Intersection of State Court Causes of Action in Bankruptcy

Eric M. Wilson is a solo practitioner with Eric Wilson Law, LLC in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and specializes in consumer bankruptcy, typically on behalf of debtors in chapter 13 and 7 cases. He has handled consumer bankruptcy cases since 1997.

Mr. Wilson is a member of NABCA and ABI and is a graduate of Max Gardner’s Consumer Defense Academy. He is currently serving a second four-year term as chairman of the Board of Education for the Tuscaloosa City Schools.

Mr. Wilson received his B.A. in economics from Vanderbilt University in 1993 and his J.D. from the University of Alabama in 1996, where he served as senior editor of the Alabama Law Review.

Janet B. Haigler is a practitioner with Haigler Law Firm LLC in Chapin, S.C., and has practiced in the areas of bankruptcy, creditor rights and commercial litigation for more than 25 years. In 2014, she was appointed by the Office of the U.S. Trustee as a chapter 7 panel trustee for the District of South Carolina.

Ms. Haigler serves as a mediator for the Loss Mitigation/Mortgage Modification Program and for chapter 13 valuation disputes. She is certified by the South Carolina Supreme Court as a Specialist in Bankruptcy and Debtor-Creditor law, and she serves as the secretary for the J. Bratton Davis Bankruptcy American Inn of Court. Recently, the American College of Bankruptcy announced that Ms. Haigler will be inducted as a Fellow of the College in October 2021. She volunteers for the CARE Program, providing financial literary presentations to local schools and community groups.

Julie M. Anania is a staff attorney for Nancy J. Whaley, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee, in Atlanta and has represented the chapter 13 trustee in the Northern District of Georgia for nine years. Prior to that, she represented consumer debtors. Ms. Anania is an active member of the bankruptcy sections of State Bar or Georgia, the Atlanta Bar Association and the Metro-Atlanta Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney Group. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she also played for the women’s soccer team, and her J.D. from Liberty University School of Law.

Hon. Michelle M. Harner is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, appointed in 2017.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, she was the Francis King Carey Professor of Law and the Director of the Business Law Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where she taught courses in bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, business associations, business planning, corporate finance and the legal profession. Judge Harner lectured frequently during her academic career on various topics involving corporate governance, financially distressed entities, risk management and related legal issues. Her academic scholarship is widely published, with her publications appearing in, among others, the Vanderbilt Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Fordham Law Review (reprinted in Corporate Practice Commentator), Washington & Lee Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, University of Illinois Law Review, Arizona Law Review (reprinted in Corporate Practice Commentator) and Florida Law Review.

Judge Harner has served as the Associate Reporter to the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the Reporter to the ABI Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11, and a member of the Dodd-Frank Study Working Group for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. She also served as the Robert M. Zinman ABI Resident Scholar for the fall of 2015. Judge Harner is an elected member of the American Law Institute and Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. She previously was in private practice in business restructuring, insolvency, bankruptcy and related transactional fields, most recently as a partner at the Chicago office of the international law firm Jones Day.

Judge Harner received her B.A. cum laude from Boston College in 1992 and her J.D. summa cum laude from The Ohio State University College of Law in 1995.