Student Loan Debt Solutions: What Attorneys Need to Know

Brandon is a counsel with Saul Ewing LLP in Washington, D.C., and devotes his practice to advising institutions of higher education, accreditation agencies, and educational companies that support their missions.

Drawing on a combination of legal experience from private practice and government roles at the U.S. Department of Education, his experience includes advising institutions on U.S. Department of Education regulations, state authorization, cybersecurity, anti-discrimination laws, marketing and advertising practices, and accreditation.

Mr. Sherman applies his experience at the U.S. Department of Education to help clients resolve complex regulatory and enforcement challenges. He also served as senior counsel to the Deputy Secretary of the Department, a role that included advising on terminations of institutions’ eligibility to participate in Title IV programs and actions to fine them. Mr. Sherman assists institutions that are seeking accreditation and state authorization approvals. He also provides periodic reviews to help them maintain their status, and he counsels accrediting agencies on the development and application of accrediting standards and procedures, federal regulations and appeal proceedings. His work in this area is informed by his U.S. Education Department experience, where he served on its higher education accreditation reform committee and explored changes to federal regulatory requirements.

Jessica E. Mendez Colberg is a capital partner and vice president with Bufete Emmanuelli, C.S.P. in Ponce, P.R., where her practice involves civil litigation with a concentration on labor rights and consumer protection. Her focus areas extend to bankruptcy law, and she specializes in student loan law.

Since 2016, Ms. Mendez Colberg has been deeply involved in litigation concerning the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act and Management (PROMESA). She has been at the forefront of the legal challenges against PROMESA and the Oversight Board, defending the rights of unions, retirement systems and other disadvantaged groups that have been adversely affected by the law and the austerity measures imposed by the Oversight Board.

Her advocacy led her to become the first and youngest Puerto Rican woman to present oral argument before the Supreme Court of the United States in October 2019.

Ms. Mendez Colberg is certified in Conflict Mediation and is admitted to practice in the federal court for the District of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hon. Robert A. Mark is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, appointed in 1990, and he served as Chief Judge from 1999-2006.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Mark was head of the bankruptcy department of the Miami firm of Stearns, Weaver, Miller, Weissler, Alhadeff & Sitterson, PA. He is a frequent speaker at international programs sponsored by INSOL, III, IWIRC and ABI, and he has served for several years as the co-judicial chair of the ABI’s Caribbean Insolvency Symposium.

Judge Mark is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and an author for Collier on Bankruptcy. His community activities include participation in a program that offers internships to minority law students, and participation in financial education programs for high school students through the Bankruptcy Bar Association’s CARE program, which teaches students about the dangers of credit card abuse.

Judge Mark is a graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley.

Robert B. Branson is an attorney who has focused on consumer and small business bankruptcy rights for over thirty years in the Orlando area. He served proudly in the United States Army from 1978 to 1983. He is a member of the Central Florida Bankruptcy Law Association, former member of the Middle District of Florida’s Steering Committee and former Chair of the Orange County Bankruptcy Bar Committee.

Since 1990 he has been a mediator in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division, and became a Florida Circuit Mediator in 2014. In 2010, he participated in the working group to assist in the implementation of the Residential Mortgage Modification Program in the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division. He has spoken at the NCBJ, NACTT, ABI National and Southeastern Conferences, National Loss Mitigation Summit, and the Statewide Mortgage Modification Mediation Florida Summit.

As a mediator he has performed countless adversary and sanction mediations and over 800 residential mortgage mediations. As Debtor Counsel he has completed nearly 600 mortgage modifications since the program’s inception. He is a leader in the area of mortgage modification mediation through bankruptcy; he has been teaching attorneys and their staff from Florida and other states around the country to understand the various Federal mortgage modification programs and how to effectively obtain these modifications through Residential Mortgage Modification Mediation since 2011.

Throughout his career he has been proud to provide pro bono legal services to those in need. His firm has frequently interceded on behalf of pro se debtors at the request of the Bench and Chapter 13 Trustee’s Office. His firm assisted with the formation of the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division Pro Se Clinic and in 2013 provided the most hours of any law firm with over 100 hours provided by the firm’s three attorneys.

Mr. Branson received his JD from the University of Florida College of Law.