Shennan Kavanagh specializes in complex consumer finance litigation. In recent years, her practice focuses on challenges to unfair and discriminatory mortgage lending practices and on class actions involving lenders’ abuses of the Bankruptcy Code. Ms. Kavanagh has devoted her entire legal career to representing poor and financially struggling individuals in pursuit of social and economic justice.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
RODDY KLEIN & RYAN – BOSTON, MA
2003 – present
Roddy Klein & Ryan is a nationally known litigation firm specializing in consumer class actions with a particular focus on consumer financial services litigation.
VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT - BOSTON, MA
2003 – 2005
Ms. Kavanagh represented low-income debtors in bankruptcy proceedings.
LEGAL ADVOCACY AND RESOURCE CENTER - BOSTON, MA
2002 - 2003
Ms. Kavanagh advised low-income consumers on consumer law issues via a legal hotline, including Chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcy, alternatives to bankruptcy, and debt collection practices. Ms. Kavanagh ran bankruptcy clinics and trained volunteers on the hotline.
U.S. PEACE CORPS - GUINEA, WEST AFRICA
1997 - 1999
Ms. Kavanagh taught English as a Second Language in a rural high school. In conjunction with the Guinean Ministry of Education, she published a guide to writing lesson plans that was distributed to local English teachers countrywide. Among other projects, Ms. Kavanagh collaborated with students and professors and obtained funding to furnish the local library with resources, including books, games, and a large-scale world map wall mural. She organized events at school to promote awareness of girls’ issues and to encourage them to contemplate career options open to them.
EDUCATION
J.D. Suffolk University Law School - Boston, 2002 (cum laude)
B.A. University of Vermont, 1997
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Boston Bar Association (Co-Chair, Class Action Committee - 2009-present, member)
National Association of Consumer Advocates (member)
BAR ADMISSIONS
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Representative Litigation Projects
In Re Ameriquest Mortgage Co. Mortgage Lending Practices Litigation, MDL No. 1715 (N.D. Ill.) (national class action settlement of claims for subprime mortgage lending practices).
Ramirez v. GreenPoint Mortgage Funding, Inc., C08-0369,2010 WL 2867068 (N.D. Cal. July 20, 2010) (pending class challenges to discriminatory mortgage lending practices).
In re Wells Fargo Mortgage Lending Practices Litigation, 08-cv-1930 MMC (N.D. Cal.) (pending challenges to discriminatory mortgage lending practices).
In re Countrywide Financial Corp. Mortgage Lending Practices Litigation, MDL No. 1974 (W.D. Ky.) (pending challenges to discriminatory mortgage lending practices).
Allen v. Decision One Mortgage Co., 07-cv-11669-GAO (D. Mass.) (national class action settlement of mortgage lending discrimination claims).
Pettway v. Harmon Law Offices PC, C.A. No. 03-10932 (D. Mass) (class settlement of claims for fee overcharges against foreclosure law firm).
Mounce v. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc., 2008 WL 2224935 (Bankr. W.D. Tex. May 27, 2008).
Rodriguez, et al. v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., Adv. P. No. 08-01004 (Bankr. S.D. Tex.) (pending challenges to Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Code violations).
Santiago, et al. v. Wells Fargo, et. al., Adv. P. No. 07-00247 (Bankr. D.P.R.) (class settlement of claims for violating the Bankruptcy Code's discharge injunction).
Lample, et al. v. Banco Santander, et al., Adv. P. No. 07-00092 (Bankr. D.P.R.) (class settlement of claims for violating the Bankruptcy Code's discharge injunction).
Representative Publications
Co-author, “Causes of the Subprime Foreclosure Crisis and the Availability of Class Action Responses” 2 N.U.L.J 137 (Spring 2010) (with Gary Klein).
Co-author, "Mortgage Lending Discrimination and its Role in the Subprime Lending Crisis," written testimony provided for the Hearing Before the H. Subcomm. on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (April 29, 2010) (with Gary Klein).
Contributing author, "Consumer Class Actions" (National Consumer Law Center, 7th Ed. 2010) (forthcoming).
Researcher, "Chapter 93A Rights and Remedies: Chapter 13-Business Disputes Under Chapter 93A" by Seth Stadfeld (MCLE 2nd Ed. 2007).
Editor and researcher, "E-Business Legal Handbook" by Michael L. Rustad (New York: Aspen Law & Business 2003).
Writer and editor, "E-Commerce and Communications: Transactions in Digital Information" by Stephen Y. Chow (Matthew Bender & Company, Inc. 2002).
Representative Seminars
"Multi-District Litigation: Boon or Bane?," Boston Bar Association (February, 2010).
"Litigating Fair Housing and Fair Lending Cases," Boston Bar Association (May, 2009).
“Shelter From The Storm: Advocacy In The Subprime Fallout,” Northeastern University (March, 2009).
"Subprime Mortgage Discrimination Cases," National Consumer Law Center (October, 2008).
Fair Housing and Predatory Lending Training, Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center (June, 2008).
"Community Forum on Foreclosures and Predatory Lending," Boston’s Fair Housing Center, Northeastern University (April, 2007).
"Introduction to Consumer Class Actions," National Consumer Law Center (November, 2007).