Mary Jo Heston

Biography

Professor Heston has practiced at the Pacific Northwest law firm of Lane Powell PC since 1993. Her current practice involves both commercial litigation and commercial transactional matters with an emphasis on business workouts and Chapter 11 reorganization cases. She has experience representing Chapter 11 debtors, creditors' committees, trustees, secured creditors and prospective purchasers in bankruptcy cases in a variety of industries including the: marine industry, farming industry, health care industry, hotel industry, power and utility industry, retail industry, petroleum industry and real estate industry. Other areas of her practice include: creditor's rights and remedies under state law including: Washington State receivership law, the Uniform Commercial Code, state collection and lien laws and cross-border international insolvency matters. Ms. Heston was appointed by United States Attorney General in 1988 to serve a five-year term as the United States Trustee overseeing bankruptcy cases and bankruptcy fiduciaries in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Montana (Region 18). She served seven years in the federal court system in various positions including estate administrator and law clerk to a federal district court judge and a bankruptcy judge. Ms. Heston taught the basic bankruptcy class at Seattle University School of Law between 1984 and 2004. She is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and was the 2003 Recipient of the Sydney C. Volinn Award for meritorious service to the local bankruptcy community. She is an active participant in the American Bankruptcy Institute, INSOL International and is the former president and current board member of the NW Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association. Ms Heston has spoken at numerous international, national and regional conferences on a variety of topics including: international insolvency matters, receivership law, creditor's rights issues, lender liability, asset based lending, collection of debts, the structure of commercial loans and Article 2 & 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code.