J. Ronald Trost was Chair of the National Bankruptcy Conference from 1996 through 2004. From 1980 through 2002 he was a member of Sidley & Austin, Managing Partner of its Los Angeles office, chair of its national practice Bankruptcy and Reorganization Group and served on its Management Committee for 20 years. He taught at the University of Southern California Law Center for over ten years and at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law for four years. As a consultant to the Commission on Bankruptcy Laws of the United States, and to the United States Congress, Mr. Trost played a central role in the formulation of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. For several years Mr. Trost chaired the Chapter 11 programs for ALI-ABA (The American Law Institute-American Bar Association Committee on Continuing Professional Education). He was the Planning Chairman for the Williamsburg Conference on Bankruptcy, a review of the first ten years of the 1978 Bankruptcy Code and an agenda for reform. Mr. Trost is a member of the American Law Institute and has received from ALI-ABA the Harrison Tweed Award for Special Merit in Continuing Legal Education. He is the co-author of one of ALI-ABA’s most popular books, “Fundamentals of Bankruptcy Law”, now in its 5th Edition, and numerous articles and papers on bankruptcy law.
Mr. Trost is currently of counsel to Cronin & Vris, LLP, of New York City.