Where Have I Heard This Before?

James Nani posted a story at Bloomberg Law about Tara Twomey's dismissal as executive director of the U.S. Trustee Program. It's worth a read and not just because of the shout out to my earlier blog post here on Credit Slips. 

Nani notes Twomey "isn't without critics." Fair enough, although that could be said for any effective governmental official. The critic in the article was Lawrence A. Friedman, himself a former executive director of the program from twenty years ago. From the article: "'Tara Twomey had no business being appointed to that job,' Friedman said. 'It was a political appointment at the behest of Liz Warren and others in the bankruptcy system.'" By "Liz Warren," I am fairly confident he meant Senator Warren.

The idea that Twomey had "no business being appointed" is appalling. Twomey had years of experience in consumer cases and business cases. Notably, she served as special consumer counsel in the chapter 11 of Ditech Holdings, a bankrupt mortgage servicer. She authored amicus briefs in consumer bankruptcy cases on behalf of the National Bankruptcy Rights Center. I am told her amicus briefs were cited more frequently in Supreme Court cases than any party except the solicitor general. She has taught courses at Stanford, Harvard, and Boston College. She was a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute's Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy, which has a full bio as of 2019 detailing her many accomplishments. At the time of her appointment, Twomey was a member of both the American College of Bankruptcy and the National Bankruptcy Conference. (Friedman is a member of neither.) These are prestigious, invitation-only organizations of bankruptcy professionals, although she had to resign from the NBC upon her appointment given that it takes substantive positions on bankruptcy policy issues.

Despite this record, Twomey had "no business being appointed?" Where have I heard that before?

Comments

[Knute Rife]

Friedman has no room to accuse anyone else of being a political appointment. He had considerably fewer credentials than Twomey when Bush II moved him upstairs, and the minute the abomination that is BAPCPA was passed, he hit the road.