Bankruptcy, California Edition -- Author Information

Kathleen P. March, Esq. a Yale Law School graduate, is a former United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California (1988-2002). She now practices bankruptcy full time at the firm she founded, The Bankruptcy Law Firm, P.C. (www.bkylawfirm.com).

March represents individual and small business debtors in Chapters 7 and 13, and creditors in all Chapters of bankruptcy. March also provides bankruptcy issues consults and representation in bankruptcy adversary proceedings and bankruptcy appeals, and has testified as an expert witness on bankruptcy issues.

March is admitted to practice in California and New York. She is certified as a bankruptcy specialist by the State Bar of California, and as a consumer bankruptcy specialist and business bankruptcy specialist by the American Board of Certification. She has coauthored several published articles on bankruptcy subjects and lectures frequently on bankruptcy issues.

Judge Alan M. Ahart is a judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. He was appointed in 1988 and reappointed to a second 14-year term in 2002. He is a graduate of the State University of New York School of Law, Buffalo, and also holds an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Judge Ahart has authored numerous published articles, most of them on bankruptcy topics. He was the first judge to receive the Editors' Prize for demonstrating special excellence in an article in the American Bankruptcy Law Journal and is currently a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal.

Judge Ahart also authors The Rutter Group's California Practice Guide: Enforcing Judgments and Debts, and lectures on debt collection, judgment enforcement and bankruptcy topics.

Janet A. Shapiro, Esq. practices complex commercial and bankruptcy law at The Shapiro Law Firm (shapirolawfirm.com) in Beverly Hills, California. She represents a variety of secured and unsecured creditors, including assignees for the benefit of creditors, retailers defending mass torts claims in bankruptcy, lenders engaged in accounts receivable financing, and insurance companies in asbestos bankruptcy matters.

Shapiro graduated from DePaul College of Law, Chicago, Illinois, and earned her M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago.

Shapiro was the first Motions Attorney for the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (1985-1987). She was Editor in Chief of the California Bankruptcy Journal (1989-1995) and is currently an Editor for the Journal. She has served as a Mediator for the Los Angeles Superior Court and the United States Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California for complex business disputes.

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