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Irv Ackelsberg is a long-time, consumer law specialist who was the recipient of the 2005 Vern Countryman Award from the National Consumer Law Center. Irv spent most of his career at Community Legal Services, Inc. (“CLS”) of Philadelphia. Since leaving CLS, Irv has been with the firm of Langer Grogan & Diver, P.C. in Philadelphia where he has worked on a diverse litigation docket that has included RICO cases against banks for facilitating money transfers to fraudulent businesses, FCRA cases against employment-background companies, and the representation of consumer creditor classes in business chapter 11’s.
During his years at CLS, Irv was a nationally recognized advocate for consumer justice, developing expertise in home foreclosure defense and bankruptcy, subprime mortgage lending, abusive trade schools and student loan debt, and the predatory financial services that victimize low-income communities.
For the last several years, Irv and his firm have been serving as special counsel to the Pennsylvania Attorney General in his civil case against the online lender Think Finance and the private equity firm Victory Park Capital. That case, brought under the Pennsylvania version of RICO, is seeking to recover millions of dollars in illegal online lending revenue collected as part of a scheme to circumvent state usury law through the use of Native American tribes.