Class Action eCourse : Course Instructors

Course Instructors:

John Albanese is an associate in Berger & Montague’s Minneapolis office. John concentrates his practice on consumer protection issues with a focus on FCRA violations related to criminal background checks. John has helped achieve multi-million-dollar class action settlements for FCRA violations in courts around the country.

Blythe Chandler is a member of Terrell Marshall Law Group, where she concentrates her practice on consumer class actions and appeals. Ms. Chandler joined Terrell Marshall as an associate in 2014. She has played a lead role in class actions challenging denials of healthcare coverage for children with autism, unlawful telemarketing, and deceptive debt collection practices. She graduated with High Honors from the University of Washington School of Law.

Anna C. Haac is a partner in Tycko & Zavareei’s Washington, D.C. office. She focuses her practice on consumer protection class actions and whistleblower litigation. Her prior experience at Covington & Burling LLP, one of the nation’s most prestigious defense-side law firms, gives her a unique advantage when representing plaintiffs against large companies in complex cases. Since arriving at Tycko & Zavareei, Ms. Haac has represented consumers in a wide range of practice areas, including product liability, false labeling, deceptive and unfair trade practices, and predatory financial practices. Her whistleblower practice involves claims for fraud on federal and state governments across an equally broad spectrum of industries, including health care fraud, customs fraud, and government contracting fraud.

Heather Kolbus is a partner at Edelman, Combs, Latturner & Goodwin, LLC. She concentrates her practice in areas of consumer law in class action and individual litigation and arbitration. She has extensive experience in matters involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. She has handled hundreds of cases alleging various violations of the consumer protection laws and has recovered millions of dollars for consumers.

 

Eric Lechtzin is a founding Partner of Edelson Lechtzin LLP, a national class action law firm based in suburban Philadelphia. Mr. Lechtzin's practice includes ERISA retirement plan class actions, wage & overtime class actions, consumer protection class actions, and securities fraud litigation. Mr. Lechtzin is the Pennsylvania State Chair for NACA. He has been named a “Super Lawyer” in Pennsylvania for Class and Mass Tort Litigation every year since 2017. Mr. Lechtzin received his J.D. from Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law in 1991. His successful consumer fraud cases include Silver v. Fitness Intern., LLC, 2013 WL 5429293 (E.D. Pa.), a class action against a national health club chain that resulted in substantial changes to its cancellation policies. His recent successes in ERISA litigation include a settlement in Crawford v. CDI Corporation, No. 2:20-cv-03317-CFK (E.D. Pa. Nov. 5, 2020). Mr. Lechtzin is currently co-lead counsel in in a securities fraud class action against A Better Financial Plan and its affiliates, Melchior v. Vagnozzi, No. 2:20-cv-05562 (E.D. Pa.), seeking to recover hundreds of millions of dollars for investors who were fraudulently induced to purchase unregistered securities backed by risky merchant cash advance loans.

Seth R. Lesser is a founding partner of Klafter Lesser LLP and he practices in the areas of consumer advocacy, wage and hour litigation, securities litigation, and corporate governance, primarily on behalf of defrauded consumers, employees, and businesses. He is admitted to the bars of New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, as well as two dozen federal courts. For over two decades, Mr. Lesser has primarily represented plaintiffs in individual, class, collective and mass tort cases. He has been sole or co-lead counsel in dozens of class or collective actions.  These include his being on the executive or steering committees of many large cases, including a number of Multidistrict Litigation cases. He has successfully taken cases to trial. In 2009, he won a verdict one of the first Fair Labor Standards misclassification collective cases taken to a jury, resulting in a judgment on behalf of 342 collective action plaintiffs, Stillman v. Staples, Inc., No. 07-cv-849 (D.N.J.), a result which led to the nationwide settlement of MDL-2025. Mr. Lesser was the National Association of Consumer Advocates’ Attorney of the Year in 2005 and was Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of that organization from 2008 through 2013. At present, he is on the Board of Directors and a member of the Board Executive Committee of Public Justice.

Craig Marchiando focuses his practice on representing consumers in lawsuits brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Litigating mainly class action cases, Craig has represented thousands of consumers in successfully obtaining benefits under the FCRA’s broad protections and has been appointed class counsel by numerous courts across the country. In 2019 alone, Craig’s cases yielded more than $5 million in relief to nationwide classes of consumers. Craig has also handled all aspects of individual FCRA cases, from client intake to discovery and motions practice, to trials and post-trial proceedings.

David J. McGlothlin is a partner at the Kazerouni Law Group, APC. He was born in Mildenhall, England, and was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He attended Northern Arizona University where he received a Bachelor of Science in American Political Studies and graduated Summa Cum Laude. He graduated University of San Diego School of Law in May 2007.David is a licensed attorney in the State of California, the state of Oregon, and the State of Arizona. He is a member of the San Diego County Bar Association, the Maricopa County Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association and the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

Casey S. Nash has represented consumers for her entire 10-year legal career. She has litigated a variety of issues, including credit reporting errors, inaccurate background reports, illegal debt collection, mortgage servicing errors and payday loans in more than 450 federal cases. While she practices mostly in Virginia and Washington, D.C., Casey has a national practice and has represented consumers in Maryland, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. She litigates both individual and class action cases, and her exceptional performance in many complex consumer lawsuits has earned her numerous “Rising Star” and “Super Lawyer” recognitions from Super Lawyers in both Virginia and Washington, D.C. She contributed to the 10th edition of NCLC’s Consumer Class Action Treatise, and she serves on the Legal Aid Justice Center’s Advisory Committee.

Leah M. Nicholls is Co-Director of the Access to Justice Project, working in Public Justice’s Washington, D.C. headquarters. Leah litigates high-impact civil public interest cases at the trial and appellate levels, including cases involving access to courts, court secrecy, consumer protection, and Public Justice’s Food Project. She has briefed, argued, and won cases in state and federal appellate courts across the country and spoken at numerous national and state conferences on topics such as arbitration, class certification, standing, court secrecy, consumer protection, and ag-gag laws. She earned her J.D. magna cum laude, Order of the Coif from Duke University Law School and her B.A. in History and Philosophy summa cum laude from Boston University. Leah has also received an L.L.M. in Advocacy from Georgetown Law, an L.L.M. in International and Comparative Law from Duke Law, and an M.A. in History from Boston University.

Sophia Rios manages Berger Montague’s San Diego office and practices in the Consumer Protection, Credit Reporting and Background Checks, and Antitrust practice groups. Before joining the firm, Sophia was an associate in the litigation department of a large international law firm. She represented corporate and individual clients in consumer protection, complex commercial litigation, securities, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) matters. In her pro bono practice, Sophia assisted refugees seeking asylum in the United States. While at Stanford Law School, Sophia served as an extern Legal Adviser in the Office of Commissioner Julie Brill at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. Sophia co-founded the Stanford Critical Law Society, which serves as a student forum for the discussion of the relationship between law and race. Sophia was a Lead Article Editor for the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. Before beginning law school, Sophia attended UC Berkeley and served as an intern on the White House Council of Environmental Quality. She is a first-generation college student and a San Diego native.

Elizabeth Ryan is a partner in the firm Bailey & Glasser LLP, where she concentrates her practice on class actions, representing consumers challenging violations of state and federal consumer protection statutes, as well as employees challenging violations of wage and hour laws. In addition to her class action work, Elizabeth represents whistleblowers in False Claims Act cases involving fraud against the government. In 2019 Elizabeth was named as Bailey Glasser’s diversity partner and she has led the firm’s effort to become one of the first mid-size law firms to become Mansfield Rule Certified by the Diversity Lab. This certification signifies that the firm considers at least 30% historically underrepresented attorneys when making hiring, promotion, and leadership decisions. She is a graduate of Catholic University Law School (J.D., 1985) and the College of the Holy Cross (B.A., 1981).  Until December 2011, Elizabeth was a partner in the firm Roddy Klein & Ryan, which primarily represented consumers in class actions.

 

John Soumilas is a shareholder resident of Francis Mailman Soumilas in Philadelphia. A seasoned litigator, John has represented thousands of consumers in individual cases and class actions. He currently represents persons defamed and otherwise harmed by credit and background screening errors, victims of identity theft, individuals harassed and deceived by debt collectors and other businesses, as well as consumers who are subjected to unwelcome invasions of their privacy, fraud, overcharging, and other deceptive or unfair trade practices. He has been nationally recognized for his work in protecting consumer rights under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Throughout his career, John has obtained some of the highest consumer jury verdicts, including the highest known FCRA verdicts in Pennsylvania, California, and Michigan, and has been appointed by federal judges as class counsel in some of the largest FCRA class cases and settlements. John is a 1994 cum laude graduate of Rutgers University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds a master’s degree in American History from Stony Brook University. John received his law degree cum laude from the Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1999, where he was a member of the Temple Law Review. He began his legal career by clerking for Justice Russell M. Nigro of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Amy E. Tabor has represented consumers and small businesses against some of the largest companies and law firms in the United States. She has experience in complex cases, including class actions, commercial litigation, and antitrust matters involving the automotive, technology, energy, and credit reporting industries. She also has extensive experience in privacy class actions, including Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) matters. She likes nothing better than getting fair compensation for people who have been wronged and holding abusive companies accountable for their actions.

 

Bryan Thompson is an experienced consumer protection attorney who handles claims in state and federal court as well as private arbitration. His practice ranges all the way from debt collection defense and FDCPA cases to consumer class actions, often with a focus in data privacy. He is a member of multiple state bar committees and working groups focused on access to justice issues.

 

Since 2004, Attorney Amy Wells at Wells Law Office, Inc. in Chicago has been fighting for justice on behalf of consumers victimized by unlawful business practices. She is highly experienced in this niche area of law and has an in-depth understanding of state and federal consumer protection laws. Ms. Wells’ dedication has also earned her national recognition, including being selected to Illinois Super Lawyers for multiple years and receiving the President’s Award from the Ohio Association for Justice. She has had numerous speaking engagements for topics related to consumer protection and has published several articles on the subject. She holds both a Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration.

NACA would also like to thank the following members of the Class Action eCourse development team: Alexander Burke, Heather Kolbus, Craig Marchiando, Casey Nash, Bryan Thompson, and Amy Wells and eCourse Chairs John Albanese and Anna Haac.