Voices of NCLC

Voices of NCLC Highlighting the People at the Heart of NCLC’s Network of Consumer Champions

Hank Abrashkin After practicing with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute in Boston, I served for twenty-two years as the First Justice of the western Massachusetts Housing Court. The courts can provide justice under the law, but they cannot change an economic system that keeps many people in poverty and that drives them into the housing courts with problems that are not at heart legal disputes. If people could afford to pay the rent, the caseloads of the housing courts would be reduced by half. The financial burdens of poverty are heavy, but the burdens go beyond the “cycle of poverty.” The cycle also includes lack of educational opportunities, discrimination, criminal involvement, health, mental health, family problems, and more. The large majority of people bringing these problems into the housing courts are unrepresented and must deal with the potential loss of housing on their own. The courts work together with others to provide programs that help many people, but those programs cannot not meet the underlying needs, including education, training, and—most of all—living-wage jobs with quality child care. I found myself wondering if there was a way I could help address some of the problems, particularly the need for quality early education and childrearing, which are the foundation for a better life for the next generation of young people. As this thought was taking shape, the housing authority in Springfield, Massachusetts was looking for a new director. I saw the job as offering an opportunity to help address the needs that poor people brought into the court. I was offered the position and resigned from the judiciary to take it. Working with a number of partners, including the public schools, the workforce board, and foundations, the housing authority established an earliest education program called Talk/Read/Succeed! It was gratifying to see many kids being helped to develop the skills that they would need for school and beyond. I spent as much time in the housing authority developments as the job allowed, appreciating how people responded when they knew they were being taken seriously and treated respectfully. I worked at the housing authority for ten years, then retired, after which I have continued my involvement with issues of social and economic justice. I support NCLC because the organization works for fairness for people who need all the help they can get as they grapple with systemic problems that they did not create. ̛ William “Hank” Abrashkin, Former Executive Director, Springfield Housing Authority and Former First Justice, Western Division Housing Court

Rick Alembik I love representing my clients because almost inevitably my cases are “David vs. Goliath”-type conflicts — and I love slaying Goliath every chance I get. My family is composed of lawyers, and I’ve been a ham since the day I was born. As a result, I grew to really love the art of litigation. In the mid-90s, I got really interested in the subject of wrongful foreclosure, and by 2007 it was pretty clear to me that the foreclosure crisis was imminent — and that American homeowners were going to need lawyers with expertise in borrower representation. I joined NACA soon after and have worked on behalf of consumers ever since. Since I started practicing, I’ve always kept NCLC’s manuals on my bookshelf. Without them, I would have been wholly incapable of identifying issues and figuring out how to leverage federal protections in favor of the few consumer clients I had. The subject area just doesn’t lend itself to self-education, and law schools, at least back then, didn’t really teach consumer law. So NCLC’s publications and conferences were, and remain, absolutely indispensable for every consumer lawyer. I’m optimistic about consumer law as a “movement” and as an area of practice. The foreclosure crisis demonstrated how abuses of consumers at the micro level can propagate and result in devastating consequences for entire economies at the macro level. Federal legislation has somewhat stiffened protections under RESPA and TILA, and while these protections aren’t perfect, the more we can master these laws, the more we can leverage and expand on them as we educate our colleagues and the judges hearing our cases. ̛ Rick Alembik, Richard S. Alembik, PC, Decatur, GA

Lindsey Anderson I grew up in a rural part of eastern North Carolina where most people are low-income. My mom was in real estate and my stepdad was in construction, and they had bought their first house together in 2008. As you can imagine, the financial crisis put my family in a really difficult situation — my stepfather lost his job and my mom’s real estate clients dried up, so they were both unemployed for some time. Thankfully, we were able to access a state mortgage modification program that let us keep the house and stay near all our friends and neighbors. When I was in law school at the University of Michigan, I ended up at an event where Professor Michael Barr, who was a member of the Department of the Treasury in the Obama Administration talked about the Dodd-Frank Act and his role in getting the state mortgage modification programs off the ground. I actually went up and told him after the event that my family had been in one of the programs he created, and that I wouldn’t be in law school if I hadn’t had the opportunity to stay in my home and finish my high school education. From then on, I became really passionate about helping other families stay in their homes and avoid falling into debt, and he helped direct that passion towards the field of consumer law. I also had the good fortune to meet NCLC’s Litigation Director Stuart Rossman through the consumer class action litigation class he taught at Michigan, and he remains my greatest mentor (and a great friend) to this day. I learned a ton from Stuart’s class, which led to me spending the summer of 2016 as the Bob Hobbs Fellow at NCLC. I got to work on housing justice issues, major class actions, financial services, mortgage servicing, some student loan and prison cases — a little bit of everything! — and that summer really convinced me that consumer law was where I needed to be. I had a daughter in April and I’m newly motivated to make the world a better place for her. Since 2008, I’ve never stopped thinking about debt and worrying about how the burden of debt is going to impact the next generation. So many Americans, especially folks who are from the kinds of communities I grew up in, are just overwhelmed by debt, and I know that the more we fight back against the corporate practices that cause people to lose their homes or get stuck in debt they can’t afford, the stronger and happier and healthier our families will be. ̛ Lindsey Anderson, Judicial Law Clerk, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia

Rebecca Borné “Relatively early on in my career, I knew something wasn’t quite right with the path I’d chosen. I spent about five years as an auditor at a big national accounting firm, doing work that was challenging and valuable — but, for me, not particularly fulfilling. I was living in New Orleans back then, and every day, I would drive from my comfortable apartment uptown to my comfortable office downtown, through block after block of dilapidated public housing. And over time, making this drive day after day, I started grappling more deeply with questions about why the disparities around me were so stark, and where the opportunities were for so many residents of this beautiful city. Eventually, I decided to attend law school, with plans to better understand economic inequity and hopes to spend my career addressing it in some way. I quickly became immersed in the community and economic development clinic at Yale Law School. We were helping our client start a community development bank in New Haven that would focus on the needs of low- and moderate-income residents. As part of this work, one of our professors took us to visit Self-Help Credit Union, a community development financial institution (CDFI) in Durham, North Carolina. We heard the founder of the credit union, Martin Eakes, speak passionately about Self-Help’s mission — essentially to help bring the civil rights movement to the economic realm by increasing economic opportunity for communities of color and other underserved communities. I was so inspired by his talk that I walked up to him afterward and asked him for a job. I ended up interning for Self-Help that summer, and soon after law school, joining Self-Help’s policy arm, the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), in Washington, DC. While Self-Help focuses largely on asset building, CRL focuses largely on protecting family assets by working to eliminate predatory financial practices. I started at CRL in 2008, so my earliest work related to the predatory mortgage practices that precipitated the foreclosure crisis. Soon, I began working on other issues like payday lending, bank overdraft practices, and others. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate more deeply the tremendous effect that so-called “small dollar” predatory financial practices can have on communities — often, effectively stripping people of their last dollar — as well as the impact that successful advocacy can have for those most affected. I ended up staying at CRL for nearly 14 years, through both exciting wins and disappointing losses. I’ve learned that my earliest mentors weren’t kidding when they told me this kind of work is a long game. In mid-January, I’ll be joining the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a senior fellow, where I hope to continue to advance policies that prevent financial exploitation.” ̛ Rebecca Borné, Senior Engagement and Policy Fellow at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, formerly Senior Policy Counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending

Lorray Brown “Addressing consumer issues at a systemic level is at the very heart of a career objective I have had since law school. I have always wanted to work in the public’s interest. I pursued that goal at the ACLU, as a lawyer for the City of Philadelphia, as a legal services attorney, as a fellow at NCLC in 2008, and in my current role as the statewide consumer and foreclosure attorney of the Michigan Poverty Law Program. While at NCLC, I was encouraged to think about, and work toward our shared vision of policy changes that will affect hundreds of people at once and improve the system in their favor. Skills and knowledge I acquired at NCLC were critical to my ability to eventually develop a statewide foreclosure prevention project in Michigan. During my 18 years at the Michigan Poverty Law Program I have been able to help make major strides in foreclosure prevention for vulnerable people who need a home. At the height of the foreclosure crisis in 2008 and 2009, many clients were about to lose their homes. We joined forces with other coalitions and advocated changes to foreclosure laws that would provide a 90-day grace period for homeowners to negotiate their respective cases. Eventually the state reverted to the original foreclosure process, but fortunately the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) began to require most servicers to wait 120 days to allow for loan modification negotiations before foreclosure. It is a period even longer than what we proposed. NCLC and coalition advocacy changed the standard for how foreclosures are handled at the federal level- a lasting change that affects homeowners’ lives directly. The fight will never be over, because there will always be more work to be done. Scammers will always reinvent themselves, but I will continue the fight for systemic change in my state to better protect the people I serve.” ̛ Lorray Brown, former NCLC Consumer Law Fellow, Director of the Michigan Foreclosure Prevention Project at the Michigan Poverty Law Program, and winner of NCLC’s 2015 Vern Countryman Award.

Ron Burdge “I feel like a child again when I’m in court -- the excitement for me has never died. I feel anxious every time I go in with my client, but then after a couple minutes I get into the groove and feed off the energy of the moment. I try not to be in the mind of the judge, but always in the mind of the jury. My job is to make what my clients are going through relatable to the jury, and help them understand that we are all consumers. It can be challenging at times, but exciting and rewarding to practice the law I have dedicated my life to in court -- and to win for my client. It was by chance that I ended up practicing law. I could have been a DJ! I was working in music and happened to meet a retired Federal Communications Commissioner who was working at my university. I ended up assisting him for a year, and he convinced me there was a place for me in the law. My very first case was against an attorney 40 years older than me representing the powerhouse automaker, Chrysler. When we went to court, I got the same emotional high that I got from DJing a crowd, and used that to persuade the jury. I won my first case, and for over four decades years now I have continued to try and often win auto fraud cases. Early in my career, I went to visit a friend’s new law office. I had been practicing private auto law for a couple years, and we began talking about consumer law. He listened to what I had been working on and turned to point out a series of books on his bookshelf: NCLC’s Auto Fraud series. I was stunned. Only feet away from me was a collection of books that I had somehow never heard of, yet which covered all that I had ever practiced. I ended up borrowing a couple, and now years later try to have the series within arm’s reach at all times. It was total serendipity to come across NCLC’s books, and now I rely on them almost daily. I could not have continued my career without the consumer law community and the resources and support it has provided me. Once I was introduced to NCLC’s publications I realized that a supportive, dedicated community had been out there for years! I’d like to think there are other young attorneys today looking for direction, just as I was, and will come across consumer law and find their specialty like I did. The future of consumer law is one person, conversation, or case away -- and I still look forward to going to work every day knowing that I can be a part of shaping that future.” ̛ Ron Burdge, attorney and founder of Burdge Law Office Co LPA, Lemon Law expert

Alexander Burke “The relationships I’ve built with consumer law colleagues and clients are what mean the most to me. I never expected to be a consumer lawyer, but after a few months in my first job at a consumer protection law firm, I didn’t want to let go – I couldn’t let go -- of the feeling that comes along with helping people who really need it. I still often think about my earliest clients. A family I represented was going through a tough time, and couldn’t get away from debt collectors to get their lives back on track. They were doing everything they reasonably could, but the debt collector continued to harass them -- incessantly calling every family member and neighbor to intimidate them. The family came to me for help, and we got to work. I gave them advice and guided them through the steps they needed to take to turn things around. I visited their house often during this time because I felt the value of being their ally during the process. They needed someone to treat them with dignity, someone they could trust, and I was able to help give them the motivation they needed to pull through. We were able to achieve a favorable outcome for that family, and I’m proud that I was able to keep them safe and give them much-needed relief. In their case, fluke circumstances made their situation worse, but that’s actually a common factor in most of the cases I see. Sometimes, despite a family’s best efforts, factors beyond their control can keep them from thriving and reaching their goals. That’s why I show up to work everyday -- because I know there’s so much more to be done. In a sense, I owe my solo practice to that family, because they showed me the satisfaction of standing up for the little guy, and gave me the drive to help as many people as possible in my career. Going home at the end of the day and feeling that I’ve benefited not only my clients, but also their community and our country, is incredibly satisfying and humbling.” ̛ Alex Burke, Burke Law Offices, LLC

Pam Car “Back in 1998, there were really no consumer lawyers in Nebraska to speak of, aside from a few bankruptcy lawyers who dabbled in consumer cases. I think I may have been the first one. A colleague gave me a flier for NCLC’s conference in Washington, DC where Ralph Nader was scheduled to speak. I was familiar with Nader’s work and thought that this was a neat opportunity, so I went not really knowing what else to expect -- but after taking courses on debt collections, and meeting people like Rand Bragg and Cary Flitter who were willing to help me get started, everything gelled and I knew I wanted to pursue this kind of work further. Most of my cases are class actions on behalf of low-income and other vulnerable people. It means a lot to me to be able to secure my clients some kind of relief -- even if it’s only a few hundred dollars per member of a class, it makes a huge difference for hard-working people who are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Class actions also have a deterrent effect that force companies to change their practices. In 2002 and 2016 I brought class actions against local collections agencies that were misleading consumers about the collections process in order to collect additional costs, interest, and fees, and both cases ended in summary judgements. Those cases together saved consumers thousands of dollars in fees, but also prevented many others from being similarly harmed in the future by sending collection agencies a clear message that they couldn’t continue to get away with such practices. That first NCLC conference gave me the opportunity to form relationships with other consumer attorneys that I’ve maintained to this day. New consumer lawyers should know that there are no easy fights in this field, but there are always resources available that can help you -- NCLC and NACA, of course, and individual attorneys like Rand, Cary, and many others. I’ve never met a consumer lawyer I couldn’t call if I had a question, and I encourage my fellow attorneys to continue being generous with their time and expertise. The more allies we have, the easier it is for us all to do our best for the consumers who may not know us but depend on us to keep business practices honest.” ̛ Pam Car, Car & Reinbrecht PC

Louise Carwell “When I first moved to Baltimore in the 1980’s, the Reagan administration was trying to defund legal services organizations. Even during that difficult time and since, Maryland Legal Aid (MLA) has grown in all areas, including consumer law. I began in the Housing/Consumer Law Unit in MLA’s Baltimore City Office working daily on low income utility, foreclosure, repossession, and debt collection issues with two other attorneys in the office. Those first few years continue to be a source of inspiration for me today as I look at the possibilities to effectuate a positive outcome for my clients. I really enjoy my work because consumer law is dynamic; constantly changing and pushing me to be creative and more thoughtful in my work. I love being a resource to the consumer law community and my colleagues at MLA. I work hard to meet the needs of vulnerable clients on the edge of losing their homes so that I can play a part in maintaining the stability of Baltimore’s communities. A few years ago, a young woman came to us after she had had filed for bankruptcy on her own by watching a YouTube video. And although she had done a really wonderful job, her downfall, unknown to her, was that her landlord - a particularly nasty fellow, took advantage of the fact that she was unrepresented and told her he could no longer accept her rent and because she had filed bankruptcy her Section 8 lease would be terminated. He then sued her. She felt forced to move under this pressure and ultimately she lost her housing voucher. This woman was doing everything possible to keep herself and her children from being homeless but things looked grim. Our office immediately got involved and we were quickly able to reinstate the client’s Section 8 voucher but the landlord would not dismiss his lawsuit. We went to court arguing a violation of bankruptcy code and although my client was not a person prone to showing her emotions, as she testified to the Court, she was brought tears. Our trial took almost three days but at the end, the Judge saw through the landlord’s malicious actions, and admired our client’s resilience to keep her family safe. The Judge found violations of the Discharge Order, awarded our client actual and punitive damages and attorney’s fees for our office—a wonderful result for our deserving client! For me, the reward was seeing a person treated with dignity who could move forward to live a life she worked hard to build. Every client that I work with needs to feel that she or he really has choices in how they want their life to proceed. In many homes in low income communities, there is a sense that someone else will make decisions for them about their financial wellbeing and future. I show them that we are on their side and will work tirelessly to put the power back into their hands.” ̛ Louise Carwell, Senior Staff Attorney at Maryland Legal Aid’s Baltimore Housing Unit.

Mark Chavez “Early in my career, a young man complained to one of my partners that his auto finance company had force placed insurance on his vehicle and then repossessed it when he could not pay the exorbitant charges for the insurance. Our investigation into the force placed insurance industry and discovery of widespread abuses led to my first consumer law case. Eventually, this one case led to a series of class actions that I litigated around the country over the next eight years. The entire experience was an eye opener for me. In the course of the litigation, I realized that millions of consumers were being victimized by industry-wide practices that had gone for years undetected. Consumer law litigation offered a way to expose systematic abuses by auto finance companies as well as recover hundreds of millions of dollars for consumers. Ultimately, I had the satisfaction of knowing that a willingness to help one consumer and to determine whether his rights had been violated led to a series of successful class actions that completely reformed the force placed insurance industry and directly benefited millions of people. It also launched my consumer law career. I formed lasting and impactful relationships with other consumer lawyers through the litigation that led to my involvement in dozens of other cases over the following decades. In this respect, there is a direct link between my first consumer case and every other consumer law case that I have litigated over the years. There is something in common in all of these cases that I have done. I have always been drawn to litigation in situations where someone has been ripped off, taken advantage of or otherwise victimized by the powerful. I have tried to apply my skills and utilize the relationships that I have developed to step in to champion the cause of ordinary consumers who frequently have no one else to stand up for them. Things have changed so much since the beginning of my career. My first NCLC conference was in Denver in 1993, with maybe 90 people total in attendance -- now there’s nearly 900. From relationships I made at that conference, I was fortunate to spend time on NCLC’s board. And though much has changed since that 1993 conference, I am proud of the NCLC I know today because the organization has continued to play the same role, for me and so many others, as they did when I took on that first case -- providing resources to learn, connections to use, and confidence that others have my back to fight for vulnerable consumers.” ̛ Mark Chavez, Founding Partner at Chavez & Gertler LLP, former NCLC Board Member

Fanny Cherng It might sound strange, but I think of bankruptcy law as “happy law” because you’re helping people eliminate debt and get a fresh start in life. I started working in bankruptcy law right after I graduated law school in 2009, and after almost ten years running my own practice, moved into the Consumer Protection Unit at Legal Aid Society of San Diego. A few months ago I drafted a bankruptcy petition for someone who came into the self-help clinic, and they visited recently to tell me that they had not only been able to successfully discharge their debts, but had also landed a job at the Federal District Court building across the street from our office. Stories like that are so cool to hear, and really illustrate how something as simple as helping a client draft a petition or walking them through the filing process can have a ripple effect that helps them turn their life around. Consumer law is a great field if you’re the kind of person who values life-long learning. You could be an expert in one particular area, but you might get a case tomorrow that touches on another area you’re not familiar with, so you constantly have opportunities – and needs – to broaden your knowledge and your network. And of course, you get to help people navigate what can be a really scary and confusing process and time in their life, and help them come out the other side with the tools they need to put their lives back together. ̛ Fanny Cherng, Legal Aid Society of San Diego

Eileen Connor “After spending some time working with death row inmates in Alabama and San Quentin State Prison, I wanted to expand my law horizons and transition into civil public interest litigation. I ended up in an amazing position at the New York Legal Assistance Group in their impact litigation unit, and was able to work with many clients dealing with various issues around economic justice. I really enjoyed the work and felt I had found the perfect intersect of law and its effects on the lives of people in a real way. During my fellowship, I was starting to see a growing number of people coming to our office with overwhelming student loan debt. At the same time, on the way to and from work on the subway, I would look up and see ads everywhere for for-profit schools; there was something huge there, right in front of my eyes. In the following years, our office investigated and pursued several class actions against for-profit schools scheming their students out of money. I get really fired up about this. There’s something particularly egregious about student loan debt to me because people have a right to learn. They get an education to be better citizens, community members, and providers for their families but we ask them to go into debt just to get basic skills they need to be competitive in the labor market. I think this is incredibly unfair. This debt doesn’t only affect the student; it affects their families and their economic stability well into the future. It affects their ability to provide for their children, pay the mortgage, rent an apartment, or plan for retirement. Their children suffer when they have to use their tax refunds to pay off these loans, instead of using it toward important household expenses. It’s a cascade of economic instability and indifference in the system. That’s why I continue to pursue justice in student loan reform for the Project on Predatory Student Lending. To me, an education is really not much of a choice anymore; it’s a fundamental cornerstone to a successful future. Therefore, it’s really a collective responsibility to disrupt debt-financed education. The end beneficiary of investment in education is not only the individual, it’s our democracy. It’s uncomfortable to talk about education as a consumer product, but we can apply the tools of consumer law to protect and enhance the right to an education, too. I try to teach the students in our legal clinic this point of view. They too are in school to learn, to provide, and to succeed. I want them to see this commonality with their clients, and confront the system, because they are a part of it too.” ̛ Eileen Connor, Director of Litigation for the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.

Rich Cordray “Being the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was actually not a dream come true for me -- or anyone, because no one had ever conceived of an institution built solely for the protection of consumers. Once there, we all felt deep pride in our mission, but also the weight of the great burden of restoring the faith of so many people who had been hurt by large financial institutions. I learned that protecting consumers means so much more when you look into what consumers themselves care about. It means protecting families, which is the pillar for future opportunity. It means treating all people equally, and setting up circumstances in which they can thrive. It’s protecting people’s homes -- we’ve seen how mismanagement of housing protections can affect the entire economy. Mismanagement caused a deep and lasting financial recession which will affect families for generations, especially families of color. And most importantly, protecting the consumer means upholding our democracy. People need to trust that government will represent them, will work for them, and fight for them. Fortunately, there are organizations like NCLC, and all the people who work in consumer law -- a particularly hard working and dedicated community. They know how much of a difference it makes to people and families when they know someone is out there representing them, fighting for them. Against long odds and great opposition, people in this community go in day after day to do more for their clients and communities. I have the deepest respect and admiration for the consumer law community and NCLC. There is always more work to be done, but I have the utmost confidence in the community and NCLC to fight on.” ̛ Rich Cordray, Former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Thomas Cox For 30 years, I represented banks and financial institutions in private practice. I left the profession in 2000, and when the financial crisis hit in 2008 I wanted to see if there was some way I could use my legal skills to help people who were suffering. I ended up volunteering with Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Maine, and helped organize what became the Maine Attorneys Saving Homes (MASH) project. A deposition I took in one case uncovered what became known as the robo-signing scandal in 2010. GMAC stopped their foreclosures nationwide as a result of that case, followed by all of the other major banks -- Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America -- because they had the same robo-signing problem. Since then, I’ve been before the Maine Supreme Court in 25 foreclosure cases, and we have so profoundly shaped the law in Maine that we now have the most protective set of foreclosure decisions in the country. We’re winning these cases with astonishing frequency, and the fact that we’ve impacted the lives of thousands of Maine homeowners is one of the highlights of my career. This all came out of the chance decision to join Pine Tree Legal, and there’s no way I could have had this kind of impact without the support of that office. I’ve spoken at a number of law schools around the country, and I always urge students to think about a career in consumer law. I love being a lawyer and enjoyed private practice for most of my career, but there’s nothing like this kind of work. I get to be the guy with the white hat, protecting the little guys against the corporate and financial monsters who try to take advantage of people. That’s the highest calling of the legal profession, in my opinion. ̛ Thomas Cox, Of Counsel, NCLC

Frank D’Alessandro My client had immigrated from Cambodia, and split up with her husband. Because he wasn’t contributing his income, she missed a few mortgage payments and then she got foreclosed upon. We went to mediation and got a temporary loan modification, and she made payments for 8 months before the bank stopped taking them. They were complaining that her husband, who was also on the loan, had not signed the loan modification. Even though she kept on making her modified loan payments -- I think at one point she had over $15,000 in an escrow account -the bank kept refusing to accept them. We eventually took her case to trial, and won a judgment in her favor. She was able to stay in her house, and under Maine law the bank is not able to bring a new foreclosure case. Many clients are afraid they will go to jail for not paying their mortgages. There’s a real misunderstanding by homeowners of the entire process, which highlights how important it is that vulnerable people be represented in court. I’m proud of the work my team and I do to help people and families keep a roof over their heads. ̛ Frank D’Alessandro, Litigation and Policy Director, Maine Equal Justice Project

Jim Davis “I’ve been representing native indigenous Yup’ik in Alaska for over 20 years. Their culture is kind and welcoming; there is no “taking advantage” of other people in their community, which sadly makes them prime targets for scam artists and outside interests. Many native Alaskans supplement their subsistence living by fishing in the summer and selling those fish to groups who then resell the fish back on the mainland U.S. or in larger cities. The fishermen make a huge portion of their annual income during this fishing season and rely on that income for the winter. Unfortunately, outsiders catch wind of this and decide to try their schemes in western Alaska. One summer, a Florida group came into the area and pushed a better deal than the local buyers. The local fishermen were attracted to the prospect of making more money than they had before, and many fell for the scam. The way it works in commercial fishing is that you’re paid at the end of the season, so it was not uncommon for people to sign contracts and then wait for payment based on their catch. This outside group took advantage of this; promised payments, and then at the end of fishing season packed up and moved back to Florida with full pockets, without paying a single fisherman. Some native guys came to me and told me their stories, and I was just about as mad as they were. The Florida group was owned by a bunch of wealthy guys who thought they could come out to Alaska, rip off a bunch of local people, go back home with stolen money and never get caught. I wasn’t going to let that happen to people from my own community. We opened litigation against them and to show that we meant business, flew 3,000 miles to Miami to personally meet the owners of this organization. Our efforts worked. They ended up backing down and paying the local Yup’ik fisherman the money they earned and deserved. There are probably about half a dozen of us in the entire state fighting on behalf of consumers. We are their only line of defense. That makes the resources an organization like NCLC provides so invaluable. About 15 years ago I had a case involving something called the “Rooker-Feldman Doctrine,” which I didn’t know a single thing about. I reached out to Charles Delbaum at NCLC, not expecting more than a brief consultation if that, but within a day Charles got back to me and brought me into a group conversation with Deepak Gupta and Joanne Faulker, heroes of mine. Deepak ended up taking on the case and winning in the Alaska Supreme Court. Moral of the story: community matters, both on a small scale in a place like Alaska, and on a larger scale in the field of consumer law. Nothing is more satisfying to me than holding the bad guys accountable, and being able to be a resource to a vulnerable community. I’m busy, but ya know, as a consumer attorney these days, who isn’t? At the end of the day and in the whole of my life, pressures aside, I’m stoked. How lucky am I to have found a field of work that’s satisfying, interesting, and lasting? ̛ Jim Davis, founding partner at the Northern Justice Project in Anchorage, Alaska.

Torrey Dixon My parents were blue-collar workers who founded a church in my hometown, and I absorbed from them the values of fairness and an obligation to help others. Those values have stuck with me throughout my life, and it means a lot that my work with the Attorney General’s office has allowed me to have such a concrete impact on the lives of everyday people throughout North Carolina. One of my first cases out of law school was representing an African American family that was being sued by a moving company. I was then working as a civil rights attorney for the UNC Center for Civil Rights in Chapel Hill, NC. The company claimed that the family owed them $11,000 for one move in a very small town, which was obviously drastically inflated. It turns out that the family had received a grant from HUD, and it’s possible that the moving company found out and was trying to get as much of the grant money it could. We won in summary judgment because I happened to research the licensure of the company, and it turns out they weren’t even licensed. It seems like a simple case, or a simple solution — but seeing the impact I had on that one family’s life was one of the things that inspired me to keep working in the consumer protection field. I currently handle motor vehicle and auto finance complaints in the NC Attorney General’s office, and when people reach out to our office, it’s pretty clear that we’re their last resort. Back in 2015, we joined the U.S. Department of Justice in bringing suit against a dealership with an owner who had made derogatory remarks about African Americans, and was targeting African American car buyers for predatory loans. We were able to obtain a settlement of a quarter of a million dollars and reform the practices of the dealership, which not only had a tremendous impact on the individual consumers who had been wronged, but benefitted all consumers when the industry realized that they can’t get away with those discriminatory practices. It’s important to remember that maintaining a fair market is not contrary to the spirit of capitalism or freedom. As in the sports arena, competition is best when the rules are fair. We have to remember the lessons of the financial crisis of 2007-08, and make sure that we maintain a fair set of rules that levels the playing field for companies and the consumers they serve. ̛ Torrey Dixon, Assistant Attorney General, North Carolina Department of Justice

Mike Donovan “Here’s a lesson I’ve learned in my career: a company with a computer program can steal more money than 100 folks with guns. In my practice, and before that when I worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission, I’ve seen countless people abused by corporate wrongdoing – consumers being made victims through trickery, deceit and outright lies – facilitated by big money, special interest groups, and powerful law firms. That’s what I fight against as a consumer lawyer. One example: in the early 1990s, credit card companies including MBNA, Chase, Greenwood Trust/Discover, Citi, and others were charging $35 late fees on balances of $50 or less. These were egregious and excessive fees which violated various state laws that capped these penalties, and really hurt the people who could least afford to take a hit. We decided to file a number of late fee cases to stop this abuse, including several which made it up to state Supreme Courts, and one -- Smiley v. Citibank -- which went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, where we lost in a decision written by Justice Scalia. Just before that oral argument, I realized how much we were up against when I received a call from a lawyer who was meeting with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to change the definition of late fees so the banks could continue abusing people. Somehow they mistakenly thought I was on the defense team, and called me offering to “help out” writing the new proposed rule. When I explained that I represented the credit card consumers, the line went “click” as he hung up on me. That new rule, written well after we had filed the cases and finalized just weeks before the Supreme Court oral argument, became the basis for Justice Scalia’s decision. I’ve learned that the deck is stacked against us, so the only way to be successful in this fight is to prepare, prepare and prepare some more. If you do it right, you can win. And when we do, I feel exactly like Winthorpe and Valentine at the end of the movie Trading Places, when they exchange that dollar bill. In fact, I have a picture of it taped to my mediation book. Ultimately, I do what I do because the people who can least afford legal representation are the ones who need a lawyer the most. I do it because this is how I can have the biggest impact for the greatest number of people, as much as any lawyer can have.” ̛ Mike Donovan, founding member of Donovan Litigation Group, LLC

Kathleen Engel Before I went to law school, I worked at a Women in Prison Legal Project, studying the legal needs of incarcerated women, which solidified my desire to use the law to protect people’s civil rights. After I graduated, I found a job at Burnham, Hines, & Dilday, the first law firm east of the Mississippi founded solely by black women, where I had the opportunity to dig into issues at the crossroads of racial and economic justice – chiefly police misconduct, housing discrimination, and employment discrimination. I also started teaching part-time at Northeastern. Eventually my husband (who’s also a professor) and I relocated to Cleveland to teach at Case Western. I later taught at Cleveland-Marshall Law School. Cleveland was the epicenter of predatory lending. I was seeing signs in predominantly black neighborhoods saying, “Homes For Sale Cheap,” “No Credit, No Problem,” and there was a huge uptick in foreclosures. I started to investigate why these predatory home loans were being made, which led me into the morass of securitization and the problematic incentives it created in the mortgage market – essentially “passing the trash” from broker and lender to investment banks to trusts and then creating mortgage-backed bonds. That’s when I started to see consumer protection as a civil rights issue, and I realized I couldn’t just stand by while these companies were profiting by exploiting black communities. I began writing articles about the structure of mortgage financing and how it was being used to generate huge profits for the financial industry by luring people into loans they could not afford. Although I became a full-time academic, I never stopped being an advocate. I joined the Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) of the CFPB in 2018, and my colleagues and I had to fight hard to keep the Trump administration from running roughshod over the Bureau – and over consumers as a result. During Mick Mulvaney’s tenure, he essentially used the Request for Information process to invite industry to identify consumer protections they wanted to see gutted. Mulvaney also fired the entire CAB. In both of those cases, we were able to rally support from multiple sources – NCLC, other pro-consumer organizations, academics, and the media – to prevent some of the worst potential outcomes. There’s still much work to be done, both at the federal level and in communities like Cleveland. The more committed, bold young lawyers and advocates we can bring into the consumer bar, the closer we’ll be to an economic system that doesn’t exploit the most vulnerable people in our country. ̛ Kathleen Engel, Research Professor of Law, Suffolk University

Maryann Flanigan Housing is a fundamental human need, and it causes so much anxiety and stress for people when they don’t have stable housing. It makes a huge difference for clients when they feel like they have someone who understands them, and it means a lot to me that I can help give my clients a sense of security and a way forward. I joined Legal Services of New Jersey (LSNJ) as a fellow in September 2012, approximately two months before Hurricane Sandy hit, causing a huge influx of clients who had been victims of insurance scams or contractor fraud, among other areas like FEMA claims and general housing or habitability issues. One of the interesting things about the aftermath of Sandy was that many of our clients were recently middle-income people who had never engaged with legal services before until their loss of income due to the storm, and they often assumed we were reading off a script in a call center somewhere. When they realized that I was a real person who understood what they were going through, you could hear the relief in their voices. People were really in shock after Sandy, and they needed someone who could talk them through their options and get them on a path to rebuilding their lives. I currently supervise the Disaster Response Unit and the Foreclosure Defense Project at LSNJ, so I work on some of the issues at the heart of consumer law — mortgages, homeownership, and bankruptcy. We have a lot of clients who are in forbearance now because of COVID-19, and there’s a similar feeling of urgency and fear in the air that we saw with Sandy. More than one client has called us in a panic because they got served with a complaint and were worried that they were going to be evicted right away, so we explain the protections that are in place generally and under the COVID eviction moratorium, and hopefully give them some answers and reassurance. There’s never a dull moment in this area of the law, and I find it so meaningful to come to work every day to help people save their homes. ̛ Maryann Flanigan, Legal Services of New Jersey

Christina Gill Roseman “Car manufacturers and aggressive dealerships far too often ignore their obligations, and sell defective and unsafe vehicles to innocent consumers. Even though I am a solo practitioner up against manufacturers and dealerships with substantial financial resources to fight claims, I have the honor of helping so many good people – with tenacity, advice from NCLC listservs, manuals, and conferences, and invaluable help from colleagues I’ve met at those conferences. These recoveries are about righting wrongs, and showing large corporations and aggressive dealerships that there are consequences to running roughshod over consumers. One of my clients was a single mother with young children who put a large down payment on a vehicle that started shutting off while driving immediately after she bought it. Instead of fixing the vehicle, the dealership illegally repossessed it and pocketed her down payment – until I filed suit, and got all her money back. Recently, another mother smelled gas fumes in her minivan, but the dealership repeatedly ignored the problem, despite the warranty on the vehicle. After filing suit and refusing a minimal offer, the manufacturer agreed to buy back her van so that she can buy a new, safe vehicle without dangerous fumes. An elderly couple purchased a new pickup with water leaks that caused mold so severe that the wife couldn’t ride in the truck due to her asthma. The manufacturer and dealership refused to help, but after I filed suit, they repurchased the truck. In each of these instances and so many more, not only did the individual consumers receive help with their vehicle after originally being ignored, but these recoveries helped other consumers by deterring dealerships and manufacturers from committing the same offenses in the future. I relish helping good people solve their problems, and it is especially gratifying to do so as a woman. With the help of my consumer law colleagues and NCLC, I am able to stand toe-to-toe every single day in negotiations, depositions, motions and trials against billion dollar corporations and aggressive, well-financed dealerships to obtain justice for my clients. These are tough fights against difficult defendants, but my hope is that my fight can serve as an example to other young women, and show them that even though there are many obstacles in our way, women can succeed and excel in litigation.” ̛ Christina Gill Roseman, Founder, The Roseman Law Firm

Berneta Haynes I still remember the many times my mother struggled to keep the lights on. Growing up in Arkansas, I was aware of how often she had to figure out how to cut corners – putting expenses on her credit card, or buying fewer groceries in a month just to pay the bills. Those were regular occurrences that she tried to shield us from so we didn’t have to worry. But you know when your parents are struggling. I thought about these experiences years later when I was in law school. I spent one summer working in a legal aid office in Philadelphia, helping clients whose utility service was being shut off – usually due to issues relating to poverty, or to energy inefficient housing. I was working mostly with people who reminded me of my own folks: they were Black and working class, and were forced to find workarounds to survive in a system that really is set up for them to fail. I knew then that I wanted to get to the root of these problems, and these are the types of issues I have the opportunity to work on at NCLC. I’ve wanted to be a lawyer since I was a little kid, because I know what it’s like to not have any power – and I wanted to make things better for people like the folks I grew up with. Now, I’m working for an organization that gets calls asking for input from the White House and United States Senate. I’d say that the transition to NCLC is going pretty nicely so far, and I’m excited to see my childhood dreams become a reality. ̛ Berneta Haynes joined NCLC in January as a staff attorney focused on issues including energy access and affordability, and medical debt. Before joining NCLC, Berneta served as a senior director at Georgia Watch, a state-based consumer advocacy organization in Atlanta.

Brian Highsmith “My first summer after law school, I was looking for a way to pursue poverty law, and knew I wanted some kind of litigation experience. I landed an amazing job working at a legal aid organization, the New York Legal Assistance Group, in New York City. The first case assigned to me was a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) case, and the rest of the summer I essentially lived in the NCLC treatise. I admired NCLC’s expertise and was extremely grateful for their publications, but still didn’t really consider consumer law a career path. The following summer, I went to Washington, DC, to work at the public interest law firm founded by Deepak Gupta (now a member of the NCLC Board of Directors), and was given another consumer law case. By this time I was starting to find my place and see the excitement in the field of consumer law. I was -- and still am -- fascinated by how consumer law can be used to impact people’s lives in so many ways. For example, I was a 1L when Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri -- a preventable tragedy that facilitated the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Given my background in tax and budget policy, I became very interested in addressing the ways that revenue-based policing was changing policing, in Ferguson and elsewhere -- causing law enforcement to focus excessively on collecting fees and fines. NCLC soon launched an initiative focusing on applying consumer law protections to the problem of criminal justice debt. Following that work -- which I now have the opportunity to assist through my fellowship -- was one of the first times I realized the potential promise of using consumer law to address a wide variety of problems affecting people experiencing poverty. Although I previously had a background in economic policy, I didn’t know much about consumer law before law school. My previous policy work, especially on public assistance programs and public benefits, had confirmed my interest in working with people affected by poverty. I had not seriously considered consumer law as a way to do that, but soon found that many of the things I cared about had a consumer protection dimension. The best part about working at NCLC is that I have an entire office behind me. If I don’t understand a problem or know a solution, I have expert knowledge one office over or just down the hall. At NCLC, I get to connect the areas of law that interest and concern me most, and play a role in impact litigation as well. It’s challenging every day, but I feel fortunate that my path has brought me here.” ̛ Brian Highsmith, Skadden Fellow at NCLC

Todd Kaplan “If you’re like me and you believe in the whole David and Goliath thing, and you want to represent the underdog and win, then consumer law is a way to do that. When I was starting law school, I had a lot of misconceptions about legal services. Frankly, I thought it would be boring, but I did a legal services internship as a lark and found the exact opposite -- that legal services lawyers are able to change people’s lives in incredible ways by stabilizing people in their homes, preventing domestic violence, keeping them safe from exploitation, and so much more. At Greater Boston Legal Services I do lobbying, legislative advocacy, class actions, fee-shifting cases, and work on cases that are really pushing the edge of the law. Foreclosure is also a central part of my work, and when I started learning more about bankruptcy -- largely through NCLC seminars and attending the Consumer Rights Litigation Conference -- I realized that bankruptcy is a very powerful tool that allowed us to affirmatively stop foreclosures and litigate claims in bankruptcy that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to bring. Right now, I’m working on a small business bankruptcy case that concerns a loan for my client’s taxi medallion. The outstanding balance on his loan is $200,000, but the medallion itself is now worth less than $30,000. We’re hoping to save the client’s home from foreclosure by challenging the predatory loan, and at the same time we’re going to file a small business bankruptcy that will bring his balance on the taxi medallion down to $30,000. If we’re successful, he’ll be able to keep his home and will own the taxi medallion outright at the end of the bankruptcy, as opposed to having a $175,000 albatross around his neck that would just drag him down.” ̛ Todd Kaplan, Senior Attorney, Greater Boston Legal Services.

Abbas Kazerounian “When I first graduated law school, I had $200 in my pocket and was running my firm out of a coffee shop. One of my first cases was a product liability suit against Honda. The family of a woman who was left in a permanent vegetative state due to a product flaw asked me to represent their case. On the doorsteps of trial I caught the company in a lie and obtained a settlement, providing that family the resources they needed to give their daughter the best quality care available. That was my first sense of what it feels like to change someone’s life, and I’ve worked hard to continue doing that ever since. It’s a great honor to stand up for the underdog, because I know what it’s like to be vulnerable. It makes me very proud to be just one of many in this legal community who police corporate America in order to ensure the rights of consumers. For most of the world, money is what speaks, but for the people we represent, we speak for them -often when no one else will. Only a couple months ago I argued the most important case of my career in front of the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit -- and won! A panel of judges, including two traditionally conservative judges, agreed with my argument on behalf of a client who was being harassed by marketing texts using automatic telephone dialing systems. In part due to the amicus brief filed by NCLC, this victory benefits not only my client, but all consumers in the Ninth Circuit, and all attorneys involved in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation nationwide. Once I started practicing consumer law I never looked back -- but it took a lot of time and help from others to get me to where I am now. I speak from a place of humility, and feel so lucky to be a part of a wonderful consumer attorney community, and to be able to positively impact the lives of people across the country. I went from a coffee shop to the Ninth Circuit to where I am now because people took the time to help me and I in turn have worked hard to help others.” ̛ Abbas Kazerounian, founding partner at Kazerouni Law Group, APC, and the Injury Recovery Group

Kristi Cahoon Kelly “I’m motivated to be a consumer lawyer because of the impact I can have on real people’s lives – getting them more time to pay a debt, having an error removed from their credit report, or giving them the opportunity to stay in their home. It’s stopping the domino effect -- when you can give someone a second chance, particularly with low income or minority populations that rarely get second chances, you can really make a difference. I always knew I would not pursue a traditional legal path. I started in nonprofits, then moved to legal aid where I practiced housing law at the height of the mortgage meltdown. It was a difficult time and nobody knew how to meet the needs of our clients. I learned from the likes of Len Bennett and Jay Speer, both of whom helped train me on litigating affirmative cases and using federal protection statues to help people affected by the crisis. That was the ultimate leveling of playing fields. Len and Jay taught me the tools and strategies to take on the mortgage companies and large credit bureaus, and I have been hooked ever since. Thankfully the dedicated public servants at NCLC have been there to help, too. I greatly admire the rock stars who are subject matter gurus. Their work gets me into the weeds and helps me advocate for those without a voice. We have shared values and beliefs and that assist me in doing my work. And I need that help, trust me -- we all do! I am a huge legal aid groupie because I deeply admire the good work that they do and know it is often a thankless job. Few other professions have such a large, long lasting impact on people. Even now, while in private practice, I still do lots of pro bono work. I know how lucky I am to be able to practice consumer law and earn a living doing so. I get to go to work, ready to do battle, learn from my mistakes and try to make a positive difference in people’s lives.” ̛ Kristi Cahoon Kelly

Rachel Labush “My clients are Philadelphia homeowners of modest means, many of whom have owned their homes for years. Philly has a strong tradition of homeownership among low income people -- one of the highest in the country -- so I take pride in enforcing consumer laws to assure people keep their homes. This responsibility and loyalty to my clients used to paralyze me with fear thinking that people who depend on me could lose their homes, but I feel a stronger obligation to remain by my clients - and in almost every case, we are able to save the home. Even when we can’t, we figure out a resolution that eases their transition to other housing. It means everything to my clients that I represent them and enforce their legal rights, and I see how it changes their lives. I often still get calls from past clients who just want to tell me they’re doing better. I had a client a few years back who I represented in three foreclosure cases in a row. She had been unemployed for several years after the financial collapse, but was doing everything right to try to get a loan modification. She had been through so much heartbreak, but we stuck it out with her all the way through. The first foreclosure was dismissed the day of her trial when the mortgage representative failed to show. After that we got her a trial modification that was canceled after the mortgage company deposited her check early, bounced the payment and didn’t notify her. The second foreclosure was dismissed because the mortgage company failed to send a required pre-foreclosure notice. I defended the third foreclosure based on the mortgage company messing up her trial modification, and while it was pending, she got a full time job and qualified for a permanent loan modification. She had finally won! It was a combination of raising her legal defenses, but also just sticking it out with her until her situation could improve. It took four and a half years, but she got to keep her home, and now is fully employed. She called recently to wish me a Happy New Year. Sometimes that’s all it takes to remind myself that the fear is nothing compared to the reward.” ̛ Rachel Labush (right), pictured with a client, has been a staff attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia since 2006. Since 2008, Ms. Labush has been a member of the Homeownership and Consumer Rights Unit, where her practice focuses on defending low income homeowners in foreclosure, fraud, and mortgage servicing abuse cases.

Jim Leach I found my heart at Wounded Knee. In 1976, right after law school, I took a job with the Wounded Knee Defense Committee, defending Native Americans who were being harassed by the FBI -- which was, in fact, genuinely out to get us. Growing up, I always sided with the underdog, and wanted to become a people’s lawyer. The WKDC gave me that chance. Over 100 Native Americans had been charged with offenses arising from the Wounded Knee Occupation, but only 3 were convicted. It was a radicalizing experience to stand with those men, women and children, and I knew I was where I was meant to be. As one of the only progressive attorneys in western South Dakota, I’ve done every kind of case you can imagine -- civil rights, environmental law, election law, workers comp, consumer law, and more. As a consumer lawyer I have the chance to help good people who have been treated unfairly, which is what I’ve wanted to do all along. Recently, I represented a woman, Mrs. Thurman, in a class action after she was mistreated by a bank and an insurance company. She’d had a challenging life -- only an 8th grade education, and had married the day before her 15th birthday -- but she had a fully developed sense of right and wrong. When the bank and insurance company offered to refund her in full but required a confidentiality agreement, she said “no way – you did wrong to many of us in the neighborhood, and we will make you pay everyone!” NCLC has been absolutely essential for me and my practice. Consumer law is so complex that it would be impossible for me to do this work without the knowledge, back-up, and resolve NCLC provides. I’m grateful that I was able to successfully nominate NCLC to receive a cy pres distribution in Mrs. Thurman’s case -- there’s no better use of unclaimed funds from class settlements than making it possible for NCLC to help lawyers like me help more clients like her. ̛ Jim Leach, South Dakota Attorney, pictured on the steps of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Balam Letona When I was a kid, my father would constantly say that Household Finance — which was a subprime lender back in the day — ran his life. I have memories of my parents being harassed by debt collectors. And, I hear echoes of my mom’s voice when clients come into my office and tell me their stories and how worried they are about money. A debt collector once told my mom that he would call immigration if she didn’t pay. Being oppressed economically puts people in a place of fear — fear that they won’t be able to put food on the table, or a roof over their family’s heads — and this fear is heightened when creditors or debt collectors are using intimidation and harassment to collect a debt or are constantly calling. About ten years ago, I received a frantic phone call from a middle-aged Latina woman who was being harassed by a company that had extended her an auto title loan. Her husband had recently left her and she was alone raising her three children. She was falling behind on all of her payments. The last thing she could lose was her car because she needed it to get to work. When she got to my office, she collapsed into tears and told me that the title lender had been calling her place of employment, and telling all her coworkers that she was in debt. Earlier that week the lender had served her at work with a lawsuit. At some point during our conversation, she said that she didn’t feel like she could go on and she’d be better off dead. She confided in me that she was contemplating suicide. She recently told me that she had actually attempted suicide before visiting me.1 Anyhow, it was at that moment that I forgot about the law. I saw someone who was wounded, and needed medical help. Though I didn’t know how I was going to take care of the lawsuit, I told her not to worry and that I would help. I remember saying that I could handle the law, but I couldn’t take care of her mental health. She promised me that she would immediately seek medical care, which she did. The lawsuit ended in a successful result in her favor. I still remember how relieved and grateful she was when it was all over. I’ve stayed in touch with her over the years, and was able to watch her pull her life back together. It was an amazing transformation. As a lawyer, you must have a human response to people who are in pain, because invariably the people who call on you will end up sharing the emotional pain they are feeling. If there is an ideal that brought you to law school — helping people, fighting for the underdog, holding the powerful accountable — you can live that dream by practicing consumer law and working on behalf of people who have been victimized by an economic system that’s arrayed against them. Our brothers and sisters need help overcoming the economic burdens that are holding them back. You can be the person who takes the time to learn their story, and takes action to make that happen. ̛ Balam Letona, Law Office of Balam O. Letona, Inc. 1

My former client gave me permission to share her story.

Evan Livingstone I’ve always had a strong sense of solidarity with working people. After teaching continuation high school to low income students for seven years in Pasadena, CA, I decided that I could do more as a lawyer to help people like my students and their families who were being exploited by our financial system. At age 43, I graduated from Peoples College of Law in Los Angeles, a law school whose mission is to train lawyers to represent people, not corporations – exactly what I wanted to do. I am currently a staff attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, working in its fair housing and foreclosure prevention program. One of my recent cases involved a low-income family who had purchased their home in the pre-financial-crisis days, with two loans and no money down. During the financial crisis, the value of the house had fallen so far, that the second loan disappeared for ten years – no statements, nothing. In 2019, they were contacted by a servicer for an investor that purchased the second loan. The servicer claimed that since my clients had not made a payment since 2010, the loan amount had increased from $80,000 to $180,000. We tried every strategy to keep the family housed, submitting multiple applications for loan modifications, filing a chapter 13 bankruptcy, and finally filing a state court action which the servicer removed to federal court. We got a TRO to stop a foreclosure sale of the property scheduled two weeks before Christmas 2019, but the preliminary injunction was denied. The family was on the brink of losing their home for six months. Finally, in June 2020 the servicer settled. They reduced the balance down to $80,000, a lower interest rate, and payments of $375 a month. It was a huge relief to be able to keep this family in their home, especially at a time when the pandemic was causing so much disruption. I had to drop off some final paperwork at their house last month, and I got to see the family and wave at them from the driveway. Just a year ago they were a few weeks from being homeless. It was so satisfying to see them standing on the threshold of their own house, knowing that they’d be okay. ̛ Evan Livingstone, Staff Attorney, California Rural Legal Assistance

Ian Lyngklip I hate bullies. That’s ultimately why I’m a consumer lawyer – I don’t like and won’t stand for people being bullied or exploited. When I was trying to find my niche in the legal profession – after deciding that life in a big firm wasn’t the life for me – I started taking auto repair cases that other attorneys couldn’t or didn’t want to do, and found that there were some pretty powerful remedies that allowed for fee shifting embedded in state law. Unfortunately, the state of Michigan allows auto dealers to sell crappy cars, so there was then and is now a large pool of people who have been taken advantage of and need legal assistance. I developed a reputation as the “attorney of last resort” in Michigan, taking cases that no one else wanted. Car repair cases led to auto warranty work, which led to Truth in Lending cases (which I’m convinced was the plan of NCLC’s Jon Sheldon from the beginning!), and then to debt collection and credit reporting case work. NCLC was pivotal in my ability to do that work, and to be a good consumer lawyer, from the beginning. I bought the Truth in Lending treatise, followed the auto fraud listservs, learned from masters like Tom Domonoske and Dale Pittman, and then went to town. When I went to my first NCLC conference it was mind blowing. I was a kid in a candy store, networking with attorneys about FCRA and FDCPA. It was unreal and provided real infrastructure, and I try to do my part today to help provide that to attorneys who are just starting out. NCLC gives us what we need to stand up to bullies, and that’s rewarding work that makes a real difference. And in the end, I also like and get personal satisfaction from being that attorney of last resort for people who need someone to stand up for them. ̛ Ian Lyngklip, Lyngklip & Associates

Janelise Torres Marrero I have an environmental engineering degree and never expected that I would end up practicing consumer law after completing my law degree, until a family friend needed help. Our friend came to me when he was out of options- his home was being foreclosed on and he couldn’t afford and attorney. I had just graduated from law school at that point and wasn’t practicing consumer law but we agreed that I will work his case pro bono if he was fine knowing that I had no experience in that area. He trusted me and after years of litigation we saved his family home. Years later I am now a clinical professor at the Legal Aid Clinic at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. As a clinical professor I try to teach my students that when they are taking on cases that there are often many ways to win by applying consumer law. I take my responsibility seriously to educate attorneys in this area of law because there is such a need for it in Puerto Rico. Not only do I want to advise and encourage attorneys to practice consumer law but also want to educate the community on their rights. Lots of people in Puerto Rico can’t afford representation and therefore don’t know their rights when their home is being foreclosed on, especially after hurricane Maria. I hope to reach each of them and show them that I am an ally. In addition to teaching, I still find time for my clients. It’s what I love most about my jobgetting to help people keep their homes, even if it takes years. A recent client of mine had a final sentence of her home foreclosure. That means it was basically a closed case- she would lose her home. She was physically disabled and I knew if she was displaced, there would not be a positive outcome so I put my head in every law book I could attain to find laws to keep her house. I eventually found one clause, in one section, on one page that was applicable to her case. We won and she was able to keep her home. Nothing is more satisfying than not giving up, and winning for my client. The consumer law attorneys in Puerto Rico do not give up. We are a tight knit community that help each other with our caseloads and encourage each other to mentor more attorneys. We work overtime, Saturdays, holidays, pro-bono- anything it takes for our clients. ̛ Janelise Torres Marrero, Professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.

Lauren Masullo “When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017, we were all scrambling – that’s always the way it is when disasters hit. In 2018, I was an Equal Justice Works fellow at Lone Star Legal Aid’s Houston office (where I still work now), working with people impacted by the disaster and at risk of losing their homes. I worked on one of my first foreclosure cases around that time. My client was an elderly, disabled, homebound Harvey survivor who had fallen behind on her property taxes. She was at risk of losing her house because it was scheduled to be sold at a tax foreclosure sale. She didn’t know that Texas law allows elderly or disabled homeowners to defer or put off their taxes, preventing foreclosure. But even if she had known she had this right, she faced many other barriers to keeping her home, including a lack of financial resources, limited transportation, and more. She needed someone who could help her holistically – who could be deeply involved, from start to finish, in assisting her through preparing legal documents, printing paperwork, filling out forms, and deciphering the “fine print” in the documents she had to manage. When she came to Lone Star Legal Aid for help, I was able to put her mind at ease and solve her problem. I compassionately interviewed her and told her about her rights. Then, with the help of colleagues, I prepared paperwork for her and visited her at her home. I proved that she qualified for a tax deferral, and spoke to the attorney in charge of the foreclosure sale. He agreed to cancel the sale. The client would get to keep her home. She was so relieved when it was all over. I think that for many clients, navigating these kinds of legal processes is comparable to trying to solve a complicated math problem – where do you even start? What is the correct formula? She appreciated that someone was there to help. There are so many ways someone can lose their home – so many threats across so many areas, many of them in the consumer law space. I hope people understand how important and worthwhile this work is.” ̛ Lauren Masullo, Staff Attorney, Foreclosure Prevention Project, Lone Star Legal Aid

Nick Mattison “I often think of one case in particular: our client was an older guy who didn’t have much money. He had encountered some issues with credit card debt — many decades before he came to us — and he had felt so bad about having had these struggles years before that he avoided consumer debt altogether after that. He also had a lot of really serious dental problems. All of his top teeth had been removed and replaced with dentures, and his bottom teeth were worn down almost to the gum line. But because he was on a fixed income, he had to squirrel away money, a little bit at a time over years, to pay for dental work. And he had finally saved up enough to pay to fix his bottom teeth. But then a debt collector called him, and threatened him over debt that didn’t exist — that the collector had completely invented. This collector so terrified our client that he turned over his bank account information to the collector, who then drained his account — including all of the money he had been saving for his dental work. At this point, our client began worrying that his deteriorated teeth would result in abscesses or some other serious problem, and he didn’t know how to get help because he no longer had the money he was going to use to fix his teeth. So, he decided to fix the problem himself: he started pulling his own teeth out. These horrible debt collectors wrecked this man’s life, and did it on purpose. After the client finally came to us for legal help, we took his case against the collectors to trial. We were hoping just to win enough money to fix his dental problems and punish these debt collectors. But at the end of the trial, the jury surprised us: they gave our client a $10 million verdict. Cases like this are difficult, but it’s rewarding to work in a consumer protection firm and take on serious wrongdoing. It was amazing to be able to sit next to this client when the jury delivered that verdict for him. I think it was a pretty great moment in his life, too.” ̛ Nick Mattison, Partner at Feferman, Warren & Mattison

Amy Mix “I was hired as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at NCLC right out of law school, after two years as a law clerk with the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General of Texas. It was exciting to work with NCLC attorneys who are the best in the field -- people whose names were on the inside cover of my law books! I took that experience with me to my next position at Legal Counsel for the Elderly (LCE), where I am now the Supervising Attorney for the Consumer Fraud and Financial Abuse Unit. Although my fellowship ended in 2003, I’ve continued to work regularly with NCLC attorneys, from calls for advice about cases to co-counseling a class action lawsuit and speaking at the annual conference. I had a chance to work closely with NCLC’s John Rao when LCE led the effort in D.C. to overhaul a system that led to low-income homeowners losing their longtime family homes over small tax bills. In 2013, a reporter at the Washington Post heard me give testimony before the D.C. Council about the broken system, and decided to investigate further. We worked with the reporter for about one year on the story. The investigation revealed horrible abuses, such as a 95-year-old church choir leader suffering from Alzheimer’s who lost her family home to an investor over a tax debt of $44.79. It culminated in a four-part, front-page series on an unfair property tax system disproportionately affecting vulnerable people, shining light on predatory practices, which until then had received little public attention. Just four days after the story broke, the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation calling a stop to that year’s sale. With John’s advice and guidance, we worked with the District to create a model tax sale system that helps homeowners avoid tax foreclosure and a loss of family equity. Since then, we’ve seen an extraordinary decrease in the number of tax foreclosure cases. I’m proud of what we accomplished with NCLC’s assistance. We were able to save the homes of clients like Melvin Phillips, who has been in his home for more than 60 years, and we continue to keep hundreds housed every year. When we have these big wins, we’re standing on the shoulders of NCLC giants, adding to the collective experience of consumer attorneys around the country. Knowing that there is a whole consumer army out there to support attorneys like me and our work is amazing. The listservs, the conferences, the community -- having these resources magnifies and improves the work all of us do.” ̛ Amy Mix (left), Supervising Attorney for the Consumer Fraud and Financial Abuse Unit at Legal Counsel for the Elderly. (Melvin Phillips pictured right).

Fred Neil “During my working life, my wife and I lived in two Maryland homes for which we were charged “ground rent” for the land on which our homes had been built. So, when we semi-retired to Dover, Delaware, moving into our large, customized new manufactured home in a community that promised country club living, I had no fear of being charged ground rent in our new neighborhood. But I was shocked when I discovered that, in Delaware, I could lose my home and my pension because state law didn’t protect us from our landlords. My professional background, which included being a radio newsman, and the news and sports director of a major Baltimore radio station – and later, a Press Officer for the mayor of Baltimore – led me to take action. Unless laws were changed, low-income families, seniors, and retired military tenant homeowners in communities like ours would continue to be financially abused – and having covered politicians at every level of government, I knew the path to change went through them. I started volunteering as the Public Affairs Officer for the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners Association (DMHOA) and was elected President of my HOA. When Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI) attorneys working with DMHOA reached out to NCLC for their expertise, I came to know a legal “Joan of Arc,” named Carolyn Carter, the Deputy Director at NCLC. In 2015, at the age of 80, I ran for public office for the first time to protect my senior community and won a seat on the Dover City Council. I am now 88 in my 3rd term. When you face the multi-millions of rent dollars landlords use to hire attorneys and lobbyists, you don’t win all the battles for change. I also know that, without the legal “Swiss Army Knife” of NCLC attorneys fighting at all levels of government, we would not have a chance in this fight to protect the rights of vulnerable individuals. But thanks to Ms. Carter’s help, we have won some battles, and blocked others from causing real damage to our cause. That fight must continue!” ̛ Fred Neil, Dover City Councilor, 3rd District

Dirk Neyhart “From the time I was six years old, I was taught the value of doing what you can to make the world a better place. In 1954, my parents brought me to my first protest in front of a hotel that had discriminated against African American workers. I also went to a Quaker high school where I embraced the values of nonviolence, respect for all, and the duty to help the less-fortunate. Ideals of equality, truth, and peace have resonated with me ever since, and have moved me to activism and philanthropy throughout my life. But in 1997, I had a terrible experience: someone stabbed me, and I lost a lot of blood. When you lose blood, you lose oxygen going to the brain and all kinds of neurological deficits are engendered. Due to my injuries, I am now blind and have trouble talking and walking. My injuries made it so that I couldn’t work anymore, and at that point, I began weighing my alternatives: I could sit around and read all of the “great books” that I hadn’t had time to read before, or I could get out and do something to help others. So, from that point on, I started giving back even more to charitable organizations. I remember learning about a legal victory that NCLC won a while back. I’ve always felt strongly about how lenders and retailers can offer consumers bad choices, and then make them feel that they were the ones who made bad decisions. So when I heard about this victory, I thought NCLC sounded great, and I decided to contribute and subscribe to your newsletters and emails. I believe the ultimate object in life is to leave the world a little better than you found it. Working on that premise, I support NCLC and other organizations to help provide helpful services to the community — particularly to those who need those services most within our justice and economic systems.” ̛ Dirk Neyhart, Citizen Activist

Will Ogburn “I grew up during the Civil Rights movement, and later during the War on Poverty. As far back as I can remember I knew I wanted to be a lawyer. In particular, I was drawn to consumer law because for the first time in history, marginalized people were being given a chance to be represented equally. In the eight years between 1966 and 1974, legal services attorneys -- including NCLC, before I worked there -- brought 116 cases to the U.S. Supreme Court, and won most of them. I was so committed to finding a way to fight for poor people that I accepted my first legal services job as a motorcycle courier in Rhode Island! From there, I basically lived in the legal services office in law school, and after graduation I found a dream job working on law reform in Cleveland. When I moved to Boston to work at the National Consumer Law Center, I found both camaraderie and a dedicated group of people working on behalf of consumers, first as staff attorney and then as executive director. It wasn’t always easy. At one point we lost 80% of our funding virtually overnight. But we were able to save almost all of the jobs in the office, and since then NCLC has consistently grown, getting both bigger and stronger. NCLC has helped create this unbelievable network of attorneys who support each other -- which is not characteristic of the legal profession. Consumer attorneys work together, build off each other’s successes, and make one another feel proud. It’s truly a unique niche, and vitally important to enforcing laws and serving those in need. This community of like-minded dedicated people didn’t exist when I started my consumer career, but now there is a thriving community in large part due to NCLC’s efforts to build it. I want consumer attorneys to know how important their work is -- that the work they do has helped build the momentum of NCLC and, more importantly, to continue the advancement of fairness in the marketplace for all. Of course, it’s always an uphill battle, but we often win -- and sometimes we win really big. I feel fortunate to have been able to retire feeling proud that I was part of a community that helped change the world.” ̛ Will Ogburn, former NCLC Executive Director (1987-2015).

Kay Pechin “Saving people’s homes is a satisfaction I look forward to every day. I defend people facing foreclosure because the need exists within my community, and I love being a resource for those in need. One of my clients was a disabled veteran. Her health had been declining and she was living on Social Security. They had already filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. The mental stress of the situation had been a huge burden on her family, but they had been patiently paying off the mortgage on the land they lived on for over a decade, and you can imagine their relief when they made what they believed was their final payment. Although she believed she had fully paid off her loan, the lender claimed that she still owed over $20,000 and were foreclosing on her home. They were relentless, but we threatened to hold them in contempt for violating her bankruptcy discharge order -- so they knew we meant business. We never gave up on our client, and she never gave up on herself. We went through the entire payment history of her loan -- over 10 years worth -- and eventually were able to settle for less than a quarter of what the lender demanded. It took years of determination but my client and her family got to keep their home, and for the first time owned their land debt free. I knew I wanted to go into legal aid to help people like this since law school, when extreme cuts were made to legal services funding. To me, there’s no better way I could be using my law degree. I believe that having home stability is the foundation to a successful, happier, and more productive future. It’s more than just taking on wrong-doers -- I get to provide my clients the opportunity to escape poverty, or prevent them from falling into it. Everything I’ve learned at NCLC conferences and from the consumer attorney community has supported my ongoing efforts, and I am proud to be a homesaver for the people in my community.” ̛ Kay Pechin, Managing Attorney at Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas

Stuart Rossman “We’ve known that our daughter Jessie was going to be a lawyer since she was five years old, because she told us so. I never dreamed, however, that one day I would be lucky enough to have the special opportunity to co-counsel a case with her. But that is just what happened in a Freedom of Information Act case NCLC recently brought with the ACLU of Massachusetts against the Department of Education. I find it extremely rewarding to be able to share with Jessie a passion for access to justice and empowering those who otherwise are disenfranchised. Every day we have the privilege of working to ensure that the voices of vulnerable people are heard, their basic human dignity is respected and the equal rights they deserve are fought for and protected to the best of our abilities. I often get asked what it is like to have my daughter follow in my footsteps. I prefer to think, however, that we are standing together on equal footing in pursuit of a common laudable purpose. As public interest lawyers, we don’t always win. In fact, the system often is stacked against us. So it is reassuring to know that there are people like Jessie and my colleagues at NCLC who will keep fighting once I step aside and who will continue to succeed well beyond my own accomplishments. As an advocate, and especially as a father, the feeling of fulfillment and pride that gives me is indescribable.” ̛ Stuart Rossman, National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) Director of Litigation, pictured with his daughter Jessie Rossman, ACLU of Massachusetts staff attorney

Dick Rubin “I have been privileged to devote my entire professional life to litigating for consumer and economic justice. I began my legal career with legal aid in New Mexico 44 years ago and quickly began concentrating on combating the rising epidemic of debt collection abuses. At about that same time Congress enacted the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the essential weapon that at long last gave, and continues to give, consumers and advocates the tools to effectively curtail the overreaching and abusive practices that are the hallmarks of the debt collection industry. I started in consumer law only by chance, but I never left it because I knew that legal aid was the vehicle through which to advance social justice and improving consumer and economic opportunity. In a mere two decades, the national legislative landscape advanced from a Dark Age to a relative Age of Reason and Hope. I am pleased that I was able to participate during those initial decades in developing and increasing the nascent consumer rights litigation movement that evolved from the FDCPA. And I have continued to be invigorated and rewarded by my later work at the federal appellate level once the structure and models were in place to facilitate even greater advancements in our cause. I fondly remember the first NCLC conference that I went to in the 70s where I discovered that there were many others who believed in the power of consumer litigation to fight for those in need. As a Legal Services Corporation national support center, NCLC was already an essential fixture in our practice. I, along with the entire consumer law community, relied on the early versions of the NCLC manuals and other material that we typically ordered by telephone and that then had to be copied and mailed to us. None of us could have successfully functioned as a legal aid or consumer attorney in the 70s without NCLC’s help and expertise. After the Reagan-era cuts to Legal Services, NCLC was one of the few national support centers that continued -- and not only survived, but thrived. It is difficult to imagine a successful consumer litigation practice without NCLC’s acclaimed manuals and now its phenomenal internet digital library. NCLC has embodied the reality that we all need to stick together and work together, and the successes that we have enjoyed have come at least in part due to that camaraderie. It’s a sentiment that continues today, and it’s one of the things that makes me most proud to be a member of this community. The future of consumer law is being built right now. Just as I was drawn to public interest law during the anti-war and civil rights movements that dominated the 60s and 70s, future lawyers are now being influenced by today’s economic and social justice movements. While I am confident that these future lawyers will pursue a range of public interest practices, I have full faith in the future of our community because the new generation of public-spirited attorneys will also discover that consumer and economic justice is an effective antidote to virtually every other form of social injustice. I am optimistic for that future knowing that our community welcomes new ideas and contributors -- and because I know that they will continue to be led and fed by NCLC, which has proven time and time again that it will stand as the quintessential resource and inspiration for all.” ̛ Dick Rubin, Of Counsel to Gupta Wessler PLLC. Founding member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA). Contributing author of two NCLC treatises.

Carla Sanchez-Adams “I was born in Brownsville, a Texas border community, and I saw from a young age what many immigrants and low-income people went through there. I knew even then that I wanted to help give back to my community. I wanted to be a human rights lawyer. I would go on to learn that poverty law is sort of the U.S. equivalent of international human rights law. And it was only while studying for the bar exam one day that I learned what consumer law was, how it could be used to sue bad people who exploit the poor, and get money back into the hands of people who need it. Since then, I spent almost 13 years as a legal aid attorney, advocating for economic justice and the rights of survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking – work that is often challenging, but allowed me to directly help people in need. I will miss directly representing consumers, but high-level policy work is critical because so many big decisions are made without the input of people who know how they affect consumers on the ground. I’m looking forward to continuing to serve my community – just in a slightly different way.”

̛ Carla Sanchez-Adams joined NCLC as a full-time staff attorney in March. Carla works on predatory lending, banking, payments, and fintech issues, ensuring that low-income and other vulnerable consumers are protected from abusive practices and fraud, and have access to safe and fair financial services. Carla was previously a managing attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc. (TRLA).

Jane Santoni “I practiced for 14 years before I became a consumer lawyer in 2002. The more consumer-related problems I saw, the more I was outraged. It is obvious that many abuses are fueled by greed, with absolutely no concern for the people who are being wronged. When I get involved, people have a chance to fight back and overcome the wrongdoing, and that’s what keeps me going. I went to my first NCLC conference in Boston in 2003, and I was so excited to meet so many like-minded allies, and learn about how broad the work was. It was like being a kid at Christmas! I am just blown away by NCLC’s expertise, and how it is used to develop attorneys and protect consumers. There was more than one occasion early on when I thought about giving up, but the Conference brought me back from the edge. This work can be intimidating and the daily slog can be hard, and I am so grateful for the network the conference provides. Several years ago I had a case against an auto dealer which was known for reselling lemon buybacks – in fact, 10% of their inventory were those types of cars. The dealer would make folks sign the disclosure form in blank first, and then the dealer would go back and fill in the actual disclosures later. The dealer hired an aggressive and unreasonable defense lawyer, and the first trial ended in a mistrial. It was frustrating and demoralizing. I called one of my consumer advocate colleagues for moral support, and he helped me climb back down from the edge and go back at them again. Bolstered and refreshed, we won the second case, and the jury gave us everything – fraud, protection violation, the works! My client was a woman whose husband was active military. I got another chance to sue the same dealer again for fraud, and they settled quickly. They eventually got so sick of me that they actually stopped buying those types of cars, to prevent me from suing them. They despise me, and I wear that as a badge of honor, by getting them to stop exploiting people.” ̛ Jane Santoni, Founding Member of Santoni, Vocci & Ortega LLC

David Seligman “We brought a case on behalf of a group of sheepherders from Peru. They were brought into some of the most remote parts of the country on temporary guest worker visas by an industry association that paid them sub-minimum wage, making them some of the lowest paid workers in the entire country. Our clients alleged that the company fixed their wages, which we argued was an antitrust violation — but the 10th Circuit didn’t see it that way. Many judges seem to think that if something is a business practice, and many businesses are doing it, it must not be illegal. A lot of courts resist the idea that an entire industry has been doing business illegally for a long time. It’s so important that consumer lawyers bring cases focusing on abusive business models and that advocates push reforms to attack these structural issues. I’m deeply concerned about how corporations undermine the power of people: how they squeeze them financially, and how they erode their dignity and their voice. We see that in the workers’ rights space, and we see it in the consumer rights space. These are tough fights, but I know we can win them. Going back to my days at the National Consumer Law Center, I’ve worked on state-level laws to help states respond to forced arbitration clauses, and some of those laws are now on the books. That makes me feel really proud — and really grateful for the mentorship and support I’ve had from NCLC and so many others who work to advance economic justice in our society.” ̛ David Seligman, Executive Director, Towards Justice

Craig Shapiro “I’ve had clients tell me they were afraid to open their mailboxes. One couple told me their daughter heard them arguing about money, and offered to put off going to college if it would help. In my consumer law practice, I work to help people who are struggling because of unlawful debt collection practices, inaccurate credit reporting, and wrongful mortgage practices. It’s challenging work, but it’s incredibly rewarding to be able to help people who are struggling financially, and help give them a chance to improve their condition. I originally became a consumer lawyer by accident, when I took a summer clerkship and ended up working closely with Rand Bragg on his consumer law cases. As a young law student, I was really excited by the opportunities to appear in federal court and serve as co-counsel on cases from around the country, as well as the fact that we got to play a role in holding big companies and financial institutions accountable for their practices. Over time, I grew to appreciate the opportunity to help clients frame the narrative of what happened to them in front of the judge, and saw the huge difference that these cases made in the lives of people who were really hurting. A lot of financial institutions come into court with the assumption that people are not going to have adequate representation -- or any representation for that matter -- so every lawyer who shows up for consumers makes a big difference. Many servicers simply refuse to follow the law, even though they deal with thousands of bankruptcies every day and know perfectly well that what they’re doing is wrong -- they just haven’t had to deal with the kind of consequences that will force them to change their ways. I’m glad to have the opportunity to get compensation for my individual clients, but also, through my involvement with NCLC and NACA -- serving on the NACA Board of Directors and speaking regularly at NCLC conferences -- to contribute to the aggregate work of hundreds of other attorneys who are holding servicers accountable and pushing them to change their practices, to create a better, fairer outcome for borrowers all over the country.” ̛ Craig Shapiro, The Law Offices of John T. Orcutt, P.C.

Steve Sharpe “We all knew something bad was coming. The discussions on our consumer listservs felt urgent and what they were talking about was happening in Indiana. It was 2006, and I had a fellowship with Indiana Legal Services handling mortgage cases when halfway through my term, the world flipped on its head. The housing collapse hit Indiana early so I could see the work I was doing quickly grow into a national need. I was right out of law school and people were relying on me. In legal services, often you are people’s only guiding light and that pressure sometimes was heavy. Luckily, I had the good fortune of working with amazing clients and wonderful mentors. My first experience with NCLC was during this time when I called a housing expert, Diane Thompson, for some help with a case involving a complicated financial scheme with a land contract. The judge agreed that our client was swindled, and after the trial, the other side appealed. We needed help so we brought in Diane to help with a brief and of course, we were floored by her level of expertise and care for our client every step of the way. We won the appeal and were awarded even more than expected for our client. After that experience, I attended the Consumer Rights Litigation Conference and continued in consumer law guided by NCLC connections and treatises. It is still crazy to me to think that I am now Of Counsel to the organization that had inspired me right out of law school. That’s what NCLC does. They produce the highest quality material to guide consumer attorneys across the country, and they are also on the ground with clients, with attorneys, and in court rooms advancing better consumer law practices every day. Many years later, I think about Diane’s effort into my case and I try to replicate that in my work. You never know how much impact one case can make on a person’s life. I am fortunate to be working with clients at the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, and their generosity continues to amaze me. I recently spent 5 hours with a woman resolving a tax problem with the IRS. It was pretty standard to me, but soon after, I was delivered a homemade pinata stuffed with candy for the entire legal aid office as a thank you for helping her. Needless to say, I was excited and grateful but also humbled, yet again, to remember I am helping those who really need it.” ̛ Steve Sharpe, Senior Attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio and Of Counsel for NCLC

Robyn Smith I discovered my passion for consumer justice -- and eventually higher education justice -- through my work as a legal aid attorney and the incredible NCLC, legal aid, and state law enforcement attorneys who have inspired me. I attended my first NCLC conference in 1996, when I worked at the Legal Aid Foundation of Hawaii. There I learned about the tools I used to obtain a federal student loan discharge for my first client who had been defrauded by a for-profit trucking school (yes, trucking in Hawaii!). As a deputy at the California Attorney General’s office, I led the investigation of Corinthian Colleges that led to the 2007 stipulated judgment regarding its use of inflated job placement rates to prey on low-income students. This was a preview to the widespread fraud Corinthian committed in subsequent years, leading to its 2014 implosion. However, because I missed representing student loan borrowers as a legal aid attorney, I had returned to legal services by the time of its implosion. I also began doing student loan work with NCLC as Of Counsel. Since that time, I have worked to obtain debt relief for Corinthian and other low-income borrowers harmed by for-profit fraud on a case-by-case basis and through impact litigation and policy work. Over my 25 years working in this area, student loan debt and for-profit school fraud has exploded, making access to quality, affordable higher education increasingly out of reach for poor Americans. The original purpose of our higher education system -- to serve students and society -- has been subsumed into the larger goal of sustaining the existence of billion-dollar industries (servicers, debt collectors, lenders including the federal government, schools, online education companies, etc.). While these businesses can use federal funds to hire lawyers, impose mandatory arbitration, sue borrowers for unpaid debts, lobby Congress, and write laws, the legal services organizations to which borrowers desperately need access are severely underfunded and prohibited from bringing class actions, grassroots organizing, and using federal or other funds to lobby for change. Large, fraudulent for-profit institutions steal billions of dollars from taxpayers, pay the profits to their owners, then seek the protection of bankruptcy, but federal law makes a bankruptcy discharge of student debt impossible for the vast majority of borrowers. But higher education is not just about economic opportunity – it is about growing as a person, becoming an active member of civil society, and finding one’s true vocation. Higher education has made an enormous difference my own life, and I continue to be outraged that so many people are denied similar opportunities and are demoralized by a punitive higher education debt system just because they are poor. I am fortunate to be able to work as a legal aid attorney and with NCLC to continue to challenge this unjust system and seek justice person-by-person. ̛ Robyn Smith, Staff Attorney at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) and Of Counsel with NCLC

Henry Sommer I was very much a child of the 1960s – I was active in the student movement in college and went to law school because I thought that would give me some skills to work towards social and economic justice. I was fortunate to receive some truly excellent clinical training in how to be a poor people’s lawyer – and it’s a good thing I did, because my first job at Community Legal Services (CLS) in Philadelphia was in an office of three or four young lawyers with maybe five years’ total legal experience among us, trying to serve a large part of the city, handling all types of cases. When I first got to CLS, there were a number of companies that were notorious for putting 30-40 family homes up for sheriff’s sale every month (which you could do without a mortgage, just based on a contract) and then purchasing and renting them out as a slumlord. I ended up engineering a campaign of lawsuits against them over the next six years, which, with the help of the enactment of the Bankruptcy Code in 1978, eventually put them out of business. As that case was winding down, I realized that the newly-enacted Bankruptcy Code could be useful in resolving a wide range of legal services issues – welfare, Social Security, family law, housing and utilities, and other consumer cases – and I wrote an article in Clearinghouse Review outlining how it could be done. This touched off what has turned into a lifelong interest in using bankruptcy law to protect low-income families. My CLS colleagues and I started using the Bankruptcy Code in all of these ways and ended up winning a number of precedent-setting cases; after a couple of years I kind of became the legal services bankruptcy expert. I also got connected with NCLC around that same time – I think my first NCLC Conference was in 1976 – and I have been writing and revising the NCLC manual Consumer Bankruptcy Law and Practice for almost 40 years. I was involved in the founding of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) in the early 1990s, which allowed bankruptcy attorneys to engage in legislative advocacy on a much larger scale than we could in our work with legal services. One of the things I feel most proud of was my work getting the law changed so that poor people could file bankruptcy without paying a filing fee. For a long time, you could be too poor to file for bankruptcy, until finally in 1994 Congress passed a pilot program that allowed waiver of the fee below a certain income threshold, a change that became permanent through the 2005 bankruptcy bill. Right now, we’re focusing on trying to increase the debts you can discharge through bankruptcy, particularly student loans. So many people are carrying around mountains of student debt that they’ll never be able to get rid of, and it’s unconscionable that bankruptcy can’t clear the slate for people who need it. One of the things I appreciate about bankruptcy law – and consumer law in general – is that it’s allowed me to learn and pursue new strategies throughout my career, and know that I can make a difference in people’s lives. ̛ Henry Sommer, President, National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center, and 1990 NCLC Countryman Award winner

Adam Stewart “I don’t have a specific ‘a-ha’ moment or scenario that drove me to consumer law. I think it just seemed like a natural fit as I was going through college and law school -- my family was big on learning the difference between right and wrong, and doing what’s right, and I wanted to help people who didn’t have the knowledge or resources to pursue justice on their own. “Nowadays, my motivation for this work is twofold. I have two young daughters now and we constantly have conversations about doing the right thing and helping others when you can. My daughters occasionally ask me what I do and why, and it’s nice to be able to explain to them that I use the knowledge and skills I developed over my time as a lawyer to help make a difference in people’s lives. Second, as much as I see the good work NCLC does, and the good work my firm and other firms do on behalf of consumers, you look at the news and there’s always someone looking to fleece somebody. It’s like those people who heard about the pandemic and immediately went out and bought thousands of bottles of Purell and Clorox so they could turn around and sell them for $20 apiece -- they think they’re being opportunistic, but all they’re doing is taking advantage of people’s fear and panic about this. Unfortunately that’s the way the world works, and that’s why it’s necessary for NCLC and firms like ours to keep at it so that ordinary people don’t get taken advantage of by businesses who play on that fear and uncertainty. “I’ve always said that consumer law isn’t glamorous, it’s a bit of a grind, but the reward makes it worth it. At the end of the day, getting relief for people who are struggling is one of the best feelings you can get out of doing this type of work. A couple years ago, one of our firm’s big areas of work was force-placed insurance, and we were seeing severe impacts on a number of clients -- people were seeing their mortgage payments double, triple, quadruple, and one of our clients was forced into foreclosure and was on the brink of losing her home over this -- but ultimately we were able to prosecute their cases and get relief through class action settlements for our clients and a large number of consumers and help them stave off foreclosure. I just remember how grateful and happy they were after it was all over -- some of these folks had been about to lose the house they raised their kids in -- and the ability to avoid that and help them get back on track was really, really rewarding. Experiences like that help encourage me to keep doing this work.” ̛ Adam Stewart, Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP

Martha Tamayo When I was a teenager in Mexico, I remember crying because I wanted to get an education, so I could make money and use it to feed the poor kids in my town. Getting an education is not easy for many, and I was one of the ones not so fortunate to get it. That was my dream for a long time. And now after putting three kids through school, I am blessed with a job that lets me feed families who are hungry and help them get access to other things that make their lives better, like legal services and help paying utility bills. I work for the food bank at Kings Community Action Organization in Lemoore, California, and since March my main focus has been figuring out how to feed the communities in our county during the pandemic. The number of families who need food from us is about four times what it was before, and now that schools have gone online and kids don’t get their meals there, we’ve had to expand our programs to meet the increased need for food — I run five different programs that specifically help feed families in the community. I also created a Facebook page called “Ayudame a ayudar” (“Help Me to Help” in English) where I post to tell people where they can get food, clothing, and other kinds of help they need. I also translate and post articles from the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), to help people avoid scams and stay out of financial trouble. I love to help people in whatever way I can, and serving on the boards of NCLC and Central California Legal Services is a way for me to be a voice for people who don’t always have a voice. Everyone’s experience is different, but it’s really important to me that everyone is treated equally and has opportunities to succeed. When I can help make things better for low-income families, or connect someone who’s struggling with KCAO, CCLS, or NCLC, it means a lot to be able to make that positive change happen. ̛ Martha Tamayo, Kings Community Action Organization, NCLC Board Member

Alpha Taylor If you’re going to be an effective advocate, you have to get to know the communities that you intend to serve. You’ll fight harder if you know the people you’re fighting for. I went to law school because I wanted to be in a profession that focused on helping others, and consumer law has allowed me to do that. I wake up every morning excited to come to work, and I go to sleep every night knowing that what I do is making a difference in someone’s life. We live in a country that is systematically unfair to minorities and low-income people, and I try to do the best I can to advocate for communities that have gotten the short end of the stick. Housing work is especially close to my heart because it’s a way to fight back against generations of housing segregation, redlining, and other discriminatory housing practices. Homeownership is a foundation for building long-term generational wealth in communities of color, so I see my fight as a consumer attorney as being not just about getting justice for my clients, but about making sure they aren’t cheated out of opportunities to build wealth because of a wrongful foreclosure. I recently represented an older woman who contacted us after a foreclosure judgement had already been entered on her house, and the bank was moving for a court order to sell the property. She had modified her home over the years to make it more accessible for her disabled grandson, who had lived there his whole life. So losing that home meant more than having to move to another house on the block — it meant her grandson would lose his mobility and freedom. Before the foreclosure, the servicer told her that her only option was a short sale, but I found out that she had an FHA loan and was eligible for a loan modification based on her income. We were able to intervene just in time and keep her and her grandson in the home — I couldn’t have asked for a better result. ̛ Alpha Taylor, Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati

T.A. Taylor-Hunt “When I was in the military, I fought for justice and freedom -- and as a consumer attorney, I continue to do so. As attorneys, we hold the keys to justice. We have the ability to empower people and protect their freedom. Not many people have that responsibility in their career, and I take it seriously. I am particularly drawn to representing elders because I was raised to respect their knowledge and wisdom. Too often, I hear my clients say they were afraid to ask questions because they didn’t know the right way to ask, or that they’d go to their bank and be shuffled from one person to the next without ever getting the help they needed. Elders are already vulnerable and then they are targeted even further by debt collectors--I’m not okay with that and that is not how I was raised to treat people. I fiercely believe in the dignity of every person. Our elders deserve to live comfortably in retirement. It really is the motivation I need to do my best every day. I once had a client whose husband was a disabled Vietnam War veteran. They were misled into refinancing into an adjustable rate mortgage. When her husband died, my client notified their bank repeatedly that she needed a modification on their mortgage. The bank was unresponsive despite repeated attempts to contact them -- calling and letters, all to just have a conversation -- until they replied by accelerating her mortgage, increasing the monthly payments. My client had lost her husband, all of her children were grown and had left the state, and this was her home. I started to panic -- but I wasn’t going to quit. We fought the bank together for almost two years, allowing her to stay in her home during the fight. Then one day I walked into my office and had a letter from the bank-- normally an ominous sign. But when I opened the letter, I saw that my client’s loan modification had finally been approved! I drove directly to her house and watched relief wash over her as she realized she would keep her home. We shared tears and hugs. It was the best day ever! I’ve always been strong willed and goal oriented; I knew I wanted to be an attorney just as much as I knew I wanted to join the military. Both areas allowed me to fight for others. I knew I wanted to practice poverty law and help everyone I could. Sometimes it can be a difficult job but serving clients like her and winning when it matters most is the only gratification I need, and it keeps me going forward.” ̛ T.A. Taylor-Hunt, Law Office of T. A. Taylor-Hunt, LLC. Pictured here with her grandson, Elijah.

Karen Tjapkes “Holy heck, what is going on here? Who is doing this?” That’s what I remember thinking to myself when I began my career with Legal Aid of Western Michigan, and I kept seeing people who were stuck in contracts paying 24.9% interest for mobile homes that were falling apart The more cases like this I saw, the more I reached out to some of the incredible consumer law resources we’re blessed to have in Michigan — Lorray Brown and the amazing attorneys at the Michigan Poverty Law Program in particular. I was also really fortunate to be part of the Brooks Fellowship program at NCLC, so I was able to move into more specialized consumer work. That fellowship, combined with all of the extra support and training opportunities from NCLC, meant I was able to take my practice and what I was able to do for consumers to the next level. NCLC was also my entry point into working with the Center for Survivor Agency and Justice, when Diane Thompson looped me into a panel discussion about domestic violence and foreclosure at NACA’s mortgage conference in Cleveland. CSAJ’s work at the intersection of consumer rights and domestic violence is incredibly important to me, because there’s such a strong connection between economic self-sufficiency and the ability to get out of a violent relationship. Being able to bridge the gap between those two worlds has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve worked on throughout my career, and I think there’s still so much we can do as consumer attorneys to fold domestic violence issues into our mission. So many people in the consumer law world have taught me so much, and I try to pay it forward to the next generation of attorneys whenever I can. It’s really important to have a mentor so you don’t get lost in the alphabet soup of consumer laws. I also think it’s really important, especially for legal services attorneys, to recognize that you need to treat your clients and their cases holistically. Often the immediate crisis isn’t the whole story, and you can make an even bigger difference if you take the time to learn more about your clients and the larger forces at work in their lives. ̛ Karen Tjapkes, Director of Litigation, Legal Aid of Western Michigan

Verónica Rivera Torres “In Puerto Rico, we are in desperate need of more consumer attorneys. There are many issues with home insurance and foreclosures after hurricanes Irma and Maria; people want to save their homes, but we don’t have enough attorneys to take all of their cases. I hope that in saying that I am a proud consumer attorney in Puerto Rico, others will join me. Not only do I think it’s important to say I am a consumer attorney, I also say I am an activist who believes in human rights – including the fundamental right to housing. Federal courts are difficult here. It’s easy to get lost in the system. Not only do attorneys have to pay for extra classes to be trained in federal laws, but the federal courts are only heard in English -- if you bring a foreclosure case to federal court, clients often can’t understand what is going on because their first language is Spanish. It’s also extremely expensive because clients have to pay to get all the documents translated. It’s really unfair to them. I once had a client come to me crying because she had just received a judgment of foreclosure. She didn’t understand why as she was in the middle of a loss mitigation process. When I asked her why she didn’t contact a lawyer before, she answered she thought it was enough to write an email to the Bank’s lawyer attaching all her loss mitigation written communications with the Bank. The lawyer never answered back but filed a request for a summary judgment. Luckily, my client came to me in time and we were able to convince a sensitive and knowledgeable judge to void the judgment. As it does for so many other cases though, it could have easily gone the other way for my client. This past year, NCLC held a training in Puerto Rico, and every legal services attorney I know was there. We are all dedicated to our cause, and to the citizens that need us. I am proud to be a Puerto Rican consumer attorney, and I encourage others to join me in developing consumer law expertise to solve problems and achieve real justice for our people!” ̛ Verónica Rivera Torres, Attorney at Oficina de Litigio y Consultoría Legal Lcda. Verónica Rivera Torres, Puerto Rico

Claudia Wilner One of my first jobs out of law school was at New Economy Project (NEP), where I launched a free consumer legal advice hotline for low-income New Yorkers with Brooks Fellowship funding support from NCLC. At the time, there were almost no consumer legal services for low-income people in New York City, and the hotline absolutely exploded. I received so much support from NCLC (especially Stuart Rossman, who was and is still an amazing mentor) and from the wider consumer law community in those early years as we figured out how to advocate for people on consumer law issues and build a community of consumer law advocates in New York City. The Consumer Rights Litigation Conference (CRLC) in particular was such a wealth of information and ideas, and was a critical entry point into a whole network of experts and attorneys who were invested in our work. The first client I represented at New Economy Project was a domestic violence survivor who called our hotline because her bank account was frozen. She couldn’t access the money she needed to pay rent, was at imminent risk of eviction, had no food for her kids, and had no idea who the debt collector was or where the debt came from. We investigated and found that her abusive ex-husband had stolen her identity in order to take out multiple credit cards, and a debt buyer had filed false documents asserting that she had been served when she hadn’t. I went into court on her behalf and I was able to get her bank account released, her judgement vacated, and the case dismissed – because of course, the debt buyer couldn’t actually prove that she owed anything. This case was just the tip of the iceberg. Within about six months, we formed a coalition in order to get the Exempt Income Protection Act passed in the New York state legislature, which remains one of the strongest laws in the country preventing debt collectors from seizing people’s subsistence income in their bank accounts. A few years later, we filed a major lawsuit (with Mobilization for Justice and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Mazel) against the same debt buyer that had tried to collect fraudulent debt from my first client, and that case settled with approximately 350,000 people having their debts forgiven, 200,000 fraudulently-obtained judgments vacated, and a settlement fund of $59 million. I love to tell this story because it’s a great illustration of the ripple effect you can have when you go to bat for a client. We started out helping a single client and ended up winning justice for hundreds of thousands of people. That’s the kind of outcome that keeps me coming back day after day to fight for ordinary people who have been wronged. Since coming to NCLEJ in 2015, I’ve combined a consumer and civil rights litigation practice. I’ve challenged the taking of driver’s licenses as punishment for failure to pay court fines in Tennessee, discriminatory policing for profit in Buffalo, NY, unconstitutional medical debt collection practices in Kentucky, and a debtor’s prison scheme in Montgomery, AL. No matter the issue, NCLC is an incredible resource, and I’m honored to be part of the consumer law community as we join the broader fight for racial and economic justice. ̛ Claudia Wilner, Director of Litigation and Advocacy, National Center for Law and Economic Justice

Kim Wilson The common thread through all my work is making sure that normal folks have a chance against the corporations that try to rule our lives. One of the founding partners of my law firm had worked with Ralph Nader for the Minnesota and Montana Public Interest Research Groups, and the other was a VISTA volunteer. They wanted a “streetfront” law office to help those in need, so I was exposed to a lot of consumer and public interest cases early on. We’ve been using NCLC’s manuals since the 1990s — I distinctly remember relying on NCLC’s Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices Manual in prevailing at the Montana Supreme Court in a case where the Court first applied Montana’s CPA to banks and lender. I was super excited to get the opportunity to serve as a Fellow with NCLC in 1999, and continue to relish the professional connections and friendships made at NCLC. After I returned to Montana, I really ramped up my own consumer practice, and was poised to further assist consumers when the mortgage crisis hit and inundated our firm with loan modification fraud and foreclosure fraud cases. There were so many folks who were living on the edge, and in a lot of cases we were able to save their homes and get them some financial relief. There’s also such emotional baggage for clients around whether they’ll be able to beat the bank or the mortgage company and get back to some semblance of normal, so it means a lot to get those kinds of resolutions and give them some peace of mind. I worry about law students who graduate with stacks of student debt and feel pressured to take whatever job they can. Sometimes that’s a corporate job that will pay the bills, and sometimes that’s representing defendants, but there are other options, too. There’s such a huge need for young talent in the field of consumer law, and you can build a very successful plaintiff’s practice while doing meaningful work on behalf of regular people. I have found it to be an incredibly satisfying career. ̛ Kim Wilson, Morrison Sherwood Wilson & Deola, PLLP

Chi Chi Wu Since I can remember, I wanted a career that I thought would make the world a better place, so consumer law ended up being a perfect fit for me. Not only is it a field where you’re constantly learning and pushing your practice forward, but you have a huge opportunity to help the powerless take on the powerful — and win. When I started working on credit card issues a decade and a half ago, many companies had atrocious practices. They’d regularly increase or even double a cardholder’s interest rate if they missed one payment, and apply the new rate to any existing balance. As you can imagine, this made it impossible for many people to escape debt — I remember one consumer who started off with a $3,200 debt yet his balance had actually increased to over $5,000 six years later. Companies would also put “trip wires” in place to increase the chances that a consumer would pay late and incur hefty fees — for example, setting payment deadlines in the morning before the mail was delivered, so that even if payment arrived on the due date, it was technically “late.” Bear in mind, this was all perfectly legal! I was part of a team of NCLC attorneys (including Lauren Saunders and Alys Cohen) who worked hard to help develop and advocate for the reforms that eventually led to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act). It tamped down almost all of those abusive practices, and it was incredibly satisfying when it was signed into law in 2009. Whenever NCLC and our allies argued that obviously unfair credit card practices should be regulated, credit card companies would contend that any regulation would force them to restrict the amount of credit they could offer. They’d accuse us of being the ones who would cause harm to consumers by making it harder to get a credit card. The passage of the Credit CARD Act showed how spurious this argument was, because of course these companies didn’t stop extending credit once the Act was passed. It was such a huge win for consumers, and I’m especially proud that it has saved consumers billions since it was passed. Access to affordable credit plays a huge role in both inequality and opportunity in this country. There are widely-documented racial disparities in credit scores, which are reflected in the disproportionate numbers of Black and Latino consumers who end up either being denied affordable credit or burdened with high-priced loans. These disparities in credit scores are a direct result of the racial wealth gap, and the barriers to affordable credit that they cause in turn feed that gap — a vicious cycle. The credit reporting industry is in serious need of reform, and one of my priorities is advocating for credit reporting policies that help dismantle some of these baked-in inequalities. Ultimately, we need a better system to measure and evaluate creditworthiness, because our current system makes it so much harder for families of color to access mortgages, apartment rentals, auto financing, even jobs — all the things necessary to economically flourish and build wealth. Now is the time to implement the solutions that might have seemed unrealistic just a few years ago. We’re at an inflection point in our society, and I feel like it’s incumbent upon us to seize this moment and make some real change happen.

̛ Chi Chi Wu, Staff Attorney, NCLC

Boston Headquarters 7 Winthrop Square Boston, MA 02110-1245 Phone: 617/542-8010 Fax: 617/542-8028 www.nclc.org

Washington Office 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 510 Washington, DC, 20036 Phone: 202/452-6252 Fax: 202/296-4062