Business North Carolina Magazine

January 2006

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For Immediate Release

Shelby, N.C. O. Max Gardner III of Shelby has been named for the second consecutive year as one of the top bankruptcy lawyers in North Carolina in a recent poll conducted by Business North Carolina, a state-wide publication. The announcement was made in the January 2006 Edition of the magazine.

Business North Carolina mailed 17,336 ballots last spring to every lawyer licensed by the North Carolina State Bar and living in North Carolina. They were asked a simple question: "Of the North Carolina lawyers whose work you have observed firsthand, whom would you rate among the current best?" The only prohibitions: Voters could not pick themselves and could only select members of their own firms if they also voted for out-of-firm lawyers in the same categories. Nearly 1,700 of North Carolina's 17,336 lawyers received votes. So how elite is the Elite? Less that 3.0% of the state's lawyers made the list. And, Gardner was just one of 37 lawyers selected to the 2006 List of the Legal Bankruptcy Elite.

Gardner received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1969 and graduated with High Honors from the UNC School of Law in 1974, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as President of the Student Bar Foundation. Following graduation, he served as law clerk to the Hon. William H. Bobbitt, the late Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and to J William Copeland, a former Associate Justice. He worked as an Associate with Smith Moore in Greensboro for approximately 3 years following his clerkship with the Supreme Court.

Gardner opened his own consumer bankruptcy practice in Shelby in 1977. He is well-known for his aggressive representation of consumer debtors. During the last few years, he has been involved in a number of class action cases against national mortgage servicers and trustees of mortgage-backed securities. He recently received national attention when he secured a $2.2 million dollar settlement for the former Employees of the Shelby Yarn Company. In that case, Gardner represented the 650 former employees who successfully filed an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy case against their employer. The unique nature of this litigation and the fact that the employees successfully sued management has been the subject of numerous articles in all of the major trade, business and financial publications and in the national media.

Mr. Gardner has also received national recognition for his unparalleled success in pursuing violations of the automatic stay, the discharge injunction, predatory lending practices, and predatory mortgage servicing practices. He is a long-time member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and has been a frequent national speaker and recognized authority on consumer bankruptcy law throughout the United States. He was recognized in April of this year as the 2004 Champion of Consumer Rights at the Annual meeting of National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys in Boston.

Gardner is the Grandson of former North Carolina Governor and Ambassador to Great Britain, O. Max Gardner, and is the Grandnephew of another former North Carolina Governor and United States Senator, Clyde R. Hoey. Gardner and his wife, Victoria, currently reside at Historic Webbley, their 1852 home located in the Historic District of Central Downtown Shelby, North Carolina. They spend most weekends at Lizmere, their farm located in Northwester Cleveland County deep in the heart of the South Mountains. He is the Father of three children, the late Max IV, Webb and Sarah and has two Grandsons, Oliver and Zane. Max and Victoria raise English King Charles Cavalier Spaniels at Lizmere.

End of Release