NEW YORKDecember 27, 2011 — An article by Hunton & Williams LLP bankruptcy lawyers Gregory G. Hesse and Robert A. Rich, with former colleague Scott Bernstein, is one of the feature articles in American Bankruptcy Institute’s newly published Best of ABI 2011: The Year in Business Bankruptcy. The article, “Silence as Deemed Consent to Voluntary Third-Party Releases in a Chapter 11 Plan” explores the recent trend in the Southern District of New York toward confirming chapter 11 plans that contain provisions providing for consensual nondebtor releases of third parties even when a creditor in a voting class abstains from voting to accept or reject the chapter 11 plan and declines to opt out of providing the release of the nondebtors.

The bankruptcy practice group of Hunton & Williams is comprised of more than 30 lawyers who practice exclusively in the area of bankruptcy, financial restructuring, and creditors’ rights for a wide range of national institutional and other clients in federal and state courts across the United States, including the traditional bankruptcy forums of the Southern District of New York and the District of Delaware. Greg Hesse, a partner in the firm’s Dallas office, is admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court; the US Courts of Appeal for the Second and Fifth Circuits; the US District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Districts of Texas; and the Texas Supreme Court. In addition, he has represented parties pro hac vice in bankruptcy courts throughout the United States. Rob Rich, based in New York, is admitted to practice in the US District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York; the District of New Jersey; the Western District of Michigan; and the US District Court for the Western District of New York.

Best of ABI 2011 features a compilation and ready reference of the best ABI Journal articles and conference materials from 2011 on the hottest business topics, hand-selected by its editors.