Karen Cordry is the bankruptcy and special issues counsel for the National Association of Attorneys General. She graduated with highest honors from Wayne State University Law School in 1977 and subsequently obtained an L.L.M., again with highest honors, from George Washington University in 1987. She worked for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1977 until February 1992; since then, she has been employed at the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG).

Since coming to NAAG, Karen has worked to assist state agencies to take a more active role in enforcing state regulatory policies and collecting financial obligations during bankruptcy proceedings. In addition to conducting multi-day seminars on “Bankruptcy and the Government Lawyer,” she has spoken at many other bankruptcy programs, and written articles on bankruptcy issues of interest to governmental entities for many publications, including several for Norton’s Annual Survey of Bankruptcy Law. She also serves as an editor and contributor for the “Affairs of State” column for the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal. She maintains a network for state attorneys working on bankruptcy issues and publishes a quarterly bulletin describing important new cases. She has also represented the claims of many states in a number of cases, ranging from taxes to consumer protection to environmental protection to tobacco cases and has sat as the states’ representative on the creditors’ committee in a number of asbestos bankruptcy cases. She is currently preparing the second edition of her bankruptcy manual, “Bankruptcy Law and the Governmental Regulatory Process,” which explores the interaction between governmental enforcement actions and the Bankruptcy Code. She also leads programs for NAAG on state defense litigation.