From the President
I welcome everyone to the 2022 cdcbaa program year. This is cdcbaa’s 18th year and we, as an organization, are going strong. cdcbaa was created in 2005 as an association of consumer attorneys to provide
educational and networking opportunities within our focused area of Law. We hold at least 8 seminars a year that are tailor made and dedicated to our specific law practices. We have an upcoming July 11th
seminar on the topic of Liens and Mortgages: Issues in Chapter 7, 13 and Chapter 11.
After enduring 28 months of the Covid-19 pandemic
and several unpredicted surges, experts say that the
pandemic should ease up within the next few months.
This is based on the combination of factors such as
raising vaccinations, decreasing infection rates and
rising immunity levels. The last 28 months have been
a tumultuous period for all of us physically,
emotionally, mentally and financially. I am grateful to
each of
you for your resilience and perseverance to
yourselves, your family and those around you.
Hopefully, we are near the end of the pandemic and
things can go back to a new “normal”. Since cdcbaa
offers great net
orking opportunities and benefits, it is
with great anticipation that we can all get together
again in-person beginning with our September
2022 and October 2022 cdcbaa seminars at Southwestern Law
School. The leadership of cdcbaa
has always been searching for the right time when it is
safe to get back to in-person board meetings,
members meetings, and our educational seminars.
We greatly look forward to this occurring in the near
future. We shall also, at the same time, continue to
provide Zoom access to our educational seminars for
those that are not able to physically attend 1-on-1
in-person events.
For the year 2022, cdcbaa is experimenting with
having 2 Co-Presidents and a much larger Board of
Directors of 20 individuals. I am very pleased to work
with Co-President, Lucy Mavyan, in sharing the many
tasks and duties of being President. With having CoPresidents and a larger board, the goal is to allow
cdcbaa to expand into more areas and address more
issues involving bettering our law practices and our
interaction and relationship with the Court and the
various Pro bono organizations under the umbrella of
the Debtors’ Assistance Project. In addition, it allows
us to strengthen our organization and strive for more
transparency. Lucy and I are also very proud of the
fact that we were finally able to obtain parity on the
Board with an equal number of male and female
colleagues. We will continue this effort for greater
inclusiveness, diversity and transparency.
Lucy and I are extremely fortunate with having a very
active, talented and motivated Board of Directors.
Special thanks goes to the following Directors:
Roksana Moradi Brovia, who organizes our
phenomenal
educational seminars and who has been
selected to be cdcbaa’s Representative to the Court’s
Bar Advisory Board; our Vice President, Daniela
Romero, who has taken up the role of cdcbaa’s
Representative to
the Debtors’ Assistance Project
(“DAP”), Jeff Hagen, who is our CFO and judicially
keeps our books and reports monthly to the Board,
David Jacobs, who has accurately kept the Board’s
Minutes for many years now, Dennis McGoldrick, our
sacred Sergeant-at-Arms since 2010, who carefully
monitors our meetings and listserv and Marcus Tiggs,
our Chair of the Website Committee who has led
cdcbaa through an
amazing upgrade of our website.
I have to give a special shout out to the recently
formed Committee on Bylaws. Their initial task was to
update the Bylaws as it relates to the elections of the
President, Officers and Board of Directors. The chair
person, Hale Antico, has done an incredible job
working with his committee in order to bring the 2005
bylaws up to today’s standards. Lucy and I personally
thank the committee members of Jeff Hagen,
Dennis McGoldrick, Tom Ure, and Eliza Ghanooni. They
have done a yeoman’s task in updating the bylaws to
make them reflect our current practices and to create
more transparency. They have worked
tirelessly on
behalf of cdcbaa, its board, and the members on
defining a clear timeline for the election of our
president, our officers and our board of directors. The
Committee has proffered a redline version of the
updated Bylaws which the Board will consider and
vote upon shortly before it is presented to the
membership for their approval. The Committee has
beaten the aggressive schedule set for their work.
Their hard
work and efforts are a credit to all of us in
ensuring cdcbaa’s longevity and transparency. We
owe a great debt of gratitude to them.
The Board has set the date and location for the
upcoming 2022 Calvin Ashland Awards Dinner for
Thursday, November 10th from 6 pm to 9 pm at the
Sheraton Universal’s Skyview ballroom on the 21st
floor.
During this event, we shall honor Jonathon
Hayes as the 2022 Calvin Ashland Attorney of the
Year Award recipient for all his accomplishments
and his many contributions to the practice of
consumer
Bankruptcy law and to the cdcbaa and its
members. In addition, we shall be awarding the
Thomas B. Donovan Award to our friend and
colleague, Aki Koyama, staff attorney to the Chapter
13 Trustee, Kathy Dockery. We honor Aki’s many
contributions to the betterment of our Chapter 13
practices.
- Keith Higginbotham, Co-President
I welcome everyone to the 2022 cdcbaa program year. This is cdcbaa’s 18th year and we, as an organization, are going strong. cdcbaa was created in 2005 as an association of consumer attorneys to provide
educational and networking opportunities within our focused area of Law. We hold at least 8 seminars a year that are tailor made and dedicated to our specific law practices. We have an upcoming July 11th
seminar on the topic of Liens and Mortgages: Issues in Chapter 7, 13 and Chapter 11.
After enduring 28 months of the Covid-19 pandemic
and several unpredicted surges, experts say that the
pandemic should ease up within the next few months.
This is based on the combination of factors such as
raising vaccinations, decreasing infection rates and
rising immunity levels. The last 28 months have been
a tumultuous period for all of us physically,
emotionally, mentally and financially. I am grateful to
each of
you for your resilience and perseverance to
yourselves, your family and those around you.
Hopefully, we are near the end of the pandemic and
things can go back to a new “normal”. Since cdcbaa
offers great net
orking opportunities and benefits, it is
with great anticipation that we can all get together
again in-person beginning with our September
2022 and October 2022 cdcbaa seminars at Southwestern Law
School. The leadership of cdcbaa
has always been searching for the right time when it is
safe to get back to in-person board meetings,
members meetings, and our educational seminars.
We greatly look forward to this occurring in the near
future. We shall also, at the same time, continue to
provide Zoom access to our educational seminars for
those that are not able to physically attend 1-on-1
in-person events.
For the year 2022, cdcbaa is experimenting with
having 2 Co-Presidents and a much larger Board of
Directors of 20 individuals. I am very pleased to work
with Co-President, Lucy Mavyan, in sharing the many
tasks and duties of being President. With having CoPresidents and a larger board, the goal is to allow
cdcbaa to expand into more areas and address more
issues involving bettering our law practices and our
interaction and relationship with the Court and the
various Pro bono organizations under the umbrella of
the Debtors’ Assistance Project. In addition, it allows
us to strengthen our organization and strive for more
transparency. Lucy and I are also very proud of the
fact that we were finally able to obtain parity on the
Board with an equal number of male and female
colleagues. We will continue this effort for greater
inclusiveness, diversity and transparency.
Lucy and I are extremely fortunate with having a very
active, talented and motivated Board of Directors.
Special thanks goes to the following Directors:
Roksana Moradi Brovia, who organizes our
phenomenal
educational seminars and who has been
selected to be cdcbaa’s Representative to the Court’s
Bar Advisory Board; our Vice President, Daniela
Romero, who has taken up the role of cdcbaa’s
Representative to
the Debtors’ Assistance Project
(“DAP”), Jeff Hagen, who is our CFO and judicially
keeps our books and reports monthly to the Board,
David Jacobs, who has accurately kept the Board’s
Minutes for many years now, Dennis McGoldrick, our
sacred Sergeant-at-Arms since 2010, who carefully
monitors our meetings and listserv and Marcus Tiggs,
our Chair of the Website Committee who has led
cdcbaa through an
amazing upgrade of our website.
I have to give a special shout out to the recently
formed Committee on Bylaws. Their initial task was to
update the Bylaws as it relates to the elections of the
President, Officers and Board of Directors. The chair
person, Hale Antico, has done an incredible job
working with his committee in order to bring the 2005
bylaws up to today’s standards. Lucy and I personally
thank the committee members of Jeff Hagen,
Dennis McGoldrick, Tom Ure, and Eliza Ghanooni. They
have done a yeoman’s task in updating the bylaws to
make them reflect our current practices and to create
more transparency. They have worked
tirelessly on
behalf of cdcbaa, its board, and the members on
defining a clear timeline for the election of our
president, our officers and our board of directors. The
Committee has proffered a redline version of the
updated Bylaws which the Board will consider and
vote upon shortly before it is presented to the
membership for their approval. The Committee has
beaten the aggressive schedule set for their work.
Their hard
work and efforts are a credit to all of us in
ensuring cdcbaa’s longevity and transparency. We
owe a great debt of gratitude to them.
The Board has set the date and location for the
upcoming 2022 Calvin Ashland Awards Dinner for
Thursday, November 10th from 6 pm to 9 pm at the
Sheraton Universal’s Skyview ballroom on the 21st
floor.
During this event, we shall honor Jonathon
Hayes as the 2022 Calvin Ashland Attorney of the
Year Award recipient for all his accomplishments
and his many contributions to the practice of
consumer
Bankruptcy law and to the cdcbaa and its
members. In addition, we shall be awarding the
Thomas B. Donovan Award to our friend and
colleague, Aki Koyama, staff attorney to the Chapter
13 Trustee, Kathy Dockery. We honor Aki’s many
contributions to the betterment of our Chapter 13
practices.