ABI’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy vs. the Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act

Christopher L. Hawkins is a partner in the Birmingham, Ala., office of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP. Throughout his 20-year career, he has counseled individuals and businesses in a wide variety of bankruptcy and insolvency-related matters. He regularly represents debtors and creditors in out-of-court business restructurings, chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, and bankruptcy-related litigation, but for the past decade he has devoted most of his practice to advising large financial institutions on bankruptcy compliance and bankruptcy-related regulatory matters. In addition, he has represented financial institutions in nationwide consumer bankruptcy litigation, regulatory enforcement matters and large-scale remediation projects, as well as through his time serving as interim in-house bankruptcy counsel for one of the largest financial institutions in the Fortune 100.

Over the years, Mr. Hawkins has counseled clients on a wide range of consumer bankruptcy engagements, including designing and conducting risk assessments, drafting policies and procedures, scoping and implementing bankruptcy remediation projects, preparing comments to regulators on proposed regulations impacting bankruptcy, training client bankruptcy departments, auditing third-party bankruptcy vendors and counseling clients on bankruptcy operational issues.

Mr. Hawkins received his B.S. summa cum laude in 1996 from Spring Hill College and his J.D. summa cum laude in 1999 from the University of Alabama School of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, served on the Alabama Law Review, received the M. Leigh Harrison Award and was a Hugo Black Scholar.

Marcy J. Ford is a managing partner with Trott Law, P.C. in Farmington Hills, Mich. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the Federal Bar Association, the Oakland County Bar Association, ABI and the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees, and she is a member and former board representative of the Consumer Bankruptcy Association of the Eastern District of Michigan. She also is active with the USFN, a trade association for mortgage banking attorneys, and served on the USFN board for 11 years and was president from 2012-14.

Ms. Ford was honored on Crain’s Detroit Business “Women to Watch” list, has been recognized as a DBusiness magazine “Top Lawyer,” and was named as one of HousingWire’s “Influential Women in Housing.”

Ms. Ford received her J.D. in 1993 from Wayne State University.

Hon. Rebecca B. Connelly is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg, appointed in July 2012. She is a former standing chapter 13 trustee and chapter 12 trustee for the Western District of Virginia.

Judge Connelly has been a member of ABI since 1994 and has served as a contributing editor and a features author for the ABI Journal, a member of the Consumer Bankruptcy Committee, and a speaker at ABI’s Annual Spring Meeting and Winter Leadership Conference, “Eye on Bankruptcy” and Views from the Bench. She also serves on the board of CARE and is an adjunct professor of law at Washington and Lee University School of Law.

Judge Connelly received her B.A. in 1985 from the University of Maryland and her J.D. in 1988 from Washington & Lee University School of Law.

Ariane R. Holtschlag is partner with FactorLaw in Chicago and serves as a member of the panel of chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees for the Northern District of Illinois. In her legal practice, She focuses primarily on consumer bankruptcy.

Ms. Holtschlag regularly represents debtors, trustees, and creditors in chapter 7 and 13 as well as bankruptcy-related litigation. She has spoken at several bankruptcy education programs and also volunteered for CARE, speaking to high school students about credit and bankruptcy. In 2017, she was chosen as one of ABI’s inaugural “40 Under 40” award recipients in recognition of her achievements.

Ms. Holtschlag was a commissioner on ABI’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy and in 2018 testified before congress on chapter 7 trustee fees. She received her undergraduate degree in 2004 from Illinois Wesleyan University and her J.D. from the University of Iowa in 2007.

Henry E. Hildebrand, III has served as Standing Trustee for Chapter 13 matters in the Middle District of Tennessee since 1982 and as Standing Chapter 12 Trustee for that district since 1986. He also is of counsel to the Nashville law firm of Farmer Purcell White & Lassiter.

Mr. Hildebrand graduated from Vanderbilt University and received his J.D. from the National Law Center of George Washington University. He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and serves on its Education Committee. He is Board Certified in consumer bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification and now serves on its Faculty Committee. He is Chairman of the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee for the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT). In addition, he is on the Board of Directors for the NACTT Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education, Inc. and writes the Critical Case Comments column for its web site.

He is a regular contributor to the ABI Journal. He has served as an adjunct faculty member for the Nashville School of Law and St. John’s University School of Law.