Louis M. Phillips
Kelly Hart & Hallman LLP
Louis M. Phillips, as the leader of the firm's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Practice Group, Louis provides legal representation and consultation for debtors, creditors, and trustees over a broad practice area, including transaction and business structuring and restructuring, bankruptcy reorganization, and bankruptcy and commercial litigation. As a lawyer Louis has tried civil cases (judge and jury) in state and federal courts, and has argued numerous times before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has represented debtors, debtors in possession, and creditors in Chapter 11 cases, borrowers and lenders in loan restructuring and workouts, and entities of all types in all practice areas of bankruptcy cases and proceedings. Louis was the United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana from May, 1988 through May, 2002. During his tenure, he authored numerous opinions of first impression of Louisiana state law and bankruptcy law, and was the author of a number of opinions that ultimately were adopted by the Fifth Circuit and other courts as the law of those courts. He also presided over the first conversion to a totally electronic filing and docketing system within the Federal Courts of the United States. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Louisiana State University Law Center, a position he has held for 14 years, and is the permanent chair of the annual Bankruptcy Law Seminar sponsored by the Louisiana State University Center for Continuing Professional Development, a program he developed and has chaired since 1995. He is a contributing editor to the Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 2nd, and is the author of numerous articles for law reviews and other periodicals, including Fifth Circuit Symposium: Bankruptcy, 35 Loy. L. Rev. 715 (1989); Developments in the Law: Bankruptcy, 54 La. L. Rev. 599 (1994); and Ruminations on Property of the Estate: Does Anyone Know Why a Debtor's Postpetition Earnings, Generated by Her Own Earning Capacity, Are Not Property of the Bankruptcy Estate? 58 La. L. Rev. 623 (1998). He is also a frequent speaker and writer for legal education seminars across the country, including seminars presented by or in conjunction with Stetson University College of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, Texas Tech School of Law, Norton Institutes on Bankruptcy Law, American Bankruptcy Institute, National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees, Mississippi Bankruptcy Conference, Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute, American Bar Association, the bar associations of Louisiana, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin, numerous federal district bar associations, National Association of Attorneys General, States' Association of Bankruptcy Attorneys, National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and VISA International. He has also taught educational programs on bankruptcy law for state judges.
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