Mr. H. Kenneth Lefoldt Jr.
Shareholder
Lefoldt & Co., P.A., CPA
Mr. Lefoldt is a shareholder with Lefoldt & Co., P.A., CPAs. He heads up the firm's litigation services and consulting practice. Services include expert witness testimony at depositions and trial, trial assistance relating to opposing experts, consultation on litigation options and approaches, support during the discovery process and, all phases of bankruptcy administration. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor, a Certified Fraud Examiner, and is Certified in Financial Forensics. Mr. Lefoldt received his BBA in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame in 1968 and his MBA from Loyola University in New Orleans, LA in 1976. Mr. Lefoldt is a member of: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Institute of Management Accountants; American Bankruptcy Institute; Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors; Turnaround Management Association; National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees; Association of Certified Fraud Examiners; Mississippi Society of Certified Public Accountants; Louisiana Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Mississippi Bankruptcy Conference. Mr. Lefoldt is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. Mr. Lefoldt has served as a member of the Board of the Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors (1989-2010) and served as President from 2000-2002. Mr. Lefoldt has lectured on Insolvency Accounting at Seminars sponsored by the Mississippi Bankruptcy Conference, Mississippi College School of Law, Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, Central California Bankruptcy Association and the American Bankruptcy Institute. Mr. Lefoldt has served as Chief Restructuring Officer / Trustee in Bankruptcy, Examiner, Accountant for the Debtor, Accountant for Creditors' Committee, Accountant for the Trustee, Special Master in Chancery Court, and Trustee for a Creditors' Trust. Mr. Lefoldt has testified as an expert witness in Finance & Accounting in Federal District and Bankruptcy Court, and State Chancery and Circuit Court. Mr. Lefoldt has been included in the Best Lawyers in America Directory of Experts published by Woodward/White.
Judge Keith M Lundin
United State Bankruptcy Judge (retired)
Middle District of Tennessee
Judge Keith Lundin was appointed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in 1982. He retired in June 2016. He served as a judge on the first Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Sixth Circuit from 1997-99. He is on the faculty of the Federal Judicial Center. In addition to teaching as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt Law School, he taught at the University of New Mexico, where he was the Weihofen Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law in 2006, at Emory University School of Law and on numerous seminar and institute faculties. He is the author of LundinOnChapter13.com and has been a managing editor for Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser (Thompson/Reuters/West) since 1982. After earning his law degree from Vanderbilt, he clerked for Chief Judge Harry Phillips of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. While in private practice, he served as standing Chapter 13 trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee. He teaches Effective Legal Writing for the Real World; Marijuana and Bankruptcy; Discharge and Dischargeability; and Chapter 13.
Ms. Anna Mangham
U.S. Bankruptcy Court
Anna is native of Mobile, Alabama, who relocated to the New Orleans area upon accepting a clerkship with the Honorable Meredith S. Grabill. After graduating from Mississippi College School of Law in 2010, Anna clerked for the Honorable John R. Lockett, Circuit Judge for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in Mobile, Alabama. Anna also clerked for United States Magistrate Judge, Bert W. Milling for the Southern District of Alabama before clerking for the Honorable Jerry C. Oldshue in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Alabama. Anna enjoys CrossFit, cooking, and traveling with her husband.
Ms. Heather M. Mathews
Shareholder
Gold, Weems, Bruser, Sues & Rundell, APLC
http://www.goldweems.com
Heather M. Mathews is a shareholder of the law firm of Gold, Weems, Bruser, Sues & Rundell, APLC, in Alexandria, LA, where she began her career in antitrust class actions and gained experience in complex litigation. In recent years, she has figured prominently in the firm’s expanding business bankruptcy and reorganization practice, garnering national recognition in Chapter 11 by the Turnaround Management Association, the Global M&A Network, and M&A Advisor. She is admitted to the State Bar of Louisiana and State Bar of Texas, as well as the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana, the Southern District of Texas, the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Louisiana College, summa cum laude, and graduated from Tulane Law School, cum laude, in 2005.
Mr. Michael Medved
Judicial Law Clerk
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana
Michael is currently the term law clerk for Judge John S. Hodge in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Michael graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law, cum laude, in May 2020. During law school, Michael had his work published in law journals from Notre Dame Law School, University of Illinois College of Law and Pepperdine. He was a member of the College of Law's 2019 Duberstein Moot Court Team.
Ms. Abby Moskowitz
Judicial Law Clerk
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
Abby Moskowitz (Vanderbilt University Law School, 2017), currently serves as Judge Meredith S. Grabill’s Term Law Clerk in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Prior to beginning with Judge Grabill, Abby clerked for Judge James L. Dennis on the United States Court of the Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and served as a paralegal in the Consumer Housing Unit at Philadelphia Legal Assistance. Abby currently works remotely from Silver Spring, Maryland, where she lives with her husband and son and where she intends to practice public interest law after completing her clerkship with Judge Grabill.
Mr. Dwayne M Murray
Chapter 7 Trustee
Murray & Murray
http://www.murraylaw.net
Dwayne M. Murray is a Past President and CEO of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees and the Managing Member in the Baton Rouge Law Firm of Murray & Murray, LLC. He holds the bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Juris Doctorate from the Southern University Law Center. He has served as a Chapter 7 Panel Trustee since 1993 for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Louisiana. He has been appointed Chapter 11 Trustee, Liquidating Trustee and as Special Master in state court. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, United States District Courts for the Middle, Eastern and Western Districts of Louisiana. Murray is affiliated with the Turnaround Management Association, American Bankruptcy Institute, National Bar Association, Louisiana State Bar Association, and the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees.
Mr. Louis M. Phillips
Partner
Kelly Hart Pitre
https://kellyhart.com/
Louis M. Phillips is a partner at Kelly Hart & Pitre and leader of the firm's Bankruptcy & Business Reorg. practice. Mr. Phillips provides legal representation and consultation for debtors, creditors, and trustees over a broad practice area, including transaction and business structuring and restructuring, bankruptcy reorganization, and bankruptcy and commercial litigation. He also handles civil cases in state and federal courts and has handled matters before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. Phillips represents debtors, debtors-in-possession, and creditors in Chapter 11 cases, borrowers and lenders in loan restructuring and workouts, and entities of all types in all practice areas of bankruptcy cases and proceedings.
Mr. Phillips serves as the permanent chair of the Annual Bankruptcy Law Seminar sponsored by the Louisiana State University Center for Continuing Professional Development, a program he developed in 1995. He has taught educational programs on bankruptcy law for state judges, and has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at LSU Law School since 1988. Phillips was formerly a contributing editor to the Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 2nd and is the author of numerous articles for law reviews and other periodicals. Mr. Phillips is a frequent speaker and writer for legal education seminars across the country, including the Advanced Bankruptcy Course of the State Bar of Texas, Western District of Texas Bankruptcy Bench Bar; LSU Annual Bankruptcy Law Seminar, LSU Family Law and Recent Developments in Law Jurisprudence Seminars, and seminars sponsored by such esteemed groups as Stetson University College of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Texas Tech School of Law, Norton Institutes on Bankruptcy Law, American Bankruptcy Institute, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees, Rocky Mountain Bankruptcy Symposium Law Education Institute, 5th Circuit Bench-Bar Bankruptcy Conference, Mississippi Bankruptcy Conference, Bankruptcy Law Institute, MidSouth Commercial Law Institute, the Annual Oil & Gas Law Conference, and the American Bar Association as well as numerous federal district bar associations and those of and in the states of Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin. Among his many other speaking engagements are lectures to the National Association of Attorneys General, Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and VISA International.
From 1988 - 2002, Mr. Phillips served as the Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana. During his tenure, he authored numerous opinions of first impression of Louisiana state law and bankruptcy law, and was the author of a number of opinions that ultimately were adopted by the Fifth Circuit and other courts as the law of those courts (i.e., Matter of Mercer, 246 F.3d 391 (5th Cir.2001) involving credit card fraud cases under section 523(a)(2) and Matter of Orso, 283 F.3d 686 (5th Cir. 2002) (wherein the Court reversed the panel and prior jurisprudence concerning the Louisiana law exemption over structured settlement annuities).
Mr. Phillips presided over the first conversion to a totally electronic filing and docketing system within the Federal Courts of the United States.
Michael P Richman
Steinhilber Swanson LLP
Michael focuses on representing Chapter 11 debtors, creditors and creditors’ committees and advises on virtually every aspect of financial distress and bankruptcy.
In a career of more than 40 years, Michael has appeared in courts in more than 20 states and territories. Prior to moving to Wisconsin and joining Steinhilber Swanson in April 2018, Michael’s legal practice was centered in New York City and the federal, state and bankruptcy courts located in the Southern District of New York (including White Plains), as well as Delaware. Although based now in Wisconsin, he maintains his active bar admission in New York, and continues to appear and represent clients across the nation.
Michael regularly advises and represents clients in out-of-court restructurings, prosecution and defense of creditors’ rights litigation (including preference and fraudulent conveyance cases), individual and group secured and unsecured creditors, landlords, tenants, purchasers of assets under Bankruptcy Code section 363 and other parties in interest. His litigation practice outside the bankruptcy courts includes the prosecution and defense of numerous and varied commercial disputes. In addition, since January 2018, he has taught bankruptcy law as an adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison.
Michael has served as President of the American Bankruptcy Institute (“ABI”) (2004-05), as well as director (1996-2008), chairman of its board (2006-07) and a member of its management and executive committees. He served as chairman of the Section 363 Subcommittee of ABI’s national commission to reform Chapter 11, and co-vice chair of ABI’s National Ethics Task Force. Michael has written and contributed numerous articles on ethics in bankruptcy practice to the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, and over the past 25 years has been an invited speaker/lecturer at hundreds of bankruptcy conferences. Michael is also the founder and a performing member of ABI’s house band, the Indubitable Equivalents, which performs at bankruptcy conferences around the country.
Michael is admitted to practice in numerous federal district courts and circuit courts of appeal, including the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York; and the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin. However, because bankruptcy law is a federal practice he may (and does) appear and represent clients in bankruptcy courts anywhere in the country.
Mr. Bill Rochelle
ABI Editor-at-Large
American Bankruptcy Institute
Bill Rochelle joined the American Bankruptcy Institute in 2015 as its Editor-at-Large, writing every day on developments in consumer and reorganization law. For the prior nine years, he was the bankruptcy columnist for Bloomberg News.
Bill got his undergraduate and law degrees from Columbia University, where he received Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar awards from the law school. Before turning to journalism, he practiced bankruptcy law for 35 years, including 17 years as a partner in the New York office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
In addition to writing, Bill travels the country for ABI, speaking to bar groups and professional organizations on hot topics in the turnaround community and trends in consumer bankruptcies.
Mrs. Jennifer Sues
Career Law Clerk
United States Bankruptcy Court; Western District of Louisiana
https://www.lawb.uscourts.gov/
Jennifer Sues is the Career Law Clerk for Judge Stephen D. Wheelis, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Louisiana. Following her graduation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995, she graduated from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1998. She began her career in public service at the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal as law clerk for Judge Jimmie C. Peters. From 1999-2001, she served as the Pro Se Law Clerk for the United States District Court, Western District of Louisiana under Chief Judge F.A. Little, Jr. She began her work in bankruptcy as the career law clerk for Judge Henley A. Hunter, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Louisiana in Alexandria in 2001 and served in that capacity for fourteen years. Thereafter she served as the career law clerk for Judge John W. Kolwe, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Louisiana from 2015 to 2019. Since April of 2019, she continues to serve as the career law clerk to Judge Stephen D. Wheelis in the Alexandria and Monroe Divisions of the Western District of Louisiana.
Hon. Robert R. Summerhays
United States District Judge
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
Judge Robert Summerhays was appointed to the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana by President Trump in September 2018. Prior to this appointment, Judge Summerhays served as the Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the Western District of Louisiana. Judge Summerhays was previously a partner in the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where his primary practice area was federal court litigation. Judge Summerhays served as a law clerk for Judge W. Eugene Davis (U.S. Court of Appeals) in Lafayette from 1994 to 1995. Judge Summerhays received his law degree in 1994 from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was an Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review.
Mr. Paul G Swanson
Senior Partner
Steinhilber Swanson LLP
Paul G. Swanson is a senior partner in the firm and primarily represents individuals and businesses in financial reorganizations, restructurings, formal bankruptcy proceedings, receiverships and other debt adjustment strategies. His representation is limited primarily to debtors in both simple and complex matters. He has practiced Bankruptcy & Insolvency Law for close to 39 years. He represents clients in the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, and the Western District of Michigan (UP).
Mr. Swanson has represented farmers in financial distress for the last 30 years, helping them in workouts, and voluntary through formal restructuring, to save their farms. He was an author of the Farmers Guide to the Farm Crisis published by the Young Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Wisconsin and has been representing farmers in Chapter 12 reorganizations since the inception of that Chapter. He has lectured at the Chapter 12 Trustee’s Farm and Ranch Symposium held at Texas Tech and addressed the Chapter 12 Trustees at their meeting in Indianapolis in 2019. His experience in farm reorganization is extensive and in depth.
As a Chapter 7 Trustee since 1983, Mr. Swanson has presided over tens of thousands of Chapter 7 liquidations, some that have been complex, and has delivered multiple millions of dollars to creditors through that process.
As an independent receiver in state court receiverships under Chapter 128, Mr. Swanson has mediated disputes among secured creditors and other constituencies and managed to sell dozens of companies as going concerns, arguably delivering the highest and best value to creditors and, in many instances, shareholders. Generally, Mr. Swanson works when brought into such proceedings by ownership in order to maximize the value of the going concern of the business, in many cases, after a key officer of the business has left due to illness or other reasons and the business needs to continue operating while seeking buyers. Additionally, when appropriate, the firm works in concert with financial advisors to the struggling business, or may bring in financial advisors who are highly qualified professionals.
Mr. Swanson has been recognized and selected to Super Lawyers since 2005, including the current year. This recognition places him in the top five percent of the practice areas for which he was recognized, Bankruptcy and Debtor/Creditor Rights.
Mr. Swanson is currently a Past President of the State Bar of Wisconsin (2017 – 2018), having been elected by the membership. He has previously served as the Treasurer, Chair of the Board of Governors, and a Governor of the organization. As a young lawyer, he served as President of the Young Lawyers Division. He has been active in the Bar virtually his entire career and has served as Chair of the Bankruptcy, Insolvency and Creditors’ Rights Section from 2007-2009 and remains a member of the section. He was instrumental, along with his partner, Claire Ann Resop, in establishing and continuing the annual Bankruptcy Section Retreat held in March of each year at the American Club in Kohler, wherein virtually all of the bankruptcy judges and the majority of bankruptcy practitioners in Wisconsin gather for education and professional development.
Mr. Swanson frequently lectures, locally and nationally, on bankruptcy related topics. He has spoken at the annual meetings of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the State Bar of Wisconsin, as well as for other continuing legal education seminars. He was the organizer and coordinator for over a decade for the annual Law Education Institute conference held in Vail or Aspen, CO, wherein he brought national speakers to a five day seminar, speaking on leading edge topics within the bankruptcy community. The Colorado Bar Continuing Education section sponsored the conference. He has also taught a graduate level course in the College of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, acquainting MBA candidates with the nature and diversity of bankruptcy and insolvency issues as related to business.
Mr. Stuart Welch
Career Law Clerk
US Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana
https://www.lawb.uscourts.gov
Stuart T. Welch has been the career law clerk to Chief Bankruptcy Judge John W. Kolwe of the Western District of Louisiana since 2018. He is a 2007 graduate of the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law School. Previously, he served as a term law clerk to Judge Dee D. Drell of the Western District of Louisiana from 2007 to 2008. He also served as a term law clerk to Judge W. Eugene Davis of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 2008 to 2009 and as a career law clerk to Judge Davis from 2013 to 2017, with his remaining time spent in private practice.
Judge Stephen D. Wheelis
Judge
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana
http://www.lawb.uscourts.gov
Stephen D. Wheelis was appointed by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 25, 2019 to serve as a Bankruptcy Judge for the U. S. Bankruptcy Court, W. D. of Louisiana at Alexandria and Monroe. Prior to his appointment, he was a shareholder of Wheelis & Rozanski, APLC, in Alexandria for over 20 years and initially practiced as a partner with Provosty, Sadler & deLaunay for 14 years.
His practice included representation of creditors and trustees in all bankruptcy chapters, banking, business & commercial law, litigation & appeals. He actively practiced bankruptcy law throughout all Districts of Louisiana and in many other states, pro hac vice.
He is a Board Certified Business Bankruptcy Specialist, certified by the Louisiana Supreme Court and the American Board of Certification since January 1, 1997. He served from 2011-2019 on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Certification, the Standards and Faculty Committees. He has been a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute for more than 20 years. He served as a member of the LSBA Bankruptcy Law Advisory Commission, 1995 - 1998 and 2018-2019, and chaired the LSBA Board of Legal Specialization from 2009-2010. He served as an Assistant Bar Examiner for Code III from 2005-2019 and held memberships in the Louisiana Bankers Association, serving on the Bank Counsel Committee, as well as the Louisiana State, American and Alexandria Bar Associations.
On December 3, 2021, He was appointed to a 3 year term as the 5th Circuit representative on the Bankruptcy Judges Advisory Group for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. He is currently a member of the Crossroads American Inns of Court, The Judge Jerry A. Brown Louisiana Bankruptcy Inn of Court, the Federal Bar Association, The National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, serving as Chair of the NextGeneration Committee, and an Associate Member of NACTT.
He appeared consecutively in the annual editions of Louisiana Super Lawyers, Business Bankruptcy/Creditor Rights, from 2007-2019. He previously served as an adjunct professor for paralegal studies at Northwestern State University and Louisiana College and taught courses for the American Institute of Banking.
Judge Wheelis received his J.D. Degree in 1985 from Tulane University School of Law and his B.A. in Legal Studies from Northeast Louisiana University (now ULM) in 1981.