Chapter 7 Trustee Lauren Friend McKelvey
Lauren Friend McKelvey is the newest of the four Chapter 7 trustees in the Alexandria, Virginia, Bankruptcy court. When you file a bankruptcy case in Alexandria, the computer assigns you to one of the four trustees.
Lawyers work part-time as Chapter 7 trustees. Ms. Friend McKelvey is a partner in Reitler, a New York-based law firm that does business law, with a focus on venture capital.
Business debt and bankruptcy have been part of her work with the Reister law firm, where she has done corporate law generally. Earlier, she was general counsel for a successful corporate start-up.
(Chapter 7 trustees here mostly deal with simple consumer bankruptcies, so her heavy background in corporate and business law is unusual.)
As a Chapter 7 Trustee, she has two sets of bosses. The US Justice Department, through the Office of the United States Trustee. And the two Bankruptcy Judges here, Judge Brian F. Kenney and Judge Klinette H. Kindred.
We paid a $338.00 filing fee when we filed your bankruptcy case. Sixty dollars of that went to Trustee McKelvey. For each case, including yours, she is paid an additional $60.00 that is indirectly collected from Chapter 11 bankruptcies. (Congress thinks the bankruptcy courts need to raise enough in fees to pay for themselves. No other part of the federal court system does that.)
What Does a Chapter 7 Trustee Do?
Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee Lauren Friend McKelvey
As your Chapter 7 Trustee, Lauren Friend McKelvey is in charge of your bankruptcy hearing, which is called the “meeting of creditors.” There are very, very rarely any creditors at the meeting of creditors. So the Chapter 7 Trustee asks the questions. (Because the trustee is not a judge, she should be called “ma’am,” not “your honor.”)
She will ask routine questions about your IDs, whether you went over your papers when you signed them, and do you have any valuable assets she can sell.
Most people don’t have any valuable assets the trustee can sell, so the hearing is pretty routine. The bankruptcy court computer schedules fourteen hearings an hour. That’s just over four minutes per case. Most don’t take that long.
Bankruptcy Hearings in Alexandria are By Zoom
Trustee hearings for Ms Friend McKelvey are usually scheduled for Thursdays at 10:00 AM, 11: AM, and 12:00 PM. You attend by Zoom.
You enter her Zoom hearings by using these codes.
Meeting ID 535 852 2867, Passcode 8330439029
If, you’re not an experienced Zoomer, here’s some help on how to join using a meeting ID and passcode.
That’s her permanent Zoom ID and passcode. You can test it out any evening and it will take you to her Trustee waiting room. That way, you’ll be sure you’ll know what to do on your hearing date.
This is what you’ll see when you Zoom into the Trustee waiting room. (Except you won’t see my picture in the corner.)