From: Glasgow, Kentucky

NACBA’s April Member of the Month and Kentucky State Chair John Rogers, is a solo practitioner in Glasgow, Kentucky - a small town in south central Kentucky with a population of about 15,000. The bankruptcy district serves 18 rural counties; it is not unusual for John’s clients to drive as far as 1 ½ to 2 hours to come to his office, which is located in the middle of the district.

John is especially well known for a case that changed the operation of the bankruptcy court in his district. Several years ago, the chief judge at the time had instituted a standing rule that certain time limits applied to filing of lien avoidance motions. Thus, if a case closed, and a judgment lien was discovered later, the case could not be re-opened to avoid that judgment lien. This was, as John notes, unfair to the unfortunate debtor who discovered the judgment lien, so John found a case to appeal that issue and had the standing rule overturned by the U.S. District Court. Now, lien avoidance motions can proceed upon the reopening of cases. Harvey v. Flener, 245 BR 834.

A graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, the University of Kentucky College of Law, and the Program of Instruction for Lawyers at Harvard Law School, John has also have served for many years as the chairman of Kentucky’s Registry of Election Finance. That independent agency is charged with the enforcement of Kentucky’s campaign finance laws and the collection and dissemination of candidates campaign finance reports of money raised and spent. It regulates every candidate from local school board members to governor. John also chaired a statewide task force to consider, for the first time, changes to Kentucky’s campaign finance laws to make them more transparent and user-friendly. John has also been a champion of greater use of electronic filing of campaign finance reports. www.kref.ky.gov
While in college, John worked for United States Senator Ernest F. Hollings on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee and assisted the Senator and his staff in some of the first floor debates in opposition to tort reform legislation.

In recapping his involvement with NACBA, John recollected “I first joined NACBA many years ago (too long to remember!) and was incredibly impressed with the quality and amount of useful information I would gain at the annual conventions and seminars. Like all of us, I had attended many bankruptcy seminars over the years, but the bulk of the content at those seminars had nothing to do with my practice. The intricacies of chapter 11's and workouts somehow didn’t interest me! When I attended my first NACBA seminar, I thought I had “died and gone to heaven.” I couldn’t believe such a resource existed and I had not known about it. A consumer bankruptcy practitioner would be foolhardy not to join NACBA. I am currently honored to serve as Kentucky State Chair.”

John is active in his community as well, chairing the local library board and being very active in bringing the library into the 21st century with new technology.

Advice for NACBA members? “I would say to all NACBA members to stay as active as you can in NACBA to keep it as a viable support for us and our clients!”