Peace Bridge, or Bridge of Sighs: Cross-Border Mediation of Insolvency-Related Disputes

Simon Thomas is a partner in Goodwin’s Financial Restructuring practice and established the UK restructuring team in March 2019. Mr. Thomas specializes in business rescue and corporate turnaround. He is an expert on all aspects of corporate restructuring, insolvency and finance. He has domestic and international experience spanning an array of industries, including aviation, energy, healthcare, infrastructure, leisure, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, retail, shipping, tech and telecommunications.

Mr. Thomas acts for all stakeholders in situations of corporate distress, including debtors, creditors, and directors. His clients include several prominent funds as well as the U.K.’s leading insolvency practitioners including PwC, Deloitte, FTI, KPMG, EY, BDO, Duff & Phelps, and Grant Thornton.

Patrick Shea is a partner in Gowling WLG's Toronto office, practising in the area of commercial law with a particular focus on the areas of bankruptcy and insolvency.

A certified specialist in bankruptcy and insolvency law, Patrick has acted for a variety of clients in large corporate restructuring and insolvency matters in the entertainment, retail, automotive, airline, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and other industrial sectors. He has also advised the Government of Canada and governments in the Caribbean Region on the reform of their insolvency laws.

Patrick was an instructor for the business law and insolvency portions of the Bar Admission Course run by the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) and taught an advanced restructuring course at Queen’s University. He is coach for the LSO’s Coach and Advisory Network and tutors students who are taking the LSO Licensing Exams.

Patrick is a past chair of the Ontario Bar Association's Bankruptcy and Insolvency Section, the Canadian Bar Association's Insolvency Section, and the Inter-Pacific Bar Association's Insolvency Committee. He is currently the co-chair of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s International Committee and chair of the OBA’s Recognition and Leadership Development Committee.

Patrick is a licensed pilot and a former officer in the Canadian Forces reserves. He is the secretary for the 48th Highlanders of Canada’s Regimental Senate, the RCAF Foundation and the Rangers’ Foundation.

Patrick has been admitted as a Member/Serving Brother of the Order of St. John. He is a past director of St. John Ambulance Ontario and currently sits on the Board of St. John Ambulance’s Toronto Branch. He is the chair of the St. John Canada Foundation.

In 2012, Patrick was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal; in 2018, he received the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers; and in 2019, he received an Ontario Volunteer Service Award. Patrick has also been awarded two Minister of Veteran’s Affairs Commendations for his work to commemorate veterans of WWI and WWII. In 2015, Patrick was awarded the Law Society Medal, the Law Society of Ontario’s highest award.

Mr. Ortiz provides efficient and practical advice to debtors, creditors, and other parties in interest in corporate restructurings, both in- and out-of-court.

Mr. Ortiz has represented debtors in some of the largest and most complex chapter 11 cases of the past decade, including: Pacific Drilling, Westinghouse, Toisa, SunEdison, Aeropostale, American Airlines, and Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. Mr. Ortiz has also represented creditors and lenders in the financial services and real estate sectors. Mr. Ortiz's pro bono work has been recognized by both the Legal Aid Society and the New York State Bar Association.

Mr. Ortiz is a frequent lecturer and author on a range of bankruptcy topics. In 2018 Mr. Ortiz was named by the American Bankruptcy Institute as one of its 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in the restructuring community and by Finance Monthly as Restructuring Lawyer of the Year. In 2019, Mr. Ortiz received an Emerging Leaders Award from The M&A Advisor, which recognizes and celebrates the achievements of outstanding young M&A, financing, and turnaround professionals who have reached a significant level of success while still under 40.

Prior to beginning his legal career, Mr. Ortiz founded Operation ASHA in Cambodia, an arm of the worldwide tuberculosis treatment organization, Operation ASHA. Operation ASHA in Cambodia has grown to over 50 tuberculosis treatment centers serving over a million people in 1283 villages in and around Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. Mr. Ortiz currently sits on the U.S. Board of Directors for Operation ASHA Worldwide.

Jack Esher has served as a mediator and arbitrator for over twenty-five years in commercial, finance, employment, insurance, family, estate and bankruptcy matters. He is a member of the Mediator Registers for the Districts of Delaware and Massachusetts, and frequently serves as mediator for matters in the Southern District of New York. Mr. Esher was one of four primary mediators in the Lehman Brothers case in New York from 2010 to 2016, mediating numerous sophisticated finance, commercial and insurance disputes emanating from the Lehman Brothers collapse. Having served on the distinguished panel of mediators and arbitrators at JAMS from 1996 to 2006, MWI now represents Mr. Esher in his domestic mediation and arbitration practice, while his work in cross-border and international matters is managed by CBInsolvency LLC. During his specialization as a bankruptcy lawyer in California and Massachusetts, he founded the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Committee on ADR in 1994 and co-authored the first Mediation book published on bankruptcy matters (ABI Guide to Bankruptcy Mediation (ABI, 2nd Ed. 2009)), now accompanied by his co-authorship of the acclaimed Bankruptcy Mediation (ABI 2016).

Mr. Esher has conducted many mediation trainings and educational programs for attorneys, other professionals and judges in the US and abroad. Along with Bankruptcy Mediation and its predecessor ABI Guide to Mediation, his authored works include Recent Use of Mediation for Resolution and Effective Management of Large Case Insolvencies (International Corporate Rescue 2015); Alternative Dispute Resolution in U.S. Bankruptcy Practice, 4 S. New. Eng. Roundtable Symp. L.J. 76 (2009); Compendium of Bankruptcy Court Local Rules on ADR (ABI and PLI, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013); Arbitration and Judicial Discretion: Circuits Are Split (Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser, May 2006); Claim Resolution Facilities (ABA Dispute Resolution Magazine, Summer 2003); How to Succeed in Mediation Without Trying…Your Case (ABI, 2002); Co-Author, Fast, Painless Claims Relief for Judges (National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Conference News, Winter and Spring, 2001); and The Structured Negotiation Process (ABI, 1999).

Mr. Esher served as head trainer for an extensive, multi-year training program for the Thailand Judiciary in which over 700 business leaders, attorneys and judges received extensive mediation training in Thailand through a program funded by USAID and Kenan Institute Asia. The work resulted in a comprehensive ADR Program administered by the ADR Office of the Thai Judiciary in all of the civil courts of Thailand. Mr. Esher is a member of INSOL, the International Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and a Sustaining Member of the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Barbara J. Houser is the chief bankruptcy court judge for the Northern District of Texas. Judge Houser was sworn in by Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King as the first female bankruptcy judge in the Northern District on January 20, 2000.

Upon graduation from law school, Judge Houser joined Locke, Purnell, Boren, Laney & Neeley in Dallas and became a shareholder in 1985. She joined Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay PC in 1988 as the shareholder in charge of the Dallas office and remained there until she was sworn in as a bankruptcy judge on Jan. 20, 2000.

Judge Houser was named President-Elect of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, her term began on Oct. 21, 2009.

Judge Houser was born in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in 1954 and was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1978. She received her B.S. degree with honors in 1975 from the University of Nebraska and her law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1978.

Dr. Annerose Tashiro is head of Schultze & Braun GmbH’s Cross-Border Restructurings and Insolvencies Group in Achern, Germany, and advises in corporate recovery situations. She has acted domestically and internationally for many companies involved in debt restructuring and turnarounds, as well as for officeholders on several high-profile German insolvencies. She also assists financial and trade creditors in international insolvency proceedings and restructuring scenarios.

Dr. Tashiro’s recent reorganization mandates include advice for officeholders of a refinery group, a gas pipeline project company and renewable energy companies, and advice to an international banking consortium regarding a construction PPP, financial creditors in bank insolvencies, restructuring of a machinery company and investor consulting for supported MBO and for the purchase of a software company. She also has significant experience in representing officeholders in international fraud insolvency cases, and German banks frequently ask for her help when creating and pursuing collateral on foreign assets.

Dr. Tashiro served as the joint chief editor of turnaround magazine Eurofenix and is a board member of IWIRC, as well as a member of INSOL. She is also ABI’s Vice President-International Affairs. Dr. Tashiro is also a frequent speaker and lecturer on insolvency law.

She received her Ph.D. from the University of D?sseldorf and Keio University in Tokyo.