Toledo Law student David Paul Mann was recently named the 2012 Distinguished Law Student from the Sixth Circuit by the American College of Bankruptcy. Mann is the only student from the states in the Sixth Circuit – Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee – to receive the award this year.

The American College of Bankruptcy’s Distinguished Law Student program seeks to honor and encourage law students who have demonstrated academic achievement and interest in bankruptcy law. On March 16, Mann traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the college’s induction ceremony where he had the opportunity to meet distinguished practitioners and judges from the bankruptcy bar. The induction ceremony took place at the U.S. Supreme Court.

As a night student at The University of Toledo College of Law, Mann has collected several major accolades including Best Oralist and Best Team at Toledo Law’s 39th annual intramural moot court competition for his argument before a panel of judges that included two United States District Court judges. He currently serves as assistant managing editor on The University of Toledo Law Review and his note, “Out of the Penalty Box: Why Supreme Court Precedent Should Have Saved Matching Fund Triggers,” was published in the Law Review’s Summer 2011 issue. Set to graduate this May, Mann plans to join Marshall & Melhorn, LLC, as an associate in the firm’s business litigation practice.

“David Mann is a superb representative of the College of Law. I have no doubt that he was a hit with the American College of Bankruptcy, and that the connections he has developed as an American College of Bankruptcy Distinguished Law Student will serve him well in his professional career,” said Kara Bruce, assistant professor of law at Toledo Law.

By day, Mann is the executive director of the Lucas County Land Reutilization Corporation, locally known as the “Land Bank,” a non-profit , quasi-governmental entity established by state statute. By strategically acquiring vacant and abandoned properties, the Land Bank works to reduce blight, increase property values, and promote economic development in LucasCounty. Mann was hired as director a few months after the Land Bank was created in August 2010, and for many months was the Land Bank’s sole employee. When asked what it has been like to build the new Land Bank by day and attend law school at night, Mann is quick to smile and quips, “I don’t have a life, but I knew that going in.”

After observing him in her secured transactions and commercial paper classes, Professor Bruce nominated Mann for the Distinguished Law Student honor. His nomination was supported by Judge Mary Ann Whipple of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Ohio, a part-time professor at Toledo Law who teaches bankruptcy course offerings, and Nicole Porter, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law.

The American College of Bankruptcy requires that written materials from the student and letters of recommendation accompany a Distinguished Law Student nomination. All nominated students are considered by the council in their circuit, which selects the winning student.

“I was honored to represent The University of Toledo College of Law at this event,” Mann said after the induction ceremony in Washington. “It’s an important recognition of the work that Judge Mary Ann Whipple and Professor Kara Bruce are doing to prepare the next generation of bankruptcy professionals in our community.”

The American College of Bankruptcy is an honorary professional and educational association of bankruptcy and insolvency professionals. College fellows include commercial and consumer bankruptcy attorneys, insolvency accountants, turnaround and workout specialists, law professors, judges, government officials and others involved in the bankruptcy and insolvency community.

For more information contact Rachel Phipps, assistant to the dean for communications in the UT College of Law, at 419.530.2628 or rachel.phipps@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
The Independent Collegian (March 29, 2012)

Tags: College of Law