Recent Develpments in Consumer Practice

Henry E. Hildebrand, III has served as Standing Trustee for Chapter 13 matters in the Middle District of Tennessee since 1982 and as Standing Chapter 12 Trustee for that district since 1986. He also is of counsel to the Nashville law firm of Farmer Purcell White & Lassiter.

Mr. Hildebrand graduated from Vanderbilt University and received his J.D. from the National Law Center of George Washington University. He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and serves on its Education Committee. He is Board Certified in consumer bankruptcy law by the American Board of Certification and now serves on its Faculty Committee. He is Chairman of the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee for the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT). In addition, he is on the Board of Directors for the NACTT Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education, Inc. and writes the Critical Case Comments column for its web site.

He is a regular contributor to the ABI Journal. He has served as an adjunct faculty member for the Nashville School of Law and St. John’s University School of Law.

Prof. Robert M. Lawless is the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law and co-director of the Program on Law, Behavior & Social Science at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, Ill., where he writes and teaches about bankruptcy, consumer finance and business law. He also served as the College’s associate dean for research from 2013-16.

Prof. Lawless served as the reporter for the ABI’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy and was the recipient of ABI’s Service Award in 2019. He is a co-author of Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach and Empirical Methods in Law. He also is a regular contributor to the blog Credit Slips, a discussion on credit, finance and bankruptcy.

Prof. Lawless has testified before Congress, and his work has been featured in media outlets such as CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the National Law Journal, the L.A. Times and the Financial Times. He received both his undergraduate degree in accounting and his J.D. from the University of Illinois, during which time he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Illinois Law Review.

Ariane R. Holtschlag is an associate attorney with the Law Office of William J. Factor in Chicago, where her practice is focused primarily in the field of consumer bankruptcy and is equally divided among representing trustees, debtors and creditors in chapters 7 and 13. She also represents individuals and small businesses in chapter 11.

Ms. Holtschlag has spoken at several bankruptcy education programs and also volunteered for CARE, speaking to high school students about credit and bankruptcy. In 2017, she was chosen as one of ABI’s inaugural “40 Under 40” award recipients in recognition of her achievements.

Ms. Holtschlag received her undergraduate degree in 2004 from Illinois Wesleyan University and her J.D. from the University of Iowa in 2007.