6800 Park Ten Boulevard, Suite 264, S. Building, San Antonio, Texas 78213-4204
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Attorney Biographies



JOEL H. KLEIN DEVETHIA NICHOLS-THOMPSON


 



JOEL H. KLEIN

Education:

  • University of Texas - Austin B.B.A.; 1965
  • University of Texas Law School, J.D.; 1967

Admitted to Practice:

  • Texas State Bar; 1967
  • United States District Courts for the Southern District of Texas; 1969
  • United States District Courts for the Western Districts of Texas; 1969
  • United States Courts of Appeals, 5th and 11th Circuits, 1969
  • United States Supreme Court; 1971
  • Years in Collection Work: 30

Memberships:

  • Texas and San Antonio Bar Associations
  • The Commercial Law League of America (Chair of the Southern District in 1999, Member of the Board of Governors 2004 - Present)
  • The College of the State Bar of Texas -Fellow
  • Texas Association of Property Tax Professionals
  • The San Antonio and The Texas Bar Foundations -Life Fellow

Areas of Practice of Expertise:


Curriculum Vitae:

Joel H. Klein practices law in his own firm, Joel H. Klein & Associates. Prior to that time, Joel H. Klein was a shareholder/attorney in Douglas & Elms, Jenkins & Gilchrist, Groce, Locke & Hebron, Smith, Barshop, Stoffer & Millsap and Klein & Klein.

Joel H. Klein has practiced in this field since 1967, when he graduated from the University of Texas Law School.

Joel H. Klein is a member of the Texas, San Antonio, and San Antonio Bankruptcy Bar Associations, the Commercial Law League of America, and is a Fellow of the College of the State Bar of Texas, the San Antonio and Texas Bar Foundations. He is admitted to practice in Texas in the United States District Court of the Southern and Western Districts of Texas, and in the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits U.S. Courts of Appeal and before the United States Supreme Court.

Joel H. Klein was one of the first attorneys in San Antonio to take training as a mediator, and he has since qualified as a mediator-arbitrator, having completed both basic and advanced training with the Association of Attorney-Mediators and the Attorney-Mediators Institute. In connection with his mediation practice, he is a member of the Association of Attorney-Mediators. He has served as President of the San Antonio chapter of this association and as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Attorney-Mediators.

Joel H. Klein is a board-certified attorney, having been certified as a specialist in Creditors Rights by the American Board of Certification. He was the first attorney so certified in San Antonio, and is currently one of only three attorneys in San Antonio, and nine throughout the state of Texas. He has served as Chairman of the Southern District of the Commercial Law League of America and as a member of the Executive Council of the Creditors Rights Section. He handles numerous matters throughout the state involving bankruptcy, reorganizations and commercial collections, representing primarily creditors, but also representing debtors. A substantial portion of his practice is devoted to the collection of commercial claims, for which he has developed a network of attorneys and collection agencies throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Great Britain with whom he regularly corresponds, both receiving claims as well as forwarding claims. The Law Firm of Joel H. Klein & Associates has been rated AV (Highest for Ability, Highest for Ethical Practice) by Martindale-Hubbell, Inc.

Joel H. Klein is also licensed by the state of Texas as a Senior Property Tax Consultant and has worked in this area since he graduated law school and joined his father, Lester Klein, in the practice of law in 1967. He has maintained an active ad valorem tax practice which Lester Klein began practicing in 1950. Joel H. Klein has handled numerous matters throughout the state involving consultation, open space, agricultural and charitable exemptions, valuation disputes, negotiations with appraisal district appraisers, appearance at both informal and formal board hearings, and the filing and prosecution of State District Court appeals. The largest portion of his ad valorem practice is devoted to representation of commercial property owners, involving vacant land, office buildings, apartments, warehouses, retail shopping centers and stores, and the personal property that goes along with such real property accounts. Most of the properties represented are in an area within and near Bexar County; however, he also represents clients with properties throughout the state of Texas as well as throughout the United States. Joel H. Klein is one of a very few individuals who possess both a law license and a professional property tax consultant license from the state of Texas. This combination gives him an insight that has been quite helpful and beneficial to his clients.

Joel H. Klein has been a frequent lecturer for the State Bar of Texas, the San Antonio Area Bankers Code Compliance Association, University of Houston Law Center, the National Business Institute and the National Association of Credit Managers, and the United Association of Equipment Lessors (UAEL), having lectured on the following topics: Collecting on Judgments; Representing the Creditor; Collecting on Debts and Judgments; Advanced Creditors Rights; Collection and Repossession of Consumer Goods; Debt Collection; Use of Mediation/Arbitration in Collecting Judgments; Problems in Pre-Judgment Repossessions and Collections; Chapter 11 Bankruptcy; Judgments - Good for Anything but Wallpaper?; Lender Liability; Fraudulent Transfers; Extension of Credit; Chapter 7 Bankruptcy; Mediation - Untangling Business Disputes; Mechanics and Materialmen's Liens; Pitfalls of Purchase Orders; Increased Limits in the Small Claims Court; Bankruptcy and Personal Exemptions; Secured Transactions in Texas; and Lease Collection and Enforcement in Texas.

Joel H. Klein is also past President of the Texas Arts & Crafts Educational Foundation, an organization which sponsors the official Texas Arts & Craft Fair held each Memorial Day weekend in Kerrville, Texas, a member of the Board of Directors of the Palmer Drug Abuse Program, and an officer and director of San Antonio's New World Wine & Food Festival. He also hosted a weekly travel show on WOAI Radio and on KENS Radio, from 1978-2003.



DEVETHIA NICHOLS-THOMPSON

Education:

  • Brandeis University - Waltham, MA .B.S.; 1986
  • Boston University School of Law, J.D.; 1989

Admitted to Practice:

  • State Bar of Texas; 1998
  • U.S. District Court for Southern District of Texas; 1996
  • U.S. District Court for Western District of Texas; 1995
  • District of Columbia; 1992
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for Fourth Circuit; 1991
  • U.S. District Court of Maryland; 1991
  • State Bar of Maryland; 1990
  • Years in Bankruptcy Work: 15

Memberships:

  • Texas Bar Association
  • San Antonio Bankruptcy Bar Association

Areas of Practice of Expertise:


Curriculum Vitae:

Devethia Nichols-Thompson is a contract attorney with Joel H. Klein & Associates. Prior to that time, Devethia Nichols-Thompson was an attorney with Piper & Marbury in Baltimore, Maryland and Cox & Smith in San Antonio, Texas. In 1996, Devethia Nichols-Thompson opened her owned law firm concentrating in the areas of business and consumer bankruptcy, creditors' rights, collections and commercial litigation.

Devethia Nichols-Thompson has a broad-based general bankruptcy practice, representing individuals in Chapter 7 liquidation and Chapter 13 reorganization. She has also represented corporate clients in business reorganization for debtors and creditors and specializes in avoidance action litigation on behalf of court-appointed trustees and creditors.