Law students working in the University of St. Thomas Bankruptcy Litigation Clinic helped a client avoid financial turmoil when a recent court decision was awarded in the woman’s favor.

The client faced $60,000 in claims following her brother’s declaration of bankruptcy after agreeing to set up a bank account in her own name for her brother to use exclusively. Following her brother’s bankruptcy declaration, a bankruptcy trustee attempted to collect from the client and her brother the value of the funds that had moved through that account over a period of several months.

As a result of the students’ extensive research and exceptional advocacy before and during trial, the court ruled in favor of the client and dismissed all claims against her, recognizing that there was no evidence that the client benefited from the funds in any way or that she was involved in any wrongdoing.

St. Thomas Law students Gabriel J. Horstman, Collin Liston and Carl Numrich represented the client early on in the case, conducting and defending depositions, and briefing dispositive motions. With the start of the next school year, students Michael Sly, Caitlin Drogemuller and Ryan Gott took over and represented the client at trial. Supervising the students was adjunct professor Nadia Hasan of Cozen O’Conner.