Like Dickinson’s work, it can be maddeningly cryptic one moment and breathtakingly precise the next. But if you look closely, beneath the legal structure lies poetry - there are human stories of loss, resilience, and renewal.” WOW. Just WOW. This is a must read!!

Unlock This Article

To get started, please let us know which of these best fits your current position:

Please sign in to continue reading this content.
gendron2
Mott & Gendron Law

Kara K. Gendron is a bankruptcy attorney and co-owner of Mott & Gendron Law in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She has practiced exclusively in bankruptcy law since 2001 and is board-certified in Consumer Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification. Kara also serves as a certified bankruptcy court mediator. In 2021, she was appointed by the U.S. Trustee, Department of Justice, as a Chapter 7 and Chapter 12 Bankruptcy Trustee for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.  In 2025, Kara was invited to join the American College of Bankruptcy, a national honorary association recognizing exceptional bankruptcy professionals.

Kara earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law. She is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Courts for the Middle and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

An active leader in the national bankruptcy community, Kara serves as Secretary of the Executive Board of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) and Chairs NACBA’s Circuit Leader Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Board of Certification (ABC), sits on the Board of the Association of Chapter 12 Trustees (ACT12/ACT2), and is a long-standing board member of the Middle District Bankruptcy Bar Association (MDBBA). In 2023, she was appointed to the Advisory Board of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal (ABLJ), published by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ), and was reappointed in 2025.

Committed to advancing legal education, Kara frequently organizes and presents continuing legal education programs for NACBA, the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees (NABT), the National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees (NACTT), the Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI), and the MDBBA. She has also taught Bankruptcy Law as an adjunct professor at Widener School of Law while maintaining her full-time practice.

Outside of her professional work, Kara enjoys being outdoors—especially snorkeling—and spending time with her husband and four children at Hershey Park or supporting their many academic and athletic pursuits. At home, she’s happily outnumbered by her three Labradors, who keep life joyful and just a little chaotic.

Related Articles

May 17, 2020
By Marsha M. Brown, Staff Attorney to Chapter 13 Trustee Douglas W. Neway (Jacksonville, FL) We talk about it daily - emailing issues back and forth as to what is reasonable and what is not. Should every Court have a basic reasonable fee structure or should every attorney be required to file an application to prove the reasonableness of his/her...
Members
April 7, 2019
By Wm. Houston Brown, United States Bankruptcy Judge (Retired) Confirmation - Debtors could not deduct ownership costs for vehicle secured by non-purchase money lien. The above-median debtors claimed ownership deduction of $497 from projected disposable income, when the title loan payments on the vehicle were only $66.67. The difference in these amounts meant unsecured creditors could receive $25,819.80 over the...
Members
June 27, 2021
By M. Jonathan Hayes, Resnik Hayes Moradi LLP (Los Angeles, CA) (Reprinted with permission. Originally published by the Los Angeles Daily Journal on May 20, 2021) We have been getting a lot of calls recently as you might expect from distressed small businesses. The “free” government money is starting to run out and panic is setting in. The potential client...
Members
joseph 12-2024
November 30, 2025
“Zombie mortgages are mortgages thought to be forgiven or satisfied long ago but still legally exist. These debts may have been written off by the lender and sold for pennies on the dollar to debt collectors.”
Members
April 12, 2020
By Daryl J. Smith, Senior Staff Attorney to Sylvia Ford Brown, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Memphis, TN) Are chapter 13 serial filers abusing the bankruptcy system? Maybe or maybe not. There are many reasons debtors file multiple bankruptcy cases across the nation, including but not limited to parking tickets, court fines, utilities, lack of financial literacy, foreclosure, past due rent,...
Members
October 11, 2020
By Mary Viegelahn, Chapter 13 Trustee San Antonio, Texas Although Trustee Viegelahn first produced this list for an ethics panel in 2019, it is a timely heads-up now. This list was gathered from Trustees across the country. Providing ECF credentials to an outside “firm” to allow them to file a bankruptcy for a debtor the attorney has never met or...
Members
September 12, 2021
By Michael J. McCormick, Esq., McCalla Raymer Leibert Pierce, LLC (Roswell, GA) Escrow 101 – Part 1 Escrow 101 – Part 3 Escrow 102 – Part 1 Escrow 102 – Part 2
Members
lynch
December 31, 2023
“Currently, if a district’s weighted caseload is below one-thousand per the number of judges in that district . . . in all probability, recommend that the circuit not replace the judge.”
Members
Copy of Hildebrand-2016
Bankruptcy courts lack jurisdiction to apply “innocent spouse” relief to determine the amount of a tax claim to be paid in a Chapter 13 case.  (Taddonio) In re Geary, 2023 WL 2996720 (Bankr. W.D. Pa. April 19, 2023) Case Summary When a taxpayer signs a joint tax return with their spouse, the Internal Revenue Code is very clear.  Both signatories...
Members
July 14, 2019
By Beverly M. Burden, Standing Chapter 13 Trustee (Lexington, KY) An unscheduled creditor without notice of the bankruptcy case was denied an extension of time to file a proof of claim pursuant to Bankruptcy Rule 3002(c)(6)(A) in a recent opinion from the Eastern District of Kentucky. In the case of In re Fryman,1 the debtor did not include creditor Kentucky...
Members

Looking to Become a Member?

ConsiderChapter13.org offers a forum to advance continuing education of consumer bankruptcy via access to insightful articles, informative webinars, and the latest industry news. Join now to benefit from expert resources and stay informed.

Webinars

These informative sessions are led by industry experts and cover a range of consumer bankruptcy topics.

Member Articles

Written by industry experts, these articles provide in-depth analysis and practical guidance on consumer bankruptcy topics.

Industry News

The Academy is the go-to source for the latest news and analysis in the Chapter 13 bankruptcy industry.

To get started, please let us know which of these best fits your current position: