Eric Sleeper is a rare breed of bankruptcy lawyer - the kind that didn't stumble into the industry by accident.

     Many bankruptcy attorneys get their start after being assigned on cases that slowly become intertwined with a Chapter 11 or even meeting an inspiring mentor in the field. But Sleeper, a new partner at Barton, Barton & Plotkin L.L.P, caught the bankruptcy bug early on simply by taking classes at Emory University School of Law.

     His immediate attraction to the topic was a sentiment he said many of his peers didn't seem to share at the time. "It's the rare student that comes out wanting to do bankruptcy work," he said. "Most sudents run for the hills."

     But instead of being deterred by the often complex and detailed minutia of the Bankrutcy Code, Sleeper found the topic interesting and decided the practice area was a good fit. "I knew that I liked both the litigation side as well as the transactional side of law, and bankruptcy is a nice blend of both," he said.

     After working at a firm that dabbled in bankruptcy matters during the summer, Sleeper became editor-in-chief of the Emory's Bankruptcy Developments Journal, which he described as one of the only student-run journals of its kind in the country. "[I] obviously got to know bankruptcy law a little bit more from the inside." he said of the experience of running the journal, which came out twice each year. Each issue featured four to six scholarly articles covering a variety of topics related to bankruptcy and restructuring.

     The role gave Sleeper opportunities to interact with influential bankruptcy experts, including David Epstein, who began his tenure as dean of Emory's law school just as Sleeper started his stint as editor. Sleeper had another role model in the form of his older brother, who practices bankruptcy law.

     In Sum, Sleeper's experiences, mentores and innate interests pushed him into the world of bankruptcy law soon after law school graduation. He worked for firms such as Anderson Kill & Olick P.C. in Manhattan and Herrick, Feinstein LLP in Princeton, N.J., before joining Barton, Barton & Plotkin in September.

     Sleeper has been charged with helping to orchestrate the firm's new interdisciplinary "financial crisis opportunities team," designed to help clients such as hedge funds and private equity take advantage of challenging economic times.

     "The way you get yourself out these holes is to focus on the opportunities and develop new businesses, new investments from what has otherwise become a weakening set of market indicators," he said. "Hopefully at the end of the day it will allow a lot of these distressed situations to turn around rather than liquidate or collapse fromt he weight of their own debt." DBR

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