The TMA New Jersey Chapter recently awarded $5,000 in scholarships to the winners and runners-up in the inaugural Hon. Rosemary Gambardella Scholarship Competition held at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey.

Members of the chapter’s NextGen and Network of Women (TMA NOW) Committees prepared the hypothetical case for the students, and judges for competition were Bankruptcy Judge Gambardella of the District of New Jersey, a Rutgers Law School graduate; Steven Mitnick, a partner at SM Law PC; and Colleen Maker, an associate at Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga LLP.

“Education is at the very core of our association’s mission, along with preparing future restructuring industry leaders,” said Chapter President Jane W. Mitnick of SM Financial Services Corporation. “It is always exciting to see the next generation filled with such enthusiasm, and the participating students were no exception.”

Students Adam Saunders and Amelia Lyte each won $1,500 scholarships, and Claire Nielsen and Christine Armellino each won $1,000 scholarships as the runners-up in the competition, which is based on a student’s understanding and demonstration of bankruptcy law. The four are students in Professor Chrystin Ondersma’s bankruptcy class. Ondersma said the winners were chosen from a field of seven original competitors, who were evaluated on written briefs prior to the competition. She credited the students researching the appropriate subject matter, since much of the material had not yet been covered in her class when the competition began.

The students were given a hypothetical case about a distressed clothing company that entered into a mail-order business in an attempt to turn around the company, but ultimately filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The students acted as attorneys in the case, two arguing on behalf of the debtor clothing company and two arguing on behalf of a creditor sued by the debtor to recover preference payments.

In the final round of the competition, the students were asked to present arguments in front of the panel of competition judges. Each group of two student attorney adversaries was given 30 minutes to argue their case to and answer questions by the judges.

“The briefing and oral argument particularly forced me to learn a lot about preference payments and their potential defenses. I had to make sure that I was comfortable enough with the Bankruptcy Code and relevant case law to answer the judicial panel’s questions and respond to pushback on the fly,” Saunders said. “Winning the competition was an honor, and I am tremendously appreciative of Professor Ondersma, the New Jersey TMA Chapter, and Judge Gambardella for providing us with this amazing opportunity.”

Past TMA New Jersey Chapter presidents Stephen B. Ravin of Saul Ewing LLP and Nicholas B. Jalowski of Cambridge Financial Services LLC awarded the winning scholarships to Saunders and Lyte. All four of the finalists, as well as three other contestants and Professor Ondersma, were also given free memberships to the TMA New Jersey Chapter, whose members sponsored a networking reception after the event. Co-chairs for the event were Sydney J. Darling of Walsh Pizzi O’Reilly Falanga LLP, Ravin, and Jalowski.

“What a wonderful event,” Gambardella said of the competition. “It is truly an honor to be part of a program that supports young law students.”