Oliver Max Gardner, III

O. Max Gardner is a consumer bankruptcy attorney with Max Gardner Law PLLC in Shelby, N.C., and his work against predatory lenders and mortgage servicers has been featured in ABC News’s “Night-line,” PBS’s “Frontline,” CNN, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes and many other news outlets across the country. He has also taken the lead in pursuing the attempts of many creditors to collect debts legally discharged in bankruptcy cases, and has trained hundreds of lawyers at his “Consumer Bankruptcy Boot Camps” for many years. The National Association of ConsumerBankruptcy Lawyers (NACBA) named Mr. Gardner a Champion of Consumer Rights in 2003, named him the Outstanding Consumer Lawyer of 2004 and awarded him The Distinguished Service Award inApril 2013. Mr. Gardner was elected a member of the North Carolina Legal Elite by Business NorthCarolina from 2004-07. He was also recognized as a “Super Lawyer” in North Carolina by CharlotteMagazine and by Law & Politics from 2006-10 in the field of Consumer Bankruptcy Law, and is ratedAV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell. Previously, Mr. Gardner was a senior law clerk to Hon. WilliamH. Bobbitt, the late Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, and to Hon. William Copeland, an Associate Justice of that court. He also worked as an associate with the law firm of Smith, Moore,Smith, Schell & Hunter until 1977, when he opened a consumer-based law practice in Shelby, N.C. In addition, he served as treasurer for McNeill Smith’s 1978 Campaign for the U.S. Senate, was Of Counsel for Sims, Walker & Steinfeld of Washington, D.C., from 1983-94, and served as general counsel to theDemocratic Party of North Carolina from 1993-97. Mr. Gardner is a member of the North Carolina StateBar, North Carolina Bar Association, North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, American Bar Association, American Bar Institute, American Trial Lawyers Association, National Association of CriminalDefense Lawyers, Southern Trial Lawyers Association, National Association of Consumer BankruptcyAttorneys, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Association of Chapter 13 Trustees,Civil Justice Foundation, National Consumer Law Center, Cleveland County Bar Association and 27-B Judicial District Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill in 1969 and his J.D. with high honors from the UNC School of Law in 1974, where he was a member of the North Carolina Law Review, president of the Student Bar Foundation, named the Outstanding Law School Graduate of 1974 and elected to the Order of the Coif.