Robert J. Keach, a Maine bankruptcy attorney and shareholder at the regional law firm Bernstein Shur, has been appointed president elect of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI). He will assume the presidency next April.

Keach previously was the vice president - education for the ABI. He planned and oversaw more than 20 national and regional conferences as well as special programs, seminars and distance learning programs. The ABI has more than 11,000 members throughout the United States and in several foreign nations.

Keach, of Falmouth, has been involved in a number of high-profile bankruptcies and restructurings, including New Century Financial Corp., Pegasus Satellite Television, Androscoggin Energy, Great Northern Paper and Lincoln Pulp & Paper Co.