Good Will Hunting and Other Timely Commercial Law Issues in Bankruptcy

William Thomas Thurman is a recalled bankruptcy court judge for the District of Utah. Judge Thurman was sworn in as a United States bankruptcy judge on September 4, 2001, and he retired from active service on the court on September 3, 2015. The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit recalled Thurman for a three-year term. His current recall term expired on September 3, 2018.

From 1974 until 2001, Thurman practiced with the firm of McKay, Burton & Thurman. In 1975 he was appointed as a Chapter 7 Panel Trustee and served in that capacity until 1982. He is admitted to practice before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals as well as the United States Supreme Court. Beginning with the 1980s, his practice consisted primarily of representing business and personal debtors and creditors in complex Chapter 7 cases and business debtors in Chapter 13 cases.

Thurman was born in Washington, D.C., and his family moved to Utah in 1951. Judge Thurman received his undergraduate degree from University of Utah in 1971 and his J.D. from the University of Utah College of Law in 1974.

Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development Juliet M. Moringiello is a leader in law reform on the state and national levels. Through her work with the Pennsylvania Bar Association Business Law Section she played a key role in the enactment in Pennsylvania of Revised Articles 1, 7 and 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code and the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act. In 2007 the Pennsylvania Bar Association recognized her law reform work with a Special Achievement Award. Professor Moringiello is an elected member of the American Law Institute and is a Uniform Law Commissioner for Pennsylvania. In 2019 she was appointed to the joint ALI/ULC Study Committee on the Uniform Commercial Code and Emerging Technologies.

Professor Moringiello is a versatile scholar whose interests include the online contracting process, creditors’ rights in digital assets, and the relationship between state and federal law in bankruptcy. Her articles on these topics have been published in several leading law reviews and have been cited by numerous state and federal courts. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York cited four of her articles in Berkson v. Gogo, LLC, 97 F. Supp. 3d 359 (E.D. N.Y. 2015), a widely cited opinion on assent to “click to agree” terms of service.

Professor Moringiello has held several leadership positions in the American Bar Association Business Law Section and served as Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Business Law Section in 2017-2018. She also serves on the Board of Regents of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers.

Professor Moringiello is devoted to business law education at Widener Law Commonwealth. She served as Director of the law school’s Business Advising Program from 2016 – 2019 and during that time established the Student Professional Development Fund, which provides funds to enable students to attend professional conferences.

In 2014, the graduating class honored Professor Moringiello with the Outstanding Faculty Award for excellence in teaching, and she has received the Douglas E. Ray Excellence in Faculty Scholarship Award three times.

Mr. Johnson is the current chair of the firm’s Bankruptcy and Creditor’s Rights section. His practice is concentrated in bankruptcy, corporate reorganizations, creditor’s rights and commercial and bankruptcy litigation. His practice includes debtor, committee, trustee and commercial representations under Chapters 7, 11 and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code, pre-bankruptcy workout negotiations and transaction structuring, representations involving preference, fraudulent transfer and other avoidance actions, representations involving federal and state court receiverships and real and personal property foreclosures, representations involving general commercial litigation matters, and secured transactions litigation and transaction structuring.

Mr. Johnson has been recognized on several occasions by The Best Lawyers in America© in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency, Bet-the-Company Litigation, and Reorganization Law and in Litigation-Bankruptcy, and was recognized by Best Lawyers as “Lawyer of the Year” in Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency, Reorganization Law and Bankruptcy Litigation (2015-2016, 2018 and 2020). He maintains an AV Preeminent (5.0) rating with Martindale Hubbell, which is the highest rating awarded to attorneys for professional competence and ethics.

Mr. Johnson has also been selected for inclusion in Mountain States Super Lawyers (2007-2019) in the categories of Bankruptcy: Business, Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights, Business Litigation, and General Litigation, and has been voted by his peers throughout the state as one of Utah’s “Legal Elite,” as published in Utah Business Magazine (2010-2019).

Kenneth L. Cannon II has practiced bankruptcy and insolvency law for more than 30 years. He has effectively represented debtors, creditors, trustees, receivers and committees in business reorganization cases and in out-of-court workouts. He is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. In 2010, he was honored as Best Lawyers® Lawyer of the Year in the area of Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Lawyer, Salt Lake City. Mr. Cannon maintains an “AV” Preeminent rating with Martindale-Hubbell®, which is the highest rating awarded to attorneys for professional competence and ethics. Mr. Cannon teaches commercial law as an adjunct professor of law at the S. J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He is the former chair of the firm’s Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights Section.

Jeffrey M. Reisner, a partner and former member of the firm's Executive Committee, is a member of the litigation and transactional departments at Irell & Manella LLP. Mr. Reisner's practice focuses on representing private equity, hedge funds, privately held and public companies and high net-worth individuals in connection with complex commercial litigation, merger and acquisitions, financings and general corporate governance, as well as the reorganization of their (or their portfolio companies') financial affairs. He also serves as a trusted advisor to boards of directors and individual directors in complex circumstances. Mr. Reisner is also head of the interdisciplinary Bankruptcy, Reorganization and Creditors' Rights practice group. He also frequently leads corporate investigations covering topics as diverse as alleged sexual misconduct and corporate and financial malfeasance.

Mr. Reisner brings to bear expertise across a wide range of transactions and industries. His background also facilitates counseling clients acquiring or disposing of assets from healthy and troubled companies in both traditional sales and auctions.

Mr. Reisner is also an experienced litigator, having represented clients in both state and federal courts throughout the country. He has litigated complex commercial matters involving claims of lender liability, avoidance action claims, breach of fiduciary duty, licensing, and intellectual property issues, and has addressed issues involving contract, corporate, real property, tax, labor, and numerous other areas of the law.

Mr. Reisner’s work has spanned many industries, including defense contractors, automotive and trucking, restaurants and hospitality, convalescent and health care, energy, technology, building supply, sporting goods, textiles, distribution, satellites, manufacturing, mortgages, payroll, aerospace, medical testing and devices, entertainment, communications technology, sporting goods and real estate.

Mr. Reisner’s professional experience is not limited to the practice of law. He founded and managed two successful businesses and served as a turnaround manager of another prior to joining Irell & Manella.

Mr. Reisner is a 1985 graduate of Cornell University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial and Labor Relations. He was a member of New York University’s Joint Degree Program and received his Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration (Finance) degrees in 1989. While attending Cornell University and New York University, Mr. Reisner was awarded the Clem Miller Scholarship and the Frank S. Columbus Scholarship and was elected to membership in Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society.