A summary of important legislative and judicial developments affecting the commercial finance industry that have occurred in 2007.

The world is awash in liquidity of historic proportions. Lenders who were concerned about how to finance their growth are now concerned about how to keep up with the changes brought on by the abundance of liquidity. The expansion of funds available for investment has revolutionized the ways in which investment vehicles can be created, which in turn has altered the types of players now entering the debt and equity markets. Liquidity has resulted in different transaction structures, and has transformed the types of transactions now available to be financed. This panel of experts will discuss the sources and the nature of global liquidity, and examine how it is affecting financing markets today and in the future.

New lenders are springing up all of the time while established lenders are seeking to adapt and change their business models. Many of these new entrants to our business are entrepreneurial, nimble and seize opportunities. Other lenders face the challenge of maintaining their focus and identity while their portfolios grow. This presentation will revolve around how these different-sized organizations accommodate their practices to an ever-changing market.

Industry experts will examine market trends and legal developments in the burgeoning area of second-lien financing. Panelists will explore the major points of contention and the emerging market standards in the negotiation of intercreditor agreements between first- and second-lien lenders. The panelists also will describe the efforts by a task force of the American Bar Association to develop a model intercreditor agreement for use in second-lien financing transactions.

In today's environment, "old line" lenders are running up against people who are smarter than they are from a systems and technology standpoint. Can it happen to you? Are you comfortable that your initial due diligence is up to snuff? Are lenders placing too much reliance on their operations personnel or have they outfitted their account executives with the tools necessary to catch the problem? The panel will share what some are doing in the industry and provoke discussion among the presenters and the audience to improve our chances for earlier identification and a better chance of a fair fight.

The presentation will be formulated around a case study illustrating the "anatomy of a deal", and how boutique and smaller domestic lenders can form strategic alliances with specialized finance firms to successfully compete with larger lenders. The case study will illustrate the importance of creating these alliances NOW, and how those who do will position themselves for success, while those who don't will struggle to compete as the global market continues to expand.

Guest Speaker
Ben Stein

Sponsored by Rosenthal & Rosenthal Inc.

Ben Stein
Emmy Award-nominated American lawyer, economist, law professor, actor, comedian, game show host and former White House speech writer

Ben Stein seems to have done it all from helping to found the Journal of Law and Social Policy while at Yale. He has worked as a poverty lawyer and a trial lawyer in the field of trade regulation at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C.

In 1973 and 1974, he was a speech writer and lawyer for Richard Nixon at The White House and then for Gerald Ford. (He did NOT write the line, "I am not a crook.") He has been a columnist and editorial writer for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Barrons and The Washington Post. He has written and published sixteen books, seven novels, largely about life in Los Angeles, and nine nonfiction books, about finance and about ethical and social issue in finance, and also about the political and social content of mass culture. His most recent book is the best selling humor self help book, How To Ruin Your Life. He has also been a longtime screenwriter.

He is also an extremely well known actor in movies, TV, and commercials. His part of the boring teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off was recently ranked as one of the fifty most famous scenes in American film. From 1997 to 2002, he was the host of the Comedy Central quiz show, "Win Ben Stein's Money." The show has won seven Emmies. He appears regularly on the Fox News Channel talking about finance.