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84 KANSAS Martin Leigh PC Adds Senior Attorney Martin Leigh PC, a full-service business law firm with two offices in Missouri and one in Kansas, has announced the hiring of Susan DeCoursey as Senior Attorney to the firm's commercial litigation practice. As Senior Attorney in Martin Leigh's commercial litigation practice, DeCoursey will be involved in assisting the firm's diverse client base with matters that include construc- tion agreements, real estate documents, and litigated contract disputes. DeCoursey brings nearly 20 years of experience to Martin Leigh PC. She has a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Mis- souri—Kansas City and is admitted to practice law in both Kansas and Missouri. "We are excited to have Susan join the team, and her wealth of experience in civil and commercial litigation and creditors' rights will add exceptional depth and quality to the firm's litigation department," said Tom Fritzlen, President of Martin Leigh. DeCoursey will be based out of Martin Leigh PC's Kansas City, Missouri, office. e firm also has offices in St. Louis, Missouri, and Overland Park, Kansas. ILLINOIS AACER: Bankruptcy Filings Experience Second Straight Monthly Spike For the second straight month, bankruptcy filings increased substantially over-the-month in March 2016, this time rising by 21 percent up to a total of 78,332 for the month (up from 64,686), according to March 2016 AACER bankruptcy data reported by Epiq Systems. March's over-the-month spike occurred one month after the number of filings rose by 23 percent from January to February. March 2016's total of filings was 3,361 lower than March 2015's total of 81,693. Year-to-date, for the first three months of 2016, there have been 195,565 bankruptcy filings nationwide, a decline of about 5 percent from the total of 205,703 for the first three months of 2015. ere were 231,839 filings for MINNESOTA First American Mortgage Solutions Acquires Forsythe Appraisals First American Mortgage Solutions, LLC, a subsidiary of First American Financial Cor- poration, announced its acquisition of Forsythe Appraisals, LLC. Forsythe Appraisals is an independent resi- dential appraisal company in the U.S, offering comprehensive real estate valuation solutions with nationwide coverage. e acquisition enhances First Ameri- can Mortgage Solutions' existing valuation capabilities, providing lender customers with extensive valuation options aimed at quality, efficiency, and compliance. "We are delighted to have Forsythe Ap- praisals join the First American family," said Kevin Wall, President of First American Mortgage Solutions. "With more than 75 years of appraisal expertise and a loyal, blue-chip client base, the addition of Forsythe Apprais- als accelerates our efforts to help lenders and appraisers deliver a defect-free mortgage, while providing a superior consumer experience," According to First American Mortgage Solutions' announcement, the company can now offer lenders an integrated valuation solution that provides access to staff appraisers nationwide through Forsythe Appraisals and top-quality panel appraisers. is new valua- tion offering includes software solutions from ACI, fraud detection, loan quality, and compli- ance analytics supported by First American's position in real property data coverage. e expanded valuation capabilities broaden First American Mortgage Solutions' end-to-end offerings and support its commitment to the pursuit of certainty in lending. Forsythe's management team, including President and CEO John Forsythe, Senior Director of Customer Development Tim Forsythe, and Chief Appraiser Alan Hummel, will continue to lead those operations. "Joining the First American family strengthens our ability to provide our custom- ers with continually improving valuation products and services in today's changing busi- ness and regulatory landscape. e Forsythe team will now have access to First American's industry-leading property data, as well, further enhancing the quality, accuracy and speed of our appraisals," said John Forsythe. "Our the first three months of 2014. March 2016 did contain three more filings days than in February (23 compared to 20) but still would have had about 5,000 more filings than in February without those three extra days based on the average number of filings per day in March of 3,406. By comparison, there were 3,234 filings per day over 20 filing days in February and 2,766 filings per day over 19 filing days in January. So far in 2016, there have been 3,154 filings per day over 62 filing days in the first three months. California was the state with the most filings for the first three months of 2016 with 18,014. Illinois was second with 14,411, followed by Florida (11,616), which surpassed Georgia in March for the state with the third-most cumulative filings year-to-date in 2016. Georgia was fourth (11,392), and Ohio moved into fifth place (9,132) past Tennessee, which was sixth (8,978). e state with the fewest bankruptcy filings in for the first three months of 2016 was Alaska with 78. Tennessee and Alabama continued to rank first and second among states in bankruptcy filings per capita for March with 5.70 and 5.45 for every 10,000 people, respectively. ose numbers represented increases from Febru- ary's total of 5.39 and 5.09 and January's totals of 4.82 and 4.35, respectively. e national average of filings per capita in March 2016 increased over-the-month to 2.51, compared to 2.26 in February and 2.02 in January. Epiq Systems is a leading global provider of technology-enabled solutions for electronic discovery, bankruptcy and class action admin- istration. Top legal professionals depend on us for deep subject-matter expertise and years of firsthand experience working on many of the largest, most high-profile and complex client engagements. Epiq Systems, Inc. has locations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Minnesota www.MinnesotaREO.com 612-669-6324 952-829-2938 763-432-7640 612-821-7500 952-844-1511 763-533-9133 651-209-8444 507-424-6026 Bruce McAlpin Jeff Detloff Long H. Doan Maribel Garcia Garth Johnson Craig Murphy Michael Olsen Brian Rossow

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