guide to the Ethics of Using AI and Other Legal Tech (West Academic, forthcoming 2026); and the animated video Aspen Practice Perfect Series, Professional Responsibility (2024) (with Andrew M. Perlman and Melissa B. Shultz). She is admitted to the bars of the states of California (inactive member), Ohio (inactive member), Nebraska (inactive member), Texas, and Nevada and of the United States Supreme Court. In 2001, she was elected to membership in the American Law Institute, and in 2002, she received a Distinguished Alumna Award from Rice University. In 2017, she was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi (Chapter 100). She is back on the Board of Directors of the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement (the Mob Museum) and also serves as a Trustee of Claremont Graduate University and as the Chair of its Audit and Risk Management Committee. In 2009, the Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel presented her with the Public Service Counsel Award at the 4th Annual Counsel of the Year Awards. In 2017, she received the Commercial Law League of America’s Lawrence P. King Award for Excellence in Bankruptcy, and in 2018, she was one of the recipients of the NAACP Legacy Builder Awards (Las Vegas Branch #1111). In 2025, she received the Commercial and Consumer Law Scholarship Award from the Section on Commercial and Consumer Law at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools. She has served as the fee examiner or as chair of the fee review committee in such large bankruptcy cases as Zetta Jet, Toys R Us, Caesars, Station Casinos, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Mirant. She has also appeared in the Academy Award®-nominated movie, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Magnolia Pictures 2005) (as herself). Although the movie garnered her a listing in www.imdb.com, she still hasn’t been able to join the Screen Actors Guild. In her spare time, she competes, pro-am, in American Rhythm and American Smooth ballroom dancing. In 2014, she won the national U.S. Open Pro/Am Rising Star American Smooth Competition B Division, and in 2017, she came in 2nd in the “C” Open to the World Pro/Am American Style 9-Dance Championship. The most interesting thing about her is that she is married to a former Marine Scout-Sniper.