Henry J. Sommer, author of all twelve editions of this title, is President of the National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center. Previously, he was the head of the Consumer Law Project at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, where he worked for over twenty-one years, and supervising attorney at the pro bono Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project in Philadelphia. He has also served as a lecturer-in-law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and is an adjunct professor at Temple University School of Law. He is Editor in Chief of Collier on Bankruptcy and the entire Collier line of bankruptcy publications published by Matthew Bender and Co. He is also the author of Consumer Bankruptcy: The Complete Guide to Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 Personal Bankruptcy (John Wiley & Sons, 1994), numerous articles on bankruptcy law, and co-author of Collier Family Law and the Bankruptcy Code (Matthew Bender). He is a former member of the Federal Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules and the Federal Reserve Board Consumer Advisory Council. He is a past president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and former chair of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference. He is a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference, a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, and a member of the American Law Institute. He was the first recipient of the Vern Countryman Consumer Law Award and has also received the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges’ Excellence in Education Award and the American College of Bankruptcy’s Distinguished Service Award.