Weissman shares expertise

After a 50-year career of learning about and developing expertise in the fields of financial and business transactions, ISBA Senior Counsellor Michael L. Weissman keeps busy sharing his knowledge.

An adjunct professor of secured transactions for 10 years at The John Marshall Law School, he recently received senior specialist grants to lecture on commercial and real estate lending in Riga, Latvia, and on contract law in Vientiane, Laos.

Weissman also writes a monthly column, “Tales of Whoa!” for the Risk Management Association Journal, and an electronic column, “Flashpoints,” on financial services industry issues for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education.

A 1958 graduate of Harvard Law School who has an MBA degree from the Wharton Graduate Division of the University of Pennsylvania, Weissman is of counsel to Holland & Knight in Chicago.

Previously executive vice president and general counsel of the Bridgeview Bank Group, he was vice chair of the Illinois Bankers Association Bank Counsel Committee.

Weissman has spoken across the country at conferences and conventions of the Bankers Association, the Bank Administration Institute and the Risk Management Association, and has conducted frequent in-house training programs for financial institutions.

The author of “Lender Liability: How to Protect Yourself Against Unwarranted Lawsuits,” published in 1988 by Executive Enterprise Publications, he has contributed several chapters to IICLE practice handbooks.

An active member of the National Arbitration Forum panel of arbitrators, Weissman has been an arbitrator for the Chicago Board of Options Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers.

He has served on the Commercial Finance Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law, and has chaired the IICLE Executive Committee.