Disparate Treatment of POC in the Bankruptcy Process

Pamela N. Maggied is a sole practitioner with Pamela N. Maggied Co., L.P.A. in Columbus, Ohio, and her law practice has been devoted to the bankruptcy and insolvency areas since 1980. She has been Board Certified in Consumer Bankruptcy Law since 1993, and has been a member of NACBA since 1992.

Ms. Maggied is a Columbus Bar Foundation Fellow and a member of the Columbus Bar Association. She is a Columbus Bar Foundation Fellow and a member of the Columbus Bar Association, for which she has been active in its Bankruptcy Committee since 1981. She also is a member of ABI and sits on the advisory board of the Midwest Regional Bankruptcy Seminar.

Ms. Maggied is a member of the Mediation Committee, and a former member of the Attorney Advisory Committee, for the bankruptcy courts in Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton. She also has been recognized as an Ohio Super Lawyer each year since 2007 and was listed among the Top 25 Women Columbus Super Lawyers 2010-14 and 2018 to the present. In addition, she was awarded the Columbus Bar Association’s Professionalism Award for 2019.

Ms. Maggied received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude in 1975 from Ohio University and her J.D. in 1979 from The Ohio State University College of Law.

Gregory Burrell is a chapter 13 trustee in Minneapolis, appointed in 2013, and is a licensed attorney in Louisiana and Minnesota. He started his legal career with Murray & Murray Law firm as a consumer attorney representing debtors in chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcies, businesses in chapter 7 bankruptcies and the chapter 7 trustee in various litigation.

Mr. Burrell founded a bankruptcy law clinic at Southern University Law Center, where he led student attorneys, who filed chapter 7 bankruptcies free of charge on behalf of individuals living below the poverty line. He also served as staff attorney to the chapter 13 trustee in the Western District of Louisiana.

Mr. Burrell is a permanent member of the Bankruptcy Practice Committee in the District of Minnesota, a current NACTT board member and treasurer-elect for NACTT. He is very involved in the topic of equal justice under the law for marginalized communities and what can be done to correct such concerns within the bankruptcy system.

Mr. Burrell received his Bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University with a minor in business administration, and his J.D. from Southern University Law Center.

Margaret A. Burks is the chapter 13 trustee for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati, appointed in July 1992. Previously, she clerked for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge J. Vincent Aug, Jr. from 1988-91 and was counsel to PNC Bank in the areas of bankruptcy and commercial law.

Ms. Burks chaired the CBA Bankruptcy Committee, is a past president of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees and a former co-chair of ABI’s Consumer Bankruptcy Committee. She received her B.S. and B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 1977 and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D. from Salmon P. Chase College of Law in 1985, where she was a member of its law review.

Hon. Jeffery P. Hopkins is a Bankruptcy Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati, appointed in 1996 and reappointed in 2010.

After graduating from law school, he clerked for Hon. Alan E. Norris on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, then worked as an associate with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, LLP, specializing in complex commercial litigation.

In 1990, Judge Hopkins sought appointment as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and advanced to become chief of the Civil Division for the Southern District of Ohio. During his tenure on the bankruptcy court, he has served on several committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States and for bar-related and civic organizations.

In 2002, the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist appointed Judge Hopkins to the Federal Judicial Center’s Education Committee for bankruptcy judges. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. appointed him to the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules, for which he chaired its Business Bankruptcy Subcommittee until 2009.

Judge Hopkins formerly served on the boards of ABI, the ABA Business Bankruptcy Committee and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and as chair of the Queen City Foundation. Judge Hopkins is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a frequent lecturer on bankruptcy law. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

In 2010, Judge Hopkins received the William K. Thomas Distinguished Jurist Award from his alma mater, The Ohio State College of Law. He also is a past president of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.

Judge Hopkins received his A.B. in government and legal studies and anthro-sociology from Bowdoin College in 1982 and his J.D. in 1985 from The Ohio State University’s Michael E. Moritz College of Law.

Prof. Robert M. Lawless is the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law and co-director of the Program on Law, Behavior & Social Science at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, Ill., where he writes and teaches about bankruptcy, consumer finance and business law. He also served as the College’s associate dean for research from 2013-16.

Prof. Lawless served as the reporter for the ABI’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy and was the recipient of ABI’s Service Award in 2019. He is a co-author of Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach and Empirical Methods in Law. He also is a regular contributor to the blog Credit Slips, a discussion on credit, finance and bankruptcy.

Prof. Lawless has testified before Congress, and his work has been featured in media outlets such as CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the National Law Journal, the L.A. Times and the Financial Times. He received both his undergraduate degree in accounting and his J.D. from the University of Illinois, during which time he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Illinois Law Review.