Shaw Fishman Founding Partner, Robert Fishman Receives American Bankruptcy Institute Lifetime Achievement Award

CHICAGO – Shaw Fishman Glantz & Towbin LLC, the nation’s premier bankruptcy boutique, is pleased to announce that firm co-founder, Robert Fishman, was recently honored by the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) with its “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Fishman, an ABI member since 1986 and a past president (1997-1998), has been instrumental in the organization’s growth over the last 30 years, particularly around the organization’s educational offerings. He has served as chair of the ABI’s Programs and Seminars Committee, and was the ABI’s first-ever vice president of education during a time of significant organizational expansion. In this role, he helped to create the first ABI educational programs in the Northeastern, Southeastern and Southwestern United States, as well as in the Rocky Mountain region. Fishman also developed many of the innovative teaching formats still used by the ABI today. 

“I am honored and humbled to be recognized by the American Bankruptcy Institute, an organization that honestly, has done more for me, personally and professionally, than I have done for it,” Fishman said. “The moral of the story though, is that the more you give freely of your time to support the ABI and its mission, the stronger the organization will grow, and the more it will do for you.”

Fishman, was recognized alongside three other honorees: Ford Elsaesser, managing partner of Elsaesser Jarzabek Anderson Elliott & MacDonald; Robin E. Phelan, founding partner of PHELANLAW; and Robert M. Zinman, retired Professor of Law at St. John’s University. 

Whether representing a debtor or creditor, through an informal out-of-court workout or through the bankruptcy process, Fishman partners with his clients to find the most efficient and beneficial solution for their situation. He has represented clients in numerous industries including health care, telecommunications, manufacturing, real estate, retail, transportation, and financial services. An experienced practitioner, Fishman has participated in all aspects of the bankruptcy process – representing trustees, debtors, creditors’ and equity committees, secured and unsecured creditors, purchasers of assets, and litigants in adversary proceedings. Fishman’s practice also focuses on bankruptcy mediation, and he is regularly called on as a fee examiner in high-profile bankruptcies, including the recent bankruptcy case involving the City of Detroit. 

Boasting two past presidents of the American Bankruptcy Institute and three Fellows of the American College of Bankruptcy, Shaw Fishman’s bankruptcy lawyers have the professional leadership background and practical courtroom skills usually found at only the largest law firms. Its sophisticated bankruptcy practice utilizes a combination of highly skilled attorneys and boutique firm efficiencies to provide clients with outstanding service at a tremendous value. The firm has handled Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 15 bankruptcy and reorganization cases, out-of-court restructurings, receiverships, and assignments for the benefit of creditors, involving billions of dollars in assets, and a wide variety of complex bankruptcy litigation matters.