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Mr. David Esq. Esq

Attorney
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Contact Details

255 Massachusetts Avenue
Suite 614
Boston, MA 02115-4701
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Work: 6173403680

Bio

David G. Baker is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Master of Arts in Education (Music) degree from New York University. After working full time as a professional musician for many years, he entered Massachusetts School of Law (MSL) in Andover in 1993. He was appointed to the school's Law Review based on a writing competition. His professor for bankruptcy law was attorney Jeffrey Kitaeff, formerly a Chapter 7 panel trustee. While in school he was also employed by attorneys Donald Sheldon, a sole practitioner and adjunct faculty member, and by Kathleen Dwyer of Ardiff and Morse in Danvers, a panel Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee. After graduation and admission to the state and federal Bars in 1996, he was employed by the former Standing Chapter 13 Trustee in Boston as Of Counsel; he was appointed to the staff in an administrative position by the successor Interim Trustee and Standing Trustee. As counsel to the former Trustee, he appeared before the Bankruptcy Courts in Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, as well as the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the First Circuit. He left the Chapter 13 Trustee's office in September, 1999, and since then has been in private practice in Boston. His practice is approximately 98% bankruptcy cases. He is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and contributed to the Educational Materials for the Northeast Region convention in 1999 and to the ABI's Caselaw Email Updates. He also is a member of the Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations, and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA), for which he serves as Membership Chair for Massachusetts. He has made presentations to a NACBA convention and to programs sponsored by the Boston Bar Association and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. In 2006, 2008 and 2012, he attended Max Gardner's “Bankruptcy Boot Camp”, an intensive training course in litigating in bankruptcy court, with special emphasis on defending against mortgage foreclosures.
Attorney Baker is also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. On November 6, 2006, he argued the case of Marrama v. Citizens Bank of Massachusetts and DeGiacomo, in which he was representing the petitioner, a debtor in a chapter 7 bankruptcy case whose request to convert the case to chapter 13 was denied. He appears to be the first graduate of Massachusetts School of Law at Andover to argue before the Supreme Court, and the first bankruptcy lawyer from Massachusetts to do so in about twenty years. Although a majority of the Court ruled against his position, the 5-4 split decision is widely regarded as an exceptional result in the circumstances. More recently, he prevailed in an appeal before the First Circuit in In re Traverse, in which the court redefined the powers of a chapter 7 trustee who avoids an unperfected lien, favorably to debtors.

Education

Massachusetts School of Law
Andover, Massachusetts, United States
J.D., 1996
Law
1993 To 1996

New York University, SEHNAP
New York, New York, United States
Master of Arts in Education (Music), 1979
Music Education
1977 To 1979

Univ. of Ark. at Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
Bachelor of Music, 1976
Piano major, french horn minor
1972 To 1976