Do You Speak Consumer?

Beverly M. Burden has served as the chapter 13 trustee for the Eastern District of Kentucky in Lexington since 1999. She previously clerked for Hon. Joe Lee, and prior to that was an assistant attorney general for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in its Consumer Protection Division.

Ms. Burden has presented at numerous national, regional and local bankruptcy seminars. She is a member of the National Association of Chapter Thirteen Trustees (NACTT) and serves on the board of directors of the NACTT Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education (www.considerchapter13.org).

Ms. Burden chairs the University of Kentucky Biennial Consumer Bankruptcy Law Conference and served on the Chapter 13 Advisory Committee to the ABI Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy. She also is a regular contributor to www.considerchapter13.org and writes a blog for practitioners in the Eastern District of Kentucky at www.ch13edky.wordpress.com.

Ms. Burden was the 1997 recipient of the Kentucky Bar Association’s Justice Thomas B. Spain Award for Outstanding Service in Continuing Legal Education and in 2017 was inducted as a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. She received her J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law and holds a B.B.A. in accounting.

Hon. Kevin R. Anderson is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Utah in Salt Lake City, appointed on Sept. 4, 2015. Previously, he served for 17 years as the standing chapter 13 trustee for the District of Utah, administering more than 70,000 chapter 13 cases.

Judge Anderson served as president of the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT), and he also served on several national committees regarding chapter 13 legislation, rules, forms and policy. He has frequently written and presented on chapter 13 issues, including for the Norton Bankruptcy Law Advisor, the ABI Journal, the NACTT Quarterly and the NACTT Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education. He is also a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy.

Prior to his appointment as chapter 13 trustee, Judge Anderson practiced for 13 years as a commercial litigator with an emphasis on civil fraud, real property, and representing chapter 11 and 7 trustees. He also clerked for Hon. David N. Naugle, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California.

Prior to law school, Judge Anderson worked for two years as a data systems specialist testing military and commercial jet engines for General Electric. He received his J.D. cum laude from the J. Ruben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.

Heather M. Giannino is the managing attorney of the Bankruptcy Department at Heavner, Beyers & Mihlar, LLC in Decatur, Ill., where she oversees secured creditors’ rights in bankruptcy, foreclosure and related matters. She is a member of ABI and the Bankruptcy Association of Southern Illinois (BASIL), National Association of Chapter Thirteen Trustees (NACTT), American Legal and Financial Network (ALFN), Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) and Decatur Bar Association (DBA).

Ms. Giannino co-chairs ABI’s Hon. Eugene R. Wedoff Seventh Circuit Consumer Bankruptcy Conference, is Education Director of ABI’s Consumer Bankruptcy Committee, and is a Coordinating Editor for the ABI Journal’s Consumer Point/Counterpoint column. She is licensed to practice in Illinois, Missouri and Indiana.

Ms. Giannino received her B.S. in accounting and finance summa cum laude from Millikin University and her J.D. cum laude from Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Cristina Perez Hesano is the founder of Perez Law Group, PLLC in Gelndale, Ariz., and has been practicing law for more than 10 years. She primarily focuses her legal practice on bankruptcy, personal injury, wrongful death and estate planning.

Ms. Perez established the firm in 2010. She is a 2020 honoree of ABI’s “40 Under 40” program and a member of the American Association for Justice, the Arizona Bankruptcy American Inn of Court and the State Bar of Arizona’s Bankruptcy Section, for which she serves as its Diversity and Inclusion chair and on its executive board.

Ms. Perez received her B.S. in psychology and political science from Hofstra University, her J.D. from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and her M.A. in criminal justice from Arizona State University.