From: Jacksonville, Florida

Our November Member of the Month, Robert Wilbert (Jacksonville, FL), is well known to listserv participants as the daily poster of all hot-off-the-presses cases from around the county.  A staff attorney at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Robert is a member of the Predatory Lending Unit, which handles primarily foreclosure defense and some debt collection defense cases. JALA is a public interest law firm of around 25 attorneys that represents Jacksonville’s indigent population in civil matters. The majority of Robert’s cases at Legal Aid involve filing Chapter 13 petitions in order to preserve homeownership among the city’s poor people.

Robert’s most important post-BAPCPA case involved a mobile home cram-down where the debtors bought and financed the lot and trailer as a package deal. Robert anticipated that they would most likely lose on the cram-down issue since Florida law holds these package deals to be real property. However, Robert was pleased that Judge Proctor agreed with their position that BAPCPA and the revised definition of debtor’s primary residence did not prevent cram-downs as Greentree and other mobile home finance companies had argued. The court held that it was not Congress’ intent to end cram-downs on mobile homes when it changed the definition.

Robert spent some time working for legal aid on the Eastern Shore in Maryland. At the time, rural Maryland courts were not into mediation and the agency had no money for depositions, so child custody trials could last for several days and were always full of surprises.  One of Robert’s more notable cases involved his representation of a white mother who had the “audacity” to break up with her husband and live with her black boyfriend and 2 children from her husband. After the trial, in which his client retained custody of her children, and which was filled with blatant racism, he overheard the father tell his lawyer, “That’s the last time I pay a lawyer $5,000 to lose to a legal aid lawyer.” Robert notes: “I guess that’s what I enjoy most about legal aid—leveling the playing field for indigent clients.”

A member of NACBA since 2002, Robert joined so that he could go to the conference in Las Vegas. He never made it. A week before the conference, his best friend since preschool was robbed and murdered by a gang member in New Mexico. Robert fortunately was able to attend the 2006 New Orleans convention. “The listserv has helped me in so many cases with sample motions and pleadings. I tell people I post cases to show appreciation for all the help they have given me in my cases.” Robert gets to work two hours before other employees just to post the cases to the NACBA listservs.

Robert received his B.A. in History from Salisbury University in 1987 and his J.D. from Ole Miss in 1990.  He then received an LL.M. in Admiralty from Tulane University 1991. His most notable memory from law school: “My most memorable professor was George Cochran from Ole Miss. He teaches Constitutional Law. He was very intimidating—or seemed so at the time, particularly to students who were of the conservative or libertarian persuasion. Based on the way he ridiculed my arguments against affirmative action and the like in class, I thought he hated me. One day after classes, I saw a note on the bulletin board with my name on it. Prof. Cochran wanted to see me right away in his office. I thought it was to lambaste me. He said that he was impressed with me in class since I could memorize and rattle off Supreme Court decisions instantly. I aced his class and he later wrote me a letter of recommendation to get into the Admiralty LL.M. program at Tulane.”

We are pleased that Robert was named Member of the Month in November – a sort of wedding gift. Robert and his fiancée, Kristy, were just married on November 10. Reflecting on his new life with Kristy and their daughter Brieahyna, who just turned 1 year old a few weeks ago, Robert says: “Being part of a family now takes most of my free time. When we do get free time, the three of us put on our Ron Paul Revolution T-shirts and go talk up our favorite presidential contender. A one year old blue eyed, blonde girl is irresistible in a pink ‘Ron Paul is my Future’ T-shirt.”