Please click
here for the Resolution for Jerry Patchan
Please click
here for the remarks of Gerald K. Smith.
Remarks by Jerry Patchan.
Thank you Jerry [Smith] and Marti [Davis] for those most generous remarks.
It is high honor indeed to receive this award from my fellow Fellows of the College — particularly so because of what this College stands for, and what it means to our profession.
To be placed in company with the past recipients of this recognition, Larry King, Frank Kennedy, Joe Lee, and Jerry Smith, among others, is for me quite humbling.
Incidentally, the speaker last night, at the induction of new Fellows, omitted Jerry Smith's name from his list of past airts. That speaker, Jerry Smith, a person of great intellect, is also a person of great modesty.
All of the past recipients of this honor have been known as scholars and interpreters of bankruptcy law. And they have been noted for their long labors and great personal dedication to the integrity of the bankruptcy process.
Because of their efforts and the efforts of many more, in this College, in the profession, in the practice, in the law schools, on the bench, on Capitol Hill, and else where, our bankruptcy process enjoys generally high status today. Bankruptcy professionals who practice in bankruptcy and insolvency work are being relied upon, as never before, to examine into and unravel the amazing complexities of transactions of companies brought down by corporate corruptions as well as by economic, marketing and management problems.
As never before, bankruptcy court determinations and bankruptcy examiner's reports are today pointing to and guiding changes in corporate governance, banking practices, and professional ethics.
None of that would now be seen to be within the province of bankruptcy courts, or appropriately the work of bankruptcy professionals unless the bankruptcy system is widely, and regularly seen as sound, it's bench recognized as highly competent, and it's practitioners highly skilled.
And none of that will continue very long unless in our work we understand the importance of, and regularly act, in furtherance of the integrity of the bankruptcy process in all its parts.
The professional interests and personal qualities of the members of this College make us, precisely, the persons to see to the inheritance we have, in the standing of the bankruptcy courts and the bankruptcy system today.
We here, all of us in this learned society of Fellows, are the persons to especially maintain that inheritance as to the bankruptcy system, and also to sustain and enhance that inheritance, by seeing to the ongoing integrity of that system.
I trust we will always do so.
Thank you for the honor you have given me. This beautiful symbol of your award will have a special place in my study.
