The American College of Bankruptcy has inducted Husch Blackwell Sanders Partner Gary D. Barnes as a Fellow of the College. Barnes was one of 29 Fellows from the United States and abroad inducted into the College in a ceremony at the historic National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., on March 15, 2008. All were honored and recognized for their professional excellence and exceptional contributions to the fields of bankruptcy and insolvency law.
Barnes is the co-chair of the Insolvency and Commercial Bankruptcy practice area and a member of Husch Blackwell Sanders’ Partner Board. His primary practice is the representation of creditors and committees in reorganizations and liquidations. Barnes serves as national insolvency counsel for several lenders/lessors. He also serves as special insolvency counsel for numerous regional, metropolitan and rural banks. Barnes served as local counsel for the Official Unsecured Creditors’ Committee in the Farmland Industries bankruptcy case, the largest bankruptcy filed in the Western District of Missouri and one of the 20 largest bankruptcy cases filed in 2002.
Barnes is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law for more than 10 years. Barnes joins another Husch Blackwell Sanders partner, Christopher J. Redmond, who was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy in 2004.
The American College of Bankruptcy is an honorary professional and educational association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals. The College plays an important role in sustaining professional excellence in this rapidly expanding field of expertise. College Fellows include commercial and consumer bankruptcy attorneys, insolvency accountants, turnaround and workout specialists, law professors, judges, government officials and others involved in the bankruptcy and insolvency community.
Nominees for Fellows are extended an invitation to join based on a record of achievement reflecting the highest standards of professionalism. The College now has 685 Fellows, each selected by a Board of Regents from among recommendations of the Circuit Admissions Council in each federal judicial circuit and specially appointed Committees for Judicial and International Fellows.
Criteria for selection include: the highest standard of professionalism, ethics, character, integrity, professional expertise and leadership contributing to the enhancement of bankruptcy and insolvency law and practice; sustained evidence of scholarship, teaching, lecturing or writing on bankruptcy or insolvency; and commitment to elevate knowledge and understanding of the profession and public respect for the practice.