Paul Bent and Patricia Voorhees of The Alta Group will share their expertise on legal issues impacting the equipment leasing industry at the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s 2023 Legal Forum, which will take place May 7 to May 9 in Fort Myers, FL.

Bent, who is a senior managing director of The Alta Group and the leader of Alta’s legal services and business assessment practices, will participate in a May 7 panel discussion titled, “When Borrowers, Brokers and Vendors Do Bad Things: Fraud Schemes and Other Challenges for Lenders.” Jennifer Witherell Crastz, a partner with Hemar, Roussou & Heald, will moderate the panel with Bent.

Bent’s presentation will offer actionable tips to help legal professionals serving the equipment leasing industry spot potentially fraudulent deals and avoid the costly pitfalls of the alarming increase in cybercrime impacting global businesses. He will explain fraud schemes he has seen in his decades of experience working in the equipment leasing and finance industry, focusing specifically on how these breaches could have been prevented. Bent’s talk will cover “red flags” leasing professionals should be aware of.

Voorhees, who is a director of The Alta Group, will participate in the forum’s “Clean Energy and ESG” panel discussion, as the anticipated global transition to cleaner energy infrastructure is expected to create a significant opportunity for the equipment finance industry. Voorhees will discuss recent policy events that are helping drive this activity and quantify the market opportunity. Her presentation will also discuss ELFA’s climate finance working group, which was formed late last year. Co-panelist Stephen Whelan, a partner with Blank Rome, will detail opportunities related to clean energy equipment finance.