ANNOUNCEMENT:
Stanley M. Hecht, Of Counsel to Keightley & Ashner LLP, passed away on November 20, 2015. He was born in Kew Gardens, New York, on July 6, 1950, to Arthur and Ilse Hecht, and was a step-son to Margot Hecht. He was an avid sports, music, and animal lover who cherished family and friends. He enjoyed traveling to the National Parks, skiing, and trips to Martha’s Vineyard with his brother and family. Stan is survived by his daughters, Dana Mich (John) of Charlottesville, Virginia, and Emily Hecht of Charleston, South Carolina; his brother, Allen Hecht (Amy) of Warren, New Jersey; his niece, Lesley Hecht Landa (Evan) of Westfield, New Jersey; and his nephew, Ben Hecht of New York, New York.
Stan joined our firm upon his retirement from government service in March 2008, after 15 years with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. He played a central role with our firm in resolving a wide variety of PBGC-related issues for many employers, and was highly admired and respected by all.
During his PBGC career, Stan played an important role in the agency’s major ERISA and corporate program areas, including early warning, bankruptcy, litigation, transactional, regulatory policy, premium enforcement, corporate governance, risk assessment and benefit determination matters. He had worked on many of PBGC’s major bankruptcy, transactional and litigation cases, including those involving steel and coal producers, airlines, automobile and automobile parts manufacturers, and chemicals, metals distribution, public utilities, textiles, paper mill, technology, consumer electronics, appliance manufacturing and health care companies. He had extensive experience working with creditors’ committees and debtors.
Stan played many key roles at PBGC, regularly providing legal, management and policy advice to PBGC’s senior and executive management. He served as Assistant Chief Counsel in the Insurance Program Office and Senior Legal Advisor to the Office’s Director; as PBGC’s senior representative on a working group with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that studied pension corporate finance accounting and disclosure issues for public companies; as the Alternate Chair and Senior Legal Advisor to the PBGC’s Trusteeship Working Group (a multidisciplinary committee that advises PBGC’s Director on proposed major pension plan terminations); as the Alternate Chair and Senior Legal Advisor to PBGC’s Recovery Valuations Group; and as a member of the PBGC Audit Committee, the Internal Control Committee, the Risk Assessment Committee, and the Appeals Board.
Stan began his legal career in 1975 on Capitol Hill with the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Intelligence, which investigated and held hearings on U.S. intelligence agency abuses. He then joined the Enforcement Division of the SEC, where he became a supervising attorney and for ten years investigated and litigated financial fraud cases. Stan then went to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (now the Office of Thrift Supervision, U.S. Department of the Treasury) for six years, where he investigated and litigated banking enforcement cases and became Deputy Director of Enforcement, Acting Director of Enforcement, and Senior Legal Advisor for Enforcement Policy to the OTS’s Chief Counsel.
Stan attended Rutgers University, graduating with honors in 1972 with a B.A. in history, and the George Washington University National Law Center, graduating with honors in 1975. He had been an instructor with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and taught at two Washington, D.C. area law schools. In addition to numerous continuing legal education courses, Stan completed advanced course work at Harvard University Law School’s Negotiations Project. He had been a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the American Bar Association.
Donations in memory of Stan may be sent to Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, 2251 North Rampart Blvd. #2520, Las Vegas, Nevada 89128 or The Humane Society, 2100 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037.
Condolences to the family may be sent to:
Family of Stan Hecht
c/o Dana Mich
626 Watson Avenue
Charlottesville, Virginia 22901