Rob Treinen is a father, husband, skateboarder, and consumer protection lawyer. He loves all these roles.  He loves living in Albuquerque, NM. He has been a consumer protection lawyer his whole career, starting at New Mexico Legal Aid in 1999, and now running his own one-attorney firm. 

John O’Neal represents persons across North Carolina in matters of auto fraud, solar fraud, unfair/harassing debt collection, credit reporting issues, illegal repossessions, and various other civil matters. John was a founding member and chair of the Consumer Areas of Practice Section of the North Carolina Advocates of Justice (formerly NCATL) and has provided seminars, resources, and advice to countless lawyers and consumers across North Carolina. John is a proud alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the UNC School of Law.

Adam Thoresen is a senior staff attorney with the public interest law firm, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc. He has worked at JALA for over ten years, and his practice is currently focused on FCRA litigation related to landlord/tenant debts and other inaccuracies in tenant screening reports. Adam has litigated cases with all of the Big Three Consumer Reporting Agencies as well as specialty debt collectors whose focus is the collection of residential landlord/tenant debts. Adam handles cases on an individual and class basis under the FCRA, FDCPA, FCCPA, and other consumer protection statutes.

John Ukegbu is a senior staff attorney at Northeast New Jersey Legal Services, where he represents low-income consumers. He has served as a member of the District Ethics Committee and as a trustee for the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection. He served as a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Special Civil Part Practice and is the second vice-president of the Hudson County Bar Association. He is a graduate of Western New England University School of Law. 

Rebecca Smolar is the Associate Director of Education at NACA. She is responsible for partnering with NACA members to develop and strengthen NACA’s education and training offerings and to ensure that members are kept abreast of trends in the field. Before joining NACA, she created continuing education programs for high school teachers and college professors through the State University of New York and Washington-DC area think tanks. She started her career as an Officer of Public Affairs at the Embassy of Israel where she gave hundreds of speeches about Israel and U.S.-Israel relations. Ms. Smolar received a M.A. in International Communications from American University and her B.S. in Psychobiology from SUNY Binghamton.

Andrea Bopp Stark is a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center Boston office focusing on writing and teaching about fair debt collection practices and mortgage servicing issues. Andrea is the Conference Curriculum Coordinator and  is also involved in advocating for foreclosure prevention and fair debt collection policies on the state and federal level. Andrea is a contributing author to NCLC’s Fair Debt Collection, Home Foreclosures, and Mortgage Servicing and Loan Modifications legal manuals.

Stacy Bardo has dedicated her law practice for the last 20+ years to the protection of everyday people. Based in Chicago, Stacy files suits for consumers who have been the victims of unlawful business practices, consumer fraud, wrongful repossessions, automobile fraud, identity theft, and false credit reporting. She has been appointed class counsel in numerous national and statewide class actions certified in IL, NY, CA, MI, MN, and WA. Stacy is a past co-chair of NACA’s Board of Directors and currently serves on the NCLC/NACA Conference Steering Committee. Stacy is a graduate of Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Amy Wells provides legal consulting to other firms and practitioners. She offers guidance on complex litigation, case development, and project management of mass actions, building on her 20 years of consumer advocacy with a focus on class and multidistrict litigation with an emphasis on TCPA, FCRA, and product defect cases. Amy has served the legal community through various leadership positions in her home base of Chicago and Ohio, where she got her start; these include having served as state chair for both NACA and OAJ, presidency of the local trial lawyers association, appointment to the Ohio Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, and several board positions. 

Patty Hsue is senior attorney in the Division of Marketing Practices of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.  She has investigated and filed cases against health insurance scams, charity frauds, and government imposters.  She has also led multiple program areas including the FTC’s technical initiatives on robocalls, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and is currently leading the FTC’s efforts to address fraud against older adults.  As part of the older adults program area, Patty is also the Stop Senior Scams Act Coordinator and is overseeing the agency’s implementation of the Act’s mandates.

Cora Hume is an Attorney with the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s Office for Older Americans. Prior to joining the CFPB in 2012, Cora was the Legislative Director at the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA). Cora has over twenty years of advocacy and legal experience including serving as a legal aid attorney in Maryland, practicing voting rights law during the 2004 Presidential election, working as an associate at a plaintiff-side labor law firm, and serving as an Honors Attorney at the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development’s Fair Housing Division. Cora is a graduate of Williams College and Northeastern University School of Law.

Bridget Small is a writer, educator, and speaker in the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Consumer and Business Education. For more than 30 years, she has contributed to fraud prevention education, community-based programs, and research related to older adults and fraud. She is an experienced advocate, who has spoken at conferences and with media, managed a telemarketing fraud prevention campaign, and coordinated a grant-funded research program to contact at-risk older adults. She holds a JD from George Washington University Law School.

Yitzchak Zelman, Esq. is a partner at Marcus Zelman, LLC. Mr. Zelman graduated from Cardozo Law School in 2012 and has consistently been at the forefront of many emerging consumer protection issues ever since. His practice focuses on individual and class action consumer protection litigation, specifically including the FCRA. Mr. Zelman is licensed in New Jersey, New York, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Third and Ninth Circuits, as well as countless district courts nationwide, including the United States District Courts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas, Indiana and Illinois.

Kris Skaar is a partner at Skaar and Feagle and has taught continuing legal education on the topics of the FDCPA and the defense of debt collection suits. Kris earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1983 and a law degree in 1986 from The University of Georgia. He is admitted to all Georgia trial courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dale Pittman is widely regarded as the founder of the consumer protection Bar in Virginia. After graduating from the University of Richmond School of Law in 1976, he was hired to open the Petersburg Legal Aid Society where he practiced consumer law for 20 years. He opened his own private practice in 1996. His practice focuses primarily on the representation of consumers in debt collection harassment and abuse cases under the FDCPA. He has contributed to numerous NCLC publications. Dale serves on the governing body of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, where he Chairs the VTLA’s Consumer Law Section. He was the recipient of the Virginia State Bar Legal Aid Award, NACA’s Consumer Attorney of the Year Award, Virginia Poverty Law Center’s Advocate of the Year Award, and VTLA’s Oliver White Hill Courageous Advocate Award.

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.