Jill A. Michaux was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts to a three-year term on the national Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules on November 30, 2012, and reappointed to a second three-year term in October 2015. She practices law with the firm of Neis & Michaux, P.A., of Topeka, Kansas. She was a founding member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and served on its board of directors six years from 1993 to 1999. She graduated from the University of Kansas in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree and from the Washburn University School of Law with Dean’s Honors in 1982. Michaux and Mark Neis, her husband and law partner, are the only Topeka attorneys, and two of seven in Kansas, to be board certified in consumer bankruptcy law by the American Board of Bankruptcy Certification. Michaux is a founding member and past president of Topeka Area Bankruptcy Council and the Kansas Bar Association Bankruptcy and Insolvency Section. She blogs on her own site, www.bankruptcykansas.info. She served as judge for the Municipal Court of the City of Rossville, Kansas, for 16 years until 2010.

James H. Cossitt has practiced in Kalispell, Mont., since 1999 in the areas of bankruptcy & workouts, business & commercial litigation, real estate, landlord / tenant, secured transactions and construction law.   He began his career in insolvency law as a bankruptcy attorney with the FDIC in Des Moines, Iowa, served as a chapter 7 panel trustee in the N.D. of Iowa from 1988-95 and as a chapter 11 trustee in the W.D. of Michigan from 1997 to 2000.  Mr. Cossitt is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts in Montana, Colorado, Michigan and Iowa, is board-certified by the American Board of Certification in both Business & Consumer Bankruptcy Law.  He is a member of the American Bar Association, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and a lifetime member of the American Bankruptcy Institute.  In addition, he is the Montana editor of West Group’s Bankruptcy Exemption Manual  and in 2009 was elected to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Certification (ABC).

A frequent speaker to professional and trade groups on bankruptcy and related topics, Mr. Cossitt was a member of a task force of US bankruptcy judges, law professors and others who consulted with the Slovak Parliament and research institutes in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 1993 on drafting a new bankruptcy law and the transition to a market economy.  He served as an invited lecturer at a Russian Bankruptcy School sponsored by the Iowa State University Center for International Agricultural Finance, held in Ames, Iowa, in 1995.  Mr. Cossitt received his B.A., with distinction, in 1982 from Iowa State University and his J.D. in 1986 from the University of Iowa College of Law.

Catherine Peek McEwen is a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Florida (appointed August, 2005).  She is also an adjunct professor at the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.  Prior to becoming a judge, she was in private practice, concentrating on commercial litigation with an emphasis on representing parties in bankruptcy cases.  Judge McEwen was graduated from Stetson University College of Law cum laude in 1982 and received her undergraduate degree from the University of South Florida (B.A., Political Science) in 1979.

She is the judicial chair of The Florida Bar Business Law Section Bankruptcy/UCC Committee and a member of The Florida Bar Business Law Section Executive Council as well as past chair of The Florida Bar Federal Court Practice Committee.  She is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges’ Legislative Committee and is a Past Editor in Chief of the NCBJ Conference News, past co-chair of the NCBJ’s Future of the Conference Committee and past member of its National Bar Association Liaison Committee, Endowment for Education Board, Public Outreach Committee, Ethics Committee, and the Newsletter Committee.  She is a past chair and a member of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (of Florida) Pro Bono Committee.  She is on the Board of Directors of the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers.

She was elected into the American Law Institute in 2012.  Among her other honors are the Stetson University College of Law Distinguished Alumnus Award (2007), Hillsborough County Bar Association Jimmy Kynes Pro Bono Service Award (2008), the Stetson University College of Law J. Ben Watkins Award (2009), the Florida Association for Women Lawyers Leaders in the Law inaugural class designation (2010), the Tampa Bay Hispanic Bar Association’s Luis “Tony” Cabassa Award (2012), the George Edgecomb Bar Association’s Delano S. Stewart Diversity Award (2015), the inaugural Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Distinguished Federal Judicial Service Award (2016), the Stetson Lawyers Alumni Association Ben C. Willard Award (2016), the University of South Florida Distinguished Alumna Award (2016), and the Bay Area Legal Services, Inc. Judge Don Castor Justice Award (2016).

Honorable Cynthia A. Norton

Cynthia A. Norton graduated summa cum laude from the University of Kansas in 1981 with a double major in French and Art History. She received her law degree from the same institution in May 1984. She clerked for the Hon. John E. Rees of the Kansas Court of Appeals, and the Hon. James A. Pusateri, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, and was a partner at Lewis Rice & Fingersh in Kansas City, before establishing her own law firm in 1995. As a member of Grimes & Rebein, Judge Norton practiced in bankruptcy and related fields in Kansas and Missouri until being sworn in as a bankruptcy judge in the Western District of Missouri on February 1, 2013. She is the recipient of the Michael R. Roser Excellence in Bankruptcy Award, and the Robert L. Gernon Award for Outstanding Contribution to CLE, as well as a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. Judge Norton has authored numerous articles and seminar papers, and spoken at conferences all around the country. She and her husband reside in Parkville, Missouri.

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