To all my Boot Camp Grads and fellow bankruptcy attorneys:
All the years have a way of running together these days.
The long days… the late nights… the courtrooms… the classrooms… the Boot Camps. One by one, they’ve all come and gone. And what’s left isn’t the travel, or the schedules, or even the cases themselves.
What’s left… are the people. All of you.
And the fight.
Our fight.
The fight we won.
We didn’t build this the easy way. There were no shortcuts. No guarantees. No easy ways or quick fixes. We took on a system that, for a long time, didn’t expect to be challenged—and we challenged it anyway.
We stood up in courtrooms where the odds were stacked.
We took on creditors who never thought they’d be questioned or called out.
We turned a passive process into a living, breathing form of real trial advocacy.
And along the way, something happened.
Young lawyers found their voice.
Debtors found their dignity.
And a system that once ran on paper alone… started answering to people again.
We found stuff that works.
We found stuff that’s real.
We found stuff that you don’t hang on the wall.
Those are our souvenirs.
And I can tell you this—you cannot buy this kind of stuff.
This stuff cannot be won for free.
These souvenirs weren’t given to us.
They were earned… case by case, client by client, day by day, month by month and year by year.
It took a lifetime for us to build all this stuff.
And as you know, the time came for me in December of 2023 to step away from this long journey. This long and winding road.
Not because the work was done.
Not because I voluntarily chose to leave it.
But because my health simply required it.
I was able to beat a boat load of creditors, but I could not beat biology and father time.
There’s no mystery to it. No other story behind it. Just the reality that the body, at some point, started making decisions of its own. And when you have Progressive White Matter Disease and Carcinoid Cancer of the right lung you listen to it.
And so I’m listening!
But hear me on this—
I am not walking away from what we built.
Because what we built was never meant to belong to any one person or group.
It belongs to every one of you who sat in those rooms… who took the notes… who went back home and tried something different… who stood up in court and pushed just a little harder because you knew you were right.
It belongs to:
- Every detailed Chapter 13 Plan filed with the Gardner terms.
- Every motion to modify or seek other relief.
- Every objection to a motion for relief from the automatic stay.
- Every objection to a proof of claim.
- Every objection to a motion to dismiss.
- Every adversary proceeding.
- Every automatic stay enforced.
- Every discharge violation enforced.
That’s where this lives now.
So, when you walk into your next courtroom…
When the pressure is on…
When the other side expects you to fold—
Don’t.
Stand there like you’ve been taught.
Make your record.
Push your case.
Argue the facts you have discovered.
Argue the laws we have enforced and made.
And remember:
- This fight cannot be bought.
- And it is never given to us for free.
- It was and it is earned.
- It took us years to get these souvenirs and do not let anyone take them away.
If I’ve left you with anything… I hope it’s this:
- Have the courage to challenge what’s in front of you.
- Have the discipline to do the work.
- And have the conviction to know that what you’re doing really matters.
Because it really does. It always did.
And as for me—
I’ll carry these memories with me. Every courtroom. Every Boot Camp. Every one of you.
Those are my souvenirs.
And I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Thank you… for being part of this fight.
Post Script: I hate graveyards and old pawnshops, because they always bring me tears. But no one can ever rob me of my Boot Camp Souvenirs.
