Mark Polebaum is a 1974 graduate of Middlebury College and a 1978 graduate of NYU School of Law. Between college and law school he was a Watson Fellow studying freedom of the press in Colombia and Venezuela. Upon graduation from Law School he clerked for the Honorable John C. Godbold of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale LLP) through 2005, specializing in corporate reorganizations and capital markets debt financings. He was General Counsel of MFS Investment Management, a global asset management firm, from 2006 until his retirement in May 2017, where he was responsible for the legal, compliance, and enterprise risk management functions.
For his Access to Justice Fellowship Project, Mark will work with the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General as a Special Assistant Attorney General to coordinate representation of debtors in bankruptcy cases by private attorneys seeking to obtain a discharge of student loan debt under the undue hardship standard for their clients in connection with the Massachusetts Bar Association Student Loan Bankruptcy Assistance Project; pursue efforts for a legislative amendment to provisions of the Bankruptcy Code concerning the discharge of student loan debt; provide advice to the Attorney General’s staff concerning bankruptcy law, as requested; and help create resources for attorneys representing debtors burdened with student loan debt to maximize their opportunities for obtaining a discharge of student loan debt obligations. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office is an advocate and resource for the people of Massachusetts in many ways, including protecting consumers, combating fraud and corruption, investigating and prosecuting crime, and protecting the environment, workers, and civil rights.