Seventeen years filing in this district. I started as a debtor’s clerk in 2008, the year the housing crisis broke. I have filed in front of the same three trustees for almost two decades. Your case is not a number to me — it is the family at the kitchen table.
I went to law school the year Lehman Brothers collapsed. The first job I could find was as a docket clerk in the bankruptcy courthouse downtown — reading thousands of petitions, watching trustees question debtors at 341 meetings, and slowly learning that consumer bankruptcy is the most quietly humane corner of federal law.
The household at the table was almost never reckless. They were a single mom whose ex-husband stopped paying child support. A construction crew lead whose lower back finally gave out. A schoolteacher who put medical bills on a credit card because the alternative was watching her daughter go without insulin. The myth of the bankruptcy filer as a bad actor falls apart the moment you read the schedules.
I opened this practice in 2014 with a single rule: flat fees, never billable hours. I had watched too many households drain their last few thousand dollars paying hourly rates only to file the same paperwork they would have filed at a fixed price. Federal consumer bankruptcy is template work. The expertise is in spotting the edge cases — not in re-drafting Form 122A from scratch every time.
That decision means I cannot take every case. I turn down complex business reorganizations, large-asset Chapter 11s, and white-collar criminal-restitution disputes. What I can do, very well, is shepherd a working household through Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 in this district. I have done it 1,400 times.
If you are reading this on a Saturday night because the calls are still coming and you cannot sleep: pick up the phone Monday morning. The first conversation is always free.
Every attorney biography is a resume. Here is the slightly more honest version.
Read 50–80 petitions a week, scheduled 341 meetings, watched trustees question debtors. Every case had a backstory and almost none of them matched the headlines about “deadbeats.”
Saw firsthand why the cookie-cutter consumer-bankruptcy industry has such a poor reputation. Left after 14 months when the firm refused to refund a client whose case I had to dismiss.
Two years of pro bono Chapter 7s for households below 150% of the federal poverty line. Filed 220 cases. Learned that a careful, honest, federally-templated filing is one of the cheapest ways to deliver life-changing legal help.
Opened a flat-fee solo practice with one paralegal and a rule against billable hours. Eleven years later, 1,400+ filings, the same paralegal, the same rule.
Recognized for sustained pro-bono filings and contributions to the federal consumer-bankruptcy bar. The plaque is in the lobby; you can’t miss it.
Every practice has a quiet operating manual. Here’s mine.
Federal consumer bankruptcy is template work. Charging hourly rates for templated work is, in my view, indefensible. Two prices, every line item published, no exceptions for “complicated” cases.
The attorney you meet is the attorney who appears at your 341 and signs your discharge motion. I have one paralegal; we don’t outsource and we don’t hand cases off.
Roughly one in five intakes leaves my office with a recommendation against bankruptcy. Some clients are judgment-proof, some belong in a DMP, some need a tax-resolution specialist. I’ll tell you on the call.
I do a fair amount of free public-education work because most of the bankruptcy myths spread through silence.
Co-presenting with Trustee Maria Patel on the new modification standards adopted in 2024.
Free 90-minute screening clinic for seniors at risk of bankruptcy from medical bills.
Monthly free intake clinic with the regional VA. No appointment needed.
One-hour public talk at the central library. Free, open to all, Q&A after.
Not a paralegal, not an intake associate, not an AI bot. The attorney who would actually file your case — on Zoom or in person, for the first hour.
Book free 60-min review