Naomi Reyes-Ashford, Founding Attorney

Naomi Reyes-Ashford is a State Bar of California Certified Specialist in Bankruptcy Law who has practiced consumer bankruptcy exclusively since her admission in 2006. She has filed about 2,400 Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 cases in all five divisions of the Central District, and she takes every consultation and every 341 meeting herself.

Credentials

• Certified Specialist in Bankruptcy Law, State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization
• Admitted to the State Bar of California, 2006; United States District Court, Central District of California
• J.D., Loyola Law School, Los Angeles; B.A., Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Member, Central District Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney Association; Los Angeles County Bar Association, Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section
• Volunteer attorney, Los Angeles Bankruptcy Court Self-Help Desk
• Spanish spoken (consultations and 341 preparation)

How she came to this work

Naomi spent her first five years after law school at a downtown Los Angeles firm that filed several hundred consumer cases a year. She learned the Central District's trustees, judges and habits at volume, and she learned what goes wrong at volume: the reaffirmation signed because nobody explained it, the exemption system chosen by default, the Chapter 13 plan confirmed with a payment the client could never make. She opened Bamboo Law Group in 2011 to do the same work at a pace where those things do not happen.

The practice is deliberately small. One attorney, a case manager, a bookkeeper. Naomi reviews every petition line by line, and she is on every Zoom 341 with the client, because the trustee's questions are the moment where a case is either routine or not.

What the certification means

The State Bar of California certifies specialists in a short list of fields, and bankruptcy law is one of them. Certification requires a written examination, a minimum number of years and cases in the field, continuing education beyond the ordinary requirement, and references from judges and other attorneys. Relatively few consumer bankruptcy attorneys hold it. It does not guarantee a result in any case, and California's rules do not allow anyone to say it does. It does mean the work has been examined by people whose job is to examine it.

How she runs a consultation

Thirty minutes, by video or phone. She asks what happened, what is at risk this month, roughly what you owe and to whom, whether you own a home, and what county you live in. She runs the means test against the current California median figures while you are on the call, tells you which chapter fits, and quotes the fee. If she thinks you should not file, she says so, and explains what to do instead. Roughly one caller in seven hears that.

"The first call is where most of the value is. Somebody who has been doing the math alone at midnight for three weeks needs a straight answer more than they need a brochure."

Outside the office

Naomi lives in Culver City with her husband and two teenagers. She coaches a middle-school mock trial team, runs the Ballona Creek path most mornings, and has been trying for years to keep an actual stand of bamboo alive on a west-facing balcony.