Date: Friday, November 10, 2000

Location: Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont St., Boston, MA
Time: 09:00 AM - 05:00 PM

Wholesale revisions of Article 9 to make it more efficient and relevant in the 21st century are effective July 1, 2001. This program brings together those who have been intimately involved in the extensive drafting process to explain the concepts embodied in the revisions and the practical consequences.

Not only do the revisions incorporate electronic technology into the creation and perfection of security interests, but they also significantly enlarge the scope of the statute to encompass current-day financing techniques (payment obligations, consignments, certain software, etc.); adopt new methods of attachment and perfection; rearrange and clarify the priorities among lenders and third parties; clarify the rights and obligations of parties on enforcement and introduce more consumer protection into the commercial finance market. There is also a complete set of transition rules in the statute with which we should all become familiar.

July 1, 2001 will be here soon enough. All of us involved in this marketplace owe it to ourselves, as well as our constituencies and clients, to be as prepared as possible for this sea change in basic commercial law.

Laurie Flynn is Chief Legal Counsel to the State Secretary and Director of the Corporations Division. She teaches corporate law at Bentley College, School of Continuing Education. Laurie is a 1981 graduate of Suffolk Law School and is past president of the International Association of Corporation Administrators.

Steven L. Harris is a Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. He was a reporter for the committee that drafted Revised UCC Article 9 and is a U.S. delegate to the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law regarding the Draft Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment. He also served as a reporter for the Permanent Editorial Board’s UCC Article 9 Study Committee. He is the coauthor of a popular casebook on secured transactions and his articles have appeared in numerous law reviews. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Regent of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers.

Herbert Lemelman has been teaching in the commercial finance and bankruptcy fields for over 35 years on the Suffolk Law School faculty. He is the author of Vol. 26, 27 and 27A of the Massachusetts Practice Series, Uniform Commercial Code Forms and Comments and the recent supplements to Vol. 25 and 25A of the Massachusetts Practice Series, Manual on Uniform Commercial Code.

Donald J. Rapson was Asst. Gen’l Counsel of The CIT Group, Inc., NJ and a member of Lautman, Rapson, Henderson & Mills, NJ. He teaches at NYU and Columbia Law Schools. He is a member of The American Law Institute and of the Permanent Editorial Board for the UCC and was an ALI representative on the Drafting Committee for the revision of Article 9. His most recent articles are “Default and Enforcement of Security Interests under Revised Article 9”, 74 Chi. Kent L. Rev. 963 (1999), reprinted in 40 UCC Bulletin (March– July, 2000); and “’Receivables’ Financing under Revised Article 9”, 73 Am. Bankr. L. J. 133 (1999), updated in 55 The Secured Lender 8 (Sept./Oct. 1999). In 1999, Mr. Rapson received the John Minor Wisdom Award of The ALI for contributions to the field of commercial law; and The Homer Kripke Award of the American College of Commercial Finance Attorneys for lifetime achievement and contribution to commercial finance law.

Sandra M. Rocks, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, N Y. She is a member of the ABA Business Law Section, UCC Com-mittee; Ass’n of the NYC Bar; UCC Article 9 Intercommittee Working Group; SEC’s Market Transactions Advisory Committee; Tri-Bar Committee on Legal Opinions; American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers. She is an author, together with Carl Bierre, of The ABC’s of the UCC Article 8: Investment Securities.

Yvonne W. Rosmarin practices consumer law through individual and class action suits in Arlington. She was a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center and with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. She clerked for the Hon. Luther M. Swygert of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit. Ms. Rosmarin is a member of the American Law Institute and participated in the revisions of Articles 2 and 9 as a Consumer Representative to the Drafting Committees. She is a Consumer Fellow to the UCC Committee of the ABA Business Law section. She is co-author of Sales of Goods and Services, 2d ed.; Consumer Class Actions (2d and 3d ed.) and contributing author of Repossessions and Foreclosures (3d ed.). Edwin E. Smith, Bingham Dana LLP, also teaches secured transactions at Suffolk Law School. As a Uniform Law Commissioner, he was a member of the drafting committees for the revisions of Articles 5 and 9. Mr. Smith was Chair, UCC Committee, Business Law Section, ABA, and is a member of the Council of the Business Law Section and the current ABA Advisor/Liaison to the Permanent Editorial Board of the UCC. He also serves as U.S. delegate to the UN Commission on International Trade Law. He is a member of the American Law Institute and is the current Vice President of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers.