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Advanced Debt Collection, 03/06/2024, On Demand More info »

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Livestream - Advanced Debt Collection

CLE Hours: 6 including 6 General, 1 Ethics, 0 Professionalism, 2 Trial Practice

Categories:: Ethics | Trial Practice

Dates

Event Dates

Wed, Mar 06, 2024 - 08:30am to 03:45pm EST

Base Price Ticket is $225.00 Audit (NO CLE CREDITS) is $110.00

Description

Speakers, session times and credit hours are subject to change.

Ethics | Professionalism | Trial Practice

Presiding:
Adam L. Cleveland, Program Co-Chair; Adam L. Cleveland P.C., Peachtree Corners, GA
Shenika L. Collier, Program Co-Chair; Lead Litigation Attorney, RAS LaVrar, LLC, Atlanta, GA
Bryan S. Kaplan, Program Co-Chair; Kaplan Legal Services, LLC, Atlanta, GA
Jacob A. Maurer, Program Co-Chair; Principal, Bodker Ramsey Andrews Winograd & Wildstein PC, Atlanta, GA

Introduction
Rebecca A. "Becky" Hall, ICLE Associate Director Operations, State Bar of Georgia, Atlanta, GA

8:35
WELCOME AND PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Adam L. Cleveland

8:40
Consumer Financial and Privacy Protections – How to Stay out of Hot Water
Keith J. Barnett, Partner, Troutman Pepper, Atlanta, GA

9:40
Merchant Cash Advance/Revenue-Based Financing: Learning the Basics Behind Alternative Finance Products
Jamie P. Polon, Partner, Mavrides | Moyal | Packman | Sadkin, New York, NY

10:40
Break

10:50
Evidence Overview
Michael Scott Carlson, Trial and Appellate Attorney; Legal Author, Atlanta, GA

11:50
Lunch

12:35
Preserving Ethics in Collections - A View from the Bench
Hon. Kristina Hammer Blum, Chief Magistrate Judge, Gwinnett County Magistrate Court, Lawrenceville, GA

1:35
Break

1:45
A Creditor’s Toolbox for Bankruptcy Cases
Anna M. Humnicky, Partner, Small | Herrin LLP, Atlanta, GA

2:45
Arbitration: The Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of It All
David A. Kleber, Bedard Law Group PC, Duluth, GA

3:45
Adjourn

Version 1

Handouts

Speaker

Mr. Adam Lee Cleveland Related Seminars and Products

Adam L. Cleveland PC

Adam Cleveland specializes in recoveries on defaulted obligations, including vehicle loans, mortgages, credit cards, and other consumer and commercial instruments and loan products. Adam advises creditor clients on maximizing recovery in their non-performing portfolios through demand, workout, litigation, and levy, in addition to serving as general counsel for corporate clients for their compliance procedures, complaint resolution (including CFPB matters), and civil litigation defense.

Adam has particular expertise in Georgia garnishments, with broad experience filing garnishments against judgment debtors, responding to garnishments and defending against claims, traverses, and defaults on behalf of financial institutions, and maintaining state and federal garnishment compliance procedures for financial institutions and employer clients. In 2015, he served as the creditors’ representative on the Georgia Garnishment Law Task Force, producing a complete revision of the Georgia Code’s Title 18-4 which became Georgia’s new garnishment law in 2016. He again worked with the state legislature to produce the garnishment bills passed into law in 2018 and 2020. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Creditors Bar Association, is a co-founder of the Georgia Creditors Council, an advocacy organization for Georgia creditor attorneys, and currently serves as the Chair of the Creditors Rights section of Georgia’s State Bar.

Mrs. Shenika Lashawn Collier Related Seminars and Products

The Collier Law Group, LLC

Shenika Collier concentrates in working with financial intuitions on the recovery of outstanding balances and obligations as it relates to consumer accounts with credit cards, auto loans, student loans and personal loans. Shenika assists creditors with the recovery of a balance from pre-suit through the utilization of post-judgment remedies. Shenika is the GA Lead Litigation Attorney with RAS LaVrar, LLC, based in Plantation, Florida.

Shenika Collier is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and is an alum of the University of Georgia, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice. Shenika later graduated from Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in Montgomery, AL and returned home to Metro Atlanta, where she currently practices.

Mr. Bryan Scott Kaplan Related Seminars and Products

Kaplan Legal Services LLC

Bryan Kaplan is the owner of Kaplan Legal Services, LLC. He primarily represents creditors in disputes with debtors arising from commercial loans (secured and unsecured), leases, and other credit relationships. Bryan’s representations cover pre-suit negotiations to trial work to post-judgment enforcement in Georgia and Alabama. In addition to creditor/debtor work, Bryan’s firm routinely handles commercial litigation that includes business divorces, fraud, RICO, and other matters affecting business operations. He also regularly represents franchisors, landlords, business owners, suppliers and others in contract and real property disputes arising from franchise agreements, purchase and sale agreements, lease and license agreements, residential and commercial construction projects, and other contracts.

Aside from practicing law, Bryan enjoys traveling with his wife and kids, fly fishing in saltwater, and hiking in the mountains.

Mr. Jacob Aaron Maurer Related Seminars and Products

Bodker Ramsey Andrews Winograd & Wildstein PC

Jacob Maurer is a partner with the law firm of Bodker, Ramsey, Andrews, Winograd & Wildstein, P.C. For over 26 years Jacob has represented clients in a wide range of commercial litigation matters including business disputes, post judgment collections, and real estate cases. In addition to his commercial litigation practice, Jacob advises clients in transactional and corporate matters including commercial leasing, negotiating service and license agreements, and business acquisitions and sales. Jacob graduated from the University of Illinois in 1993 (B.S., Advertising) and received his juris doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1997. Jacob has served as a speaker at CLE seminars for the State Bar of Georgia and Sterling Education Services on topics including post judgment collection, commercial leasing and enforcement, and ethics and professionalism and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Creditor’s Rights Section of the State Bar of Georgia.

Mr. Keith J. Barnett Related Seminars and Products

Troutman Pepper Locke LLP

Keith Barnett is a partner at Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders. He represents regularly represents banks, non-bank lenders, servicers, and financial technology clients on compliance, regulatory, litigation and enforcement issues.

Mr. Jamie Paul Polon Related Seminars and Products

Mavrides Moyal Packman Sadkin

Jamie is a partner at MMPS who manages the Creditors’ Rights Group and focuses on corporate matters. He represents a plethora of clients including multi-national banking entities, global credit card companies, small and large businesses, and alternative lenders. He has successfully recovered millions of dollars for his clients. He is licensed to argue before the Eastern and Southern District Courts of New York, the Second, Third and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States District Court of New Jersey, the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of International Trade. In 2013, 2014 and 2015, Jamie was selected by the publication “SuperLawyers” as a New York Metro Rising Star in the field of Bankruptcy & Creditor/Debtor Rights. Jamie represents business entities and individuals in a variety of complex transactional and litigation matters as well as counseling clients in commercial real estate loan transactions, distressed debt investments, corporate acquisitions and alternative finance. Jamie is a member of the National Creditors Bar Association, is co-founder and board member of Alternative Finance Bar Association, was a member of New York Housing Association and involved with the Long Island Real Estate Group. He has been an active member of the Turnaround Management Association, a international community of professionals dedicated to corporate renewal and turnaround management. Jamie has also served on several charitable boards in New York

Bar Admissions

New Jersey, 2001, New York, 2002
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 2010
Washington, D.C., 2001, Georgia, 2010

Education

New York Law School, J.D., 2001
American University, B.S., 1998

Mr. Michael Scott Carlson Related Seminars and Products

Trial and Appellate Attorney; Legal Author

Fulton County District Attorney's Office

Mike Carlson holds a Martindale-Hubbell attorney rating of “AV Preeminent,” reserved for “attorneys who are ranked at the highest level of professional excellence for their legal expertise, communication skills, and ethical standards by their peers.” Carlson’s legal career has seen accomplishments as a trial and appellate advocate, lecturer and teacher, and in legal writing and scholarship.

After graduating with an A.B. degree from the University of Georgia, Carlson attended Washington and Lee University School of Law, receiving his J.D. degree in 1992. Among the distinctions Carlson earned during law school was the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Award for his “excellence in demonstrating the talents and attributes of the trial advocate.”

Originally engaged in private practice where he focused on civil litigation and media law, Carlson began his public service career in 1997, working as an assistant district attorney in the Augusta, Atlanta, Stone Mountain, and Cobb Judicial Circuits, prior to his return to Fulton County in 2021. Leadership positions that Carlson has held include chief and deputy chief assistant district attorney and, most recently, chief counsel and ethics officer for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Also, in 2015, Governor Nathan Deal appointed Carlson to the Georgia Court Martial Review Panel.

Currently, Carlson serves as the Executive District Attorney for the Major Crimes Division at the Office of the Fulton County District Attorney. Among Carlson’s duties in that role is the supervision of six (6) elite prosecution teams to include Appeals, Capital & Cold Cases, Civil Forfeiture, Gangs, Major Case (homicide), and White Collar Crime. Additionally, Carlson maintains his own trial and appellate caseloads.

Throughout his over twenty (20) years as an assistant district attorney, Carlson has successfully prosecuted a wide array of high-profile trials and appeals. This includes, for example, jury trial victories in death penalty, gang, infant, elder, domestic violence, and vehicular homicides, as well as murder-for-hire, narcotics trafficking, and spousal rape cases. Carlson’s prevailing appellate arguments range from groundbreaking decisions interpreting Georgia’s Evidence Code to the opinion establishing the constitutionality of Georgia’s anti-gang laws.

Carlson actively addresses Georgia’s bench and bar on the law of evidence, trial practice and procedure. Moreover, Carlson has served as adjunct faculty at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, Emory University School of Law, and as a mentor and lecturer at the Gary Christy Memorial Trial Skills Clinic, formerly held at the University of Georgia School of Law.

Annually updated books co-authored by Carlson, along with his father, University of Georgia Professor of Law Emeritus Ronald L. Carlson, include Carlson on Evidence, Carlsons’ Guide to Evidence Authentication, Trial Handbook for Georgia Lawyers, and Successful Techniques for Civil Trials. Carlson’s evidence law treatise, Carlson on Evidence, has been authoritatively cited in over sixty-five (65) Georgia appellate opinions. Articles co-authored by Carlson have been published in both academic and practice-concentrated legal journals.

Listed as a “Georgia Trailblazer” by the Daily Report in 2019, the impact of Carlson’s commitment to the positive development of the justice system is well-known. Carlson has penned columns, made broadcast media appearances, and participated in legislative efforts pertaining to a variety of justice issues and reforms, to include Georgia’s evidence code.

Professional awards and recognition that Carlson has received include: the Eagle Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a state-level attorney by Georgia’s three (3) United States Attorneys; Faculty Medallion from the Institute of Continuing Judicial Education of Georgia for consistently outstanding presenter ratings; Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia’s J. Roger Thompson (now Thompson-Jones) Award for training beginning level prosecutors; selection as a Master in the Joseph Henry Lumpkin (now Clarke-Carley) Inn of Court; and named by James magazine as a “legal legend” and one of “the most influential lawyers in Georgia.”

In his personal life, Carlson has been married to his wife Elizabeth Maria Carlson for over thirty (30) years and is the proud father of their daughter Marika and son Michael.

Ms. Kristina Hammer Blum Related Seminars and Products

Gwinnett County Magistrate Court

Kristina Hammer Blum

Chief Magistrate Gwinnett County

Kristina Hammer Blum is the Chief Magistrate of the Gwinnett County Magistrate Court. Judge Blum began her legal career in 1994. Although she practiced in a variety of areas, she spent most of her time in the federal courts, specializing in the representation of city and county governments and public officials. After spending seven years as a Senior Assistant County Attorney for Gwinnett County, she was appointed to the Magistrate Court in 2005 and became the Chief Magistrate on January 9, 2013. As Chief Magistrate, she presides over one of the busiest courts in the State of Georgia (handling approximately 100,000 matters a year).

Judge Blum lived all over the United States growing up as a proud “Air Force Brat;” she chose Gwinnett County as her forever home because of its vibrant and inclusive community, for which she remains very involved and committed. Judge Blum is a 2009 graduate of Leadership Gwinnett, and she has served on the Leadership Gwinnett Steering Committee as the Retreats Co-Chair since 2011. She is an Executive Board Member of the Rotary Club of Sugarloaf, and she has served on the Advisory Boards for the Gwinnett Reentry Intervention Program (“GRIP”), Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful, and United Way. For three years, she was the production coordinator for the Hi Hope Service Center’s annual Gwinnett’s Kid’s Got Talent Show benefiting adults with developmental disabilities.

Judge Blum is a Past President of the Georgia Magistrate Council and served as a member of the Judicial Council of Georgia from June 2015 until June 2017. She previously served on the Justice for All Strategic Action Plan Work Group for the State Bar of Georgia and is presently a member of the Access to Justice Advisory Board for the Judicial Council of Georgia. Judge Blum is also a frequent instructor for the Georgia Institute for Continuing Judicial Education, where she was awarded the Excellence in Judicial Education Medallion.

As Gwinnett’s first female Chief Magistrate, in 2014, the League of Women Voters honored Judge Blum with their Legacy Award. In 2015, the Council of Magistrate Court Judges presented her with their “Workhorse of the Year” Award. In addition, Judge Blum received a Public Service Award from the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce in 2016.

In 2020, Judge Blum, Commissioner Marlene Fosque, Matt Elder of HomeFirst Gwinnett, and Gwinnett County Grants Director Shannon Candler joined forces to create and implement Project RESET and Project RESET 2.0, an eviction intervention program that built a pipeline directly from active eviction and pre-eviction cases to federal COVID relief funding. Launched November 1, 2020, Project RESET 2.0 utilized over $86 million in federal financial assistance for 7,319 households. In total, Project RESET 2.0 ensured that 18,243 individuals in Gwinnett County remained stably housed during the pandemic by paying rental arrears directly to landlords, thereby protecting Gwinnett County’s portfolio of affordable housing. Several other jurisdictions emulated the Project RESET model, which was named a “top performer” and national best practice by the U.S. Treasury Department and, in 2022, Project RESET received the National Association of Counties Achievement Award.

Kristina has been married for 29 years to the love of her life, Jim Blum; Jim has a law office in Peachtree Corners (Blum & Campbell, LLC) where he specializes in complex real estate litigation. She is also proud mom to two amazing kids, Merritt (a senior Industrial Engineering Major at Georgia Tech who just time-qualified for the Boston Marathon) and Corbin (a freshman at UGA who plays mellophone in the Redcoat Marching Band). Outside of work, Kristina is an avid SCUBA diver (certified through Rescue Diver with over 300 dives), who also loves snow skiing, sewing, CrossFit, and she sings and plays guitar in her band Honey & Oates. On weekends, you can usually find the Blums on a campground somewhere with friends setting up their (second!) camper (the “B Hive”).

Ms. Anna M. Humnicky Related Seminars and Products

Small Herrin LLP

Anna M. Humnicky, Esq.

A partner of Small | Herrin, LLP, Anna Humnicky’s practice focuses on representation of debtors-in-possession in Chapter 11 and 12 reorganizations and creditors' rights in Chapter 7, 11, and 13 bankruptcy cases, as well as representation of Chapter 7 and 11 trustees, and various other non-bankruptcy commercial litigation matters and out-of-court workouts.

Anna handles Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases filed on behalf of debtor clients and Chapter 11 bankruptcy matters related to creditor clients, as well as oversees day-to-day Chapter 11 matters, plan formulation, disclosure statements and objections thereto for both debtor and creditor clients. Anna handles other debtor and creditor bankruptcy matters, including but not limited to asserting and defending against adversary proceedings filed by and against clients, §523 and §727 causes of action, and financial fraud issues. Anna also represents Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 trustees and handles other non-bankruptcy commercial litigation matters in both state and federal courts, as well as out-of-court workouts.

Anna previously clerked for the Honorable John T. Laney, III, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge for the Middle District of Georgia.

Education

Georgia State University

Juris Doctor, Cum Laude, 2002

Georgia State University

Master of Business Administration, 2002

Ball State University

B.S., Sports Administration, Cum Laude, 1995

Honors & Awards

Georgia State University Alumni Association Board of Directors Ambassador Award (2017)

Invited Guest to Eleventh Circuit Judicial Conference (2016)

Georgia Super Lawyers Rising Star (2010)

Bar Associations & Community Involvement

Georgia Bar Association, Member

Atlanta Bar Association, Member

International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation, Member

Cobb County Bar Association, Member

W. Homer Drake, Jr. Georgia Bankruptcy American Inn of Court – Counselor Elect (July 2024 - Present), Secretary (July 2023 - June 2024), Treasurer (July 2021 - June 2023), Mentoring Committee (2015-Present)

Atlanta Bar Bankruptcy Section – Member-at-Large on Board of Directors (June 2022 – Present), CLE Committee (June 2022 - Present), Communications Committee (June 2024 - Present), Mentoring Committee (2014–2016)

International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation – Committee Chairperson (2006)

Georgia Association of Women Lawyers – Committee Chairperson (2005-2006)

Georgia State University Alumni Association Board of Directors – Member (June 2012 – June 2018); Member (June 2012–June 2015) and Chair of Board Development and Governance Committee (July 2013–June 2015); Member, Scholarship Committee (July 2015-June 2017); Treasurer and Chair of Finance Committee (July 2017–June 2018).

Sigma Kappa Sorority – Collegiate Chapter Officer (1994-1995); Advisory Board Member (1995-2007); Advisory Board Chairperson (2004-2006); Alumnae Chapter Officer/Committee Chairperson (1995-2007)

Bar Admissions

State Level Courts

State Bar of Georgia

Supreme Court of Georgia

Georgia Court of Appeals

Superior and State Courts and all lower courts

Federal Level Courts

United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

United States District Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Georgia

United States Bankruptcy Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Georgia

Mr. David Andrew Kleber Related Seminars and Products

Bedard Law Group PC

David Kleber has specialized in creditors' rights for more than 30 years. He has represented creditors in collection litigation, defended them against consumer protection claims before numerous courts and arbitration, and guided them through countless legal and regulatory compliance issues. David is a frequent speaker and has published articles on topics such as bankruptcy and garnishment law.

Important Information

Please be advised that your credit will not be reported to the State Bar of Georgia CLE Regulation Department until after you have completed the steps necessary to earn credit for that program.

Self reporting is required for all other jurisdictions.

The information presented is solely for educational purposes. The opinions expressed by the faculty in their materials and presentations are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the State Bar of Georgia, its officers, directors and/or employees. The faculty is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice and these presentations and publications are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. All publications and presentations were created to serve the continuing legal education needs of practicing attorneys.

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