Mr. Todd S Johns
Chapter 13 Trustee, Northern District of Mississippi; Chapter 12 Trustee, Louisiana
Todd S. Johns Chapter 13 Trustee
Todd Johns is currently a Chapter 13 Trustee for the Nothern District of Mississippi and the Chapter 12 Trustee in Louisiana. He was previously the Chapter 13 Trustee for the Shreveport Division of the Western District of Louisiana from 2016 to 2023. Prior to this appointment, Todd was the staff attorney and office manager for the Chapter 13 and Chapter 12 offices of Harold J. Barkley, Jr. from October 2005 to August 2016. He was the staff attorney for Harold J. Barkley, Jr and Locke D. Barkley from June 1999 to October 2005. Prior to his bankruptcy practice, Todd began his practice as an assistant state attorney for the 3rd Judicial District of Florida, and worked as an insurance defense attorney in Jackson, Mississippi. He is licensed to practice in all Courts in Mississippi and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He is also an inactive member of the Florida Bar.

Todd is a native of Live Oak, Florida, and attended Jacksonville University (FL) and the Mississippi College School of Law. He is a member of the Booth-Politz Inn of Court, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the Western District of Louisiana Rules Committee. He has previously been a speaker at the Mississippi Bankruptcy Conference, the LSU Bankruptcy Conference, the Region 5 Standing Trustee Training and the NACTT annual seminar.

Judge David R Jones
United States Bankruptcy Court
David R. Jones was sworn in as a bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of Texas on September 30, 2011. Judge Jones was appointed as chief judge in 2015. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Jones was a partner in the bankruptcy group of Porter Hedges, LLP. Judge Jones received an LLM from Duke University in 2018, his Juris Doctor from the University of Houston in 1992 where he served as editor-in-chief of the Houston Law Review. Judge Jones received his Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University in 1986 and his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Duke University in 1983.

Mr. Benjamin W. Kadden
Lugenbuhl, Wheaton, Peck, Rankin & Hubbard
Benjamin (Ben) Kadden is the Managing Partner and leader of the Restructuring and Insolvency Section at Lugenbuhl. His areas of focus include bankruptcy, restructuring, creditors’ rights, corporate and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, and asset-based finance. Ben has acted as lead counsel for various Official Committees of Unsecured Creditors, as well as special counsel to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Trico Marine bankruptcy. He has also served as Debtor’s counsel in a number of Chapter 11 proceedings, including Gulf Fleet Holdings, Inc., East Cameron Partners, L.P., and Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co.
Admitted to practice in Louisiana and Texas, Ben has also served as special or local counsel in several large Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in the Southern District of Texas. He has represented numerous liquidating and litigating trusts arising out of confirmed plans of reorganization and has participated in a number of merger and acquisition transactions. Because of his experience in complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, Ben has knowledge regarding the purchase or sale of assets by distressed companies, including navigating the process while a buyer or seller is in bankruptcy.
Ben is admitted to practice and regularly does so in the following jurisdictions: Louisiana, Texas, U.S. Fifth Circuit, and all U.S. District Courts in Louisiana and Texas. His is ranked by Chambers USA ranking, is recognized by Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers, a New Orleans Top Lawyer recipient, and an AV Preeminent Rated Attorney by Martindale-Hubbell.

Judge John W. Kolwe
Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge
US Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana
John W. Kolwe was appointed United States Bankruptcy Judge by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, effective August 12, 2015. He was sworn in by Bankruptcy Judge Robert R. Summerhays and served in the Alexandria and Monroe Divisions of the Western District of Louisiana until April 25, 2019. On October 5, 2018, he was appointed to the Lafayette and Lake Charles Divisions to fill the vacancy left by Judge Summerhays. He served as Chief Judge for the Western District of Louisiana from April 2018 to April 2023. He received his B.S. in Accounting from Centenary College of Louisiana in 1985. Following graduation from Centenary, Judge Kolwe worked as a CPA. Judge Kolwe received his J.D. in 1991from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. He practiced law in Lafayette, Louisiana from 1991 until joining the bench. John is presently the Fifth Circuit Governor of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. He is also a member of the Dean’s Council for the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center. John and his wife, Miriam, reside in Lafayette, Louisiana, where they raised their two children.

Judge Michelle V. Larson
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas Dallas Division
The Honorable Michelle V. Larson
Northern District of Texas – Dallas Division

Michelle V. Larson was appointed to serve as a bankruptcy judge for the Northern District of Texas – Dallas Division on July 7, 2020.
Prior to taking the bench, Judge Larson was a resident practitioner in Dallas for 24 years. Immediately before her appointment, Judge Larson was an insolvency and restructuring partner with the law firm of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, L.L.P. She began her legal career with what is now Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP and also practiced for several years with Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP. As a practitioner, Judge Larson had experience in all areas related to commercial bankruptcy and restructurings, including complex debtor’s and creditor’s representations, out-of-court restructurings, liquidations, secured finance, and commercial litigation. She worked on bankruptcy cases across the country in various industries, including real estate, telecommunications, health care, sports, banking, energy, and retail and was instrumentally involved in precedential bankruptcy appeals before courts of appeal throughout the country and the U.S. Supreme Court, including GWI PCS 1, Inc. and NextWave Personal Communications Inc.
Judge Larson is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the John C. Ford American Inns of Court, as well as other local bar groups. She is a frequent contributor at conferences addressing a variety of bankruptcy issues. She has also successfully served as mediator for her bankruptcy colleagues in the Northern District of Texas.

Prior to her appointment, she spearheaded her prior firm’s Women’s Business Development Initiative and has been recognized for her pro bono efforts.

Judge Larson is originally from Houma, Louisiana and graduated as the valedictorian of Nicholls State University, summa cum laude, with a B.S. in Accounting and a minor in English. She is also a recipient of the Nicholls State Hall of Fame award. She received her J.D. from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana, magna cum laude, where she was a member of Law Review and Moot Court and was recognized for excellence in Constitutional Law and Business Organizations.
Finally, prior to taking the bench, Judge Larson was a Certified Public Accountant, having received her license in Louisiana.

Mr. Fernand L. Laudumiey IV
Partner
Chaffe McCall, LLP
Fernand “Ferdie” Laudumiey’s practice primarily focuses on the areas of bankruptcy law and complex bankruptcy litigation. He has successfully advised and represented a wide range of clients in both Chapter 11 reorganization and Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings, including bankruptcy trustees, debtors, debtors in possession, and creditors in Louisiana, Texas and other jurisdictions. Ferdie’s extensive experience in his representation of bankruptcy trustees has encompassed the prosecution of preference, fraudulent conveyance, and other avoidance action proceedings, prosecution of discharge complaints, objections to exemptions and claims, executory contract matters, and various other aspects of the general administration of bankruptcy estates.

Ferdie has also concentrated his practice on real estate law and property matters, advising and representing appraisers, lenders, and title insurance companies in both federal and state court. He has handled breach of contract and title claims, breach of professional duty issues, foreclosures, and he has represented clients in matters before the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisal Board.

Ferdie earned his J.D. from Louisiana State University Law Center, where he was the recipient of the Austin W. Lewis Scholarship Award. Upon graduation, he clerked two years for the Honorable Marcel Livaudais, Jr., U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Professor Angela K. LIttwin
Ronald D. Krist Professor in Law
University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Professor Littwin studies bankruptcy, consumer, and commercial law from an empirical perspective. Her current research includes studying the attitudes towards bankruptcy among consumers being sued by debt collectors, bankruptcy local legal culture, as well as the relationship between consumer credit and domestic violence (DV). She has published in journals such as the Texas Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, California Law Review, and American Bankruptcy Law Journal. She has recently published articles about racial disparities in bankruptcy chapter use, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's complaints process and supervision program as well as on how consumer bankruptcy attorneys adapted to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. Professor Littwin has been a principal investigator for a number of empirical projects. With collaborator Adrienne Adam of Michigan State University, Professor Littwin has received funding from the National Science Foundation to study debt and domestic violence. She is working with Professor Pamela Foohey at Indiana University Maurer School of Law to study financially-distressed consumers’ knowledge of and feelings about bankruptcy and with Professor Bob Lawless at the University of Illinois to study local legal culture in consumer bankruptcy.

Professor Littwin received her undergraduate degree from Brown University and graduated from Harvard Law School in 2002. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Rosemary Barkett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and founded ROAD (Reaching Out About Depression), a community-organizing project for low-income women. Prior to her appointment at the University of Texas School of Law, she was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. She joined the UT faculty in 2008.

Professor Littwin teaches bankruptcy, secured credit, and a seminar on the regulation of credit cards.

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.

Mr. Kevin R. Molloy
Partner
Simon, Fitzgerald, Cooke, Reed & Welch
Kevin R. Molloy is a partner in the law firm of Simon, Fitzgerald, Cooke, Reed & Welch. Mr. Molloy graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1982 with a degree in Business Administration. He later received his Juris Doctor from Louisiana State University Law School in Baton Rouge in 1985 where he was President of the student body and was the Student Member of the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors.

Mr. Molloy served as a law clerk for Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen V. Callaway from 1986 to 1987. Mr. Molloy is a member of the Shreveport Bar Association, Louisiana State Bar Association, American Bankruptcy Institute, Commercial Law League of America, and is currently serving as a delegate to the Louisiana State Bar Association House of Delegates.

His practice is primarily in the areas of Business and Consumer Bankruptcy Law. He represents debtors and creditors in bankruptcy. Mr. Molloy is one of only four attorneys certified by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization as both a Consumer Bankruptcy Specialist and a Business Bankruptcy Specialist. Mr. Molloy has previously served as Chair of the Bankruptcy Law Section of the Louisiana State Bar Association and as the Chair of the Bankruptcy Advisory Commission for the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization.

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.

Mrs. Cherie Dessauer Nobles
Fishman Haygood, LLP
Cherie Dessauer Nobles concentrates on debtor and creditor rights.She has experience in representing large, complex companies and small companies in bankruptcy. Her experience includes representation of debtors, trustees , unsecured creditors’
committees, and creditors in commercial bankruptcy and workout business cases in chapter 11 and chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings. Mrs. Nobles has been listed in Super Lawyers (2021), as a Rising Star in Super Lawyers (2019-2020), Top Lawyers by New Orleans Magazine (since 2018), Best Lawyers (2019), and as "Up and Coming" lawyer by Chambers (2021).

Ms. Samantha Alexis Oppenheim
Associate
Jones Walker LLP
Samantha’s practice focuses on the areas of bankruptcy and creditors’-debtors’ rights, as well as healthcare law.

Prior to joining Jones Walker, Samantha served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Martin L.C. Feldman of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Prior to her clerkship, Samantha earned her juris doctor degree, summa cum laude, from Tulane University Law School, graduating in the top two percent of her class and earning the Order of the Coif distinction. During law school, Samantha served as a notes and comments editor of the Tulane Law Review, as well as a senior fellow for the Legal Research and Writing course.