Pete Barry is an attorney admitted to practice in the State and Federal courts of Minnesota. He is also admitted in numerous other federal courts including the United States Supreme Court. He is the owner of The Barry Law Office, Ltd. His national practice is dedicated exclusively to protecting consumers against illegal debt collection activity and training lawyers on ethical strategies to sue debt collectors. He was five times named by his peers as a Super Lawyer® by Minnesota Law & Politics Magazine, most recently in 2023. The National Association of Consumer Advocates named him its Consumer Lawyer of the Year in 2005.

Pete opened his law practice directly out of law school and has been enjoying his private plaintiff's practice ever since. His FDCPA Boot Camps have trained thousands of lawyers in all 50 states. Pete has frequently appeared in local and national news stories discussing consumer rights issues. He has appeared in high-profile news stories on NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, and on numerous local stations discussing abusive consumer collection cases in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and dozens of other major newspapers. In 2008, Pete appeared on the cover of CityPages magazine in a feature story about his life and career suing debt collectors.

Pete was recognized for 12-years as a district ethics investigator and his work as a formal mentor to law students.  He has also been appointed as a supervising attorney for disciplined attorneys.  For nearly 20-years he volunteered with the High School Mock Trial Program as a judge and maintains an ongoing pro-bono legal practice. He has volunteered with the U.S. District Court and Federal Bar Association's Pro Se Project, assisting unrepresented parties in federal civil cases. Since 2003, Pete has been an adjunct Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline College of Law where he has taught Consumer Rights Law. He was born in San Jose, California and lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife and five beautiful daughters.

John Roddy represents consumers in class actions challenging unfair and deceptive business practices and serves as relator’s counsel in qui tam “whistleblower” actions. In the last two decades, the settlements in cases he has litigated have returned more than $1 billion to consumers harmed by marketplace misconduct. John regularly writes and speaks on class action practice and consumer financial services law, and he has published dozens of articles on these topics. He has co-chaired Practicing Law Institute (PLI)’s Annual Consumer Financial Services Institute for the past twenty-five years. John is also a Fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, an organization limited to those lawyers who have achieved preeminence in the field of consumer financial services law and who have made repeated and substantial contributions to the promotion of learning and scholarship in consumer financial services law through teaching, lecturing, and published writings.

Carolyn E. Coffey is the Director of Litigation for Economic Justice at Mobilization for Justice, Inc. (MFJ). MFJ provides free legal assistance to New York City residents in the areas of housing, foreclosure, public benefits, civil and disability rights, employment, and consumer and family law, prioritizing services to vulnerable and under-served populations, while simultaneously working to end the root causes of inequities through law reform, impact litigation, and policy advocacy. Ms. Coffey also directly supervises MFJ’s Consumer Rights and Low-Income Bankruptcy Projects, which provide advice, counsel, and defensive and affirmative representation to low-income New Yorkers in state and federal court lawsuits and appeals. Ms. Coffey is the co-chair of the New York City Consumer Advocates Taskforce and is an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law School, where she teaches a consumer clinic seminar.

Susan L. DeJarnatt is a Professor of Law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. She joined the Temple faculty in 1996 after a decade long career at Community Legal Services, Inc. in Philadelphia, handling foreclosure defense, consumer bankruptcy, and fair debt collection litigation. She has taught the foundational first year legal research and writing course since joining Temple. She has also taught advanced writing seminars and seminars in consumer bankruptcy practice, public interest law, appellate advocacy, and education law. Her academic scholarship has included articles on teaching practice writing through consumer bankruptcy, the interplay between oral skills and writing skills, and the teaching of legal research and writing. She is a 1980 magna cum laude graduate of Temple and was a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph S. Lord, Chief Judge of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after her graduation.

Kristen G. Simplicio is a partner at Tycko & Zavareei LLP, where she represents consumers in class action lawsuits in the areas of consumer fraud, unlawful debt collection practices, and false advertising. Over the last several years, Ms. Simplicio has secured a number of victories on behalf of homeowners as a result of her work representing plaintiffs in over a dozen cases filed around the country against mortgage loan servicers over fees charged in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and related state statutes. She holds a law degree from American University, Washington College of Law and an undergraduate degree from McGill University. She is barred in the District of Columbia and California.

Predrag Filipovic has been a managing partner in solo practice under www.stopripoff.com since 2011. He has extensive experience in FDCPA cases, at trial court and appellate level. He has procured a favorable, precedential opinion in Greaves v. Ann Davis Ass., paving the way for expansion of definition of “debt collector” to include relators and property managers who regularly collect rent. On a different FDCPA matter, the Third Circuit ruled to reverse a summary judgment dismissal of a case involving a debt collector law firm’s attempt to improperly invoke res judicata and collateral estoppel, and in doing so it published Predrag’s oral argument video to the Circuit’s permanent video archive. Predrag is a graduate of University Preparatory HS, Seattle, WA, Drexel University, and Widener Law School. He is an NCAA athlete and a rowing enthusiast.

Gary Barthel is the founder of the Military Law Center, APC.  Mr. Barthel is a retired Marine who has 35 years’ experience in the practice of military law.  In addition to representing service members and veterans, Mr. Barthel is also a retained consultant and expert who has been retained by law firms around the country to assist them in a variety of civil cases involving service member related issues.

Nicholas Barthel is the founder of Barthel & Barthel, APC, a consumer protection law firm that focuses most of its practice on representing victims of identity theft and other cybercrimes. Barthel & Barthel focuses on litigating under Electronic Funds Transfer Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Credit Billing Act, and each other their California equivalents.

Leonard Bennett has been an FCRA litigator for over 20 years and has successfully brought cases with his firm and with co-counsel in nearly every state in the nation.  His recoveries are consistently amongst the largest in the field.  Len has successfully tried both individual and class FCRA cases to a jury, and has been lead counsel in the majority of multi-million dollar FCRA class outcomes.

Chi Chi Wu is a senior staff attorney at NCLC and leading expert on fair credit reporting issues.  She also focuses on credit cards, tax-consumer issues, and medical debt. Chi Chi is lead author of the seminal treatise in this field, Fair Credit Reporting Act and a contributing author to Collection Actions, Consumer Credit Regulation, and Truth in Lending. 

Helen Clark is a Staff Attorney in the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Financial Practices.  Ms. Clark investigates and brings enforcement actions challenging unfair or deceptive practices and other violations in the advertising, sales and financing of automobiles, among other industries.  She received her law degree from Columbia Law School and her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.

Colleen Tressler is a Senior Project Manager in the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Consumer and Business Education. DCBE leads the agency’s education initiatives to give people the tools they need to make informed decisions, and give businesses the tools they need to comply with the law. Colleen’s career in the consumer affairs and education arena spans more than 35 years. During that time, she has taken an especially active role in helping to educate consumers about issues that affect their financial well-being. Colleen is responsible for planning, developing, and implementing creative, practical, plain-language, mission-related campaigns. She holds an M.S. from the Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School in Baltimore, MD and a B.S. from the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.

Abbas Kazerounian is one of the founding partners at Kazerouni Law Group, APC, and the Injury Recovery Group. Mr. Kazerounian’s areas of specialty are personal injury, consumer rights and class actions. Abbas is licensed to practice law in CA, TX, IL, WA, DC, NY, MI and CO. He is also licensed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals as well the United States Supreme Court.

Cliff Carlson is a sole practitioner representing consumers in Texas, Georgia, and Alabama. His practice focuses primarily on consumer debt. He received his Juris Doctorate from the Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law in 2012. Cliff also received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Mercer University in 2005. He generally limits his practice to consumer rights issues, such as Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act Violations. 

Ira Rheingold is the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA). At NACA, Ira has testified before both Houses of Congress, offered commentary before federal and state regulatory agencies, and helped draft amicus briefs before the nation’s highest courts. Ira created and managed the Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance. Currently, Ira serves as co-chair of the Financial Services Committee of the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD). Previously, Ira worked at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago where he ran its Foreclosure Prevention and Senior Housing Projects. He is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.

Bryce Bell is the founder of Bell Law, LLC, a law firm dedicated to relentlessly pursuing justice against companies that defraud consumers. Bell Law focuses on auto safety, landlord/tenant issues, Fintech, and other Unfair Deceptive Acts and Practices (UDAAP), both individually and as class actions and mass torts across the country. Bryce is the Missouri state chair for NACA. Recent accomplishments for the firm in 2019 include a settlement with Wells Fargo for violations of the SCRA and a $1 million+ data breach settlement for local employees in the Kansas City area whose private information was compromised.

Will Palmer is a seasoned Internet advertising and marketing specialist with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He holds a Journalism degree with an emphasis in Strategic Communications & Advertising from the University of Kansas and bring a unique blend of creativity, savvy business sense, and real world marketing experience to the table. He applies this skill set to help clients reach their short and long-term goals faster and with maximized Return on Investment. In addition to my deep knowledge around the Internet’s role in a changing consumer landscape, he has nearly a decade of business development consulting exclusively serving the legal industry.