By John Minnis
Legal News
Bankuptcy attorney David Allard has an idea of what Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is going through.
“He has an extremely difficult job,” Allard says. “Probably the most difficult job of any emergency manager hired in Michigan.”
Allard knows Orr. As vice president and then president-elect of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees from 1997-2000, Allard served on the Liaison Committee with the U.S. Trustee.
Orr was director of the Executive Office for United States Trustees, a division of the U.S. Justice Department that monitors the nation’s bankruptcy system.
“I had a fair amount of contact with him,” Allard recalls. “He is extremely qualified. If anybody can do it, he can.”
Orr left government service in 2000 to join Jones Day, the third largest law firm in the world.
While there, he represented Chrysler in its 2009 bankruptcy and restructuring. A University of Michigan Law School alumnus, Orr, 54, was a rising star at Jones Day when he resigned to come to Detroit.
“Jones Day is one of the largest, best-known, highly accomplished bankruptcy firms,” Allard says. “He was a part of that.”
While Orr is on the front page almost daily, Allard, too, has had his day of glory. In March, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He was one of two from Michigan among the 39 honored in this year’s ceremonies. He joins 821 Fellows in the college.
The American College of Bankruptcy is an honorary association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals.
Its fellows include commercial and consumer bankruptcy attorneys, corporate turnaround specialists, bankruptcy trustees, investment bankers, insolvency accountants, law professors, judges, government officials, appraisers and others involved in the bankruptcy and insolvency community.
Nominees are extended an invitation to join based on a proven record of the highest standards of professionalism and service to the profession.
“It’s a great honor,” Allard says of the induction into the college. “I’ve been practicing for 40 years, and I only got my invitation last year. You don’t know you’re being asked, and you don’t ask.”
In fact, during the vetting process, sources are sworn to secrecy. Allard’s partner for nearly 30 years, Deborah Fish, was interviewed by the college about her colleague and never let on.
“I didn’t have a clue when they invited me,” Allard says. “I was very honored and surprised.”
Allard did not begin his career as a bankruptcy attorney. With a law degree from Wayne State University in 1973, the Grosse Pointe native, who traces his roots to the founding French “ribbon farms” along Lake St. Clair, worked for 10 years in a small general practice firm.
“Ten years is a long time to feel like you can’t be the best in one thing,” Allard recalls of his general practice years.
Occasionally he was able to work on a bankruptcy case. “I really liked bankruptcy work,” Allard says. “Every day was different.”
In the early 1980s, he was one of two out of 700 applicants asked to sit as a bankruptcy trustee. As a bankruptcy trustee, Allard has had the opportunity to wear many hats — automaker, marina operator and airline CFO, to name a few.
One of his first assignments was to liquidate the DeLorean Motor Company.
“Because I was one of the new trustees, it was given to me,” Allard recalls.
In another instance, he ran a marina for several years until he had it turned around to the point where it could be sold. “I really enjoyed operating a marina for three years and selling it,” Allard says. “I had to operate it year around to make sure it wasn’t losing money.”
In yet another bankruptcy, Allard oversaw a leveraged buyout of Air Transport International, formerly US Airways, in Reno, Nev.
“There is a lot of motion stuff,” Allard says of bankruptcy work, “but there are usually gems that make it interesting.”
While Allard is obviously a good bankruptcy attorney, that in itself is not what got him in inducted in the American College of Bankruptcy. “It is not just that you are a good attorney,” Allard says, “because there are a lot of good attorneys.”
Nor is it his myriad professional memberships or that he has published many articles and lectured on bankruptcy issues. Nor is it his involvement in Access to Bankruptcy Court, a program to provide legal representation to those who cannot afford an attorney.
What really helped Allard get inducted into the college was his community service outside the legal profession.
That includes working with Mariners Inn on Cass in Detroit, which provides occupational training for men recovering from drug addiction.
Allard is also very involved in Grosse Pointe Rotary, which supports Mariners Inn and other Detroit organizations as well as internationally.
“If you’re a great attorney, accountant or turn-around person, it’s not enough,” Allard says of being inducted into the American College of Bankruptcy. “You still have to do all these other things.”
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