To Cort Walker, the greatest professional satisfaction he can derive as a bankruptcy lawyer is when clients realize they have a fresh start in life.
“It’s a rewarding experience seeing people getting back on track in life, putting difficult financial problems in the past, and getting things back in order,” he says.
Cort handles all types of bankruptcy cases, with a good share of his work focusing on Chapter 13 bankruptcies, which aim to help people reorganize their finances and come up with a plan to pay off debt and move forward. “There’s a misconception that when you file for bankruptcy, you don’t pay anybody and that it’s not fair,” Walker says. “But a lot of people file for Chapter 13 because they just need time to meet the obligations that they have, and that’s a great benefit to them.”
Cort joined the Sasser Law Firm in 2010 after serving for two years as a judicial clerk for Justice Edward Thomas Brady of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Since then, he has developed a busy practice that has included several highlights, including three appearances at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where he presented oral arguments.
Another highlight began in 2015 when he reviewed documents that WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh had filed against his clients to collect debts and noticed that the records included personally identifying information in violation of the federal bankruptcy code. Cort filed a civil suit, and in 2016 a federal bankruptcy court ordered WakeMed to notify patients of the breach, pay a fine, and offer the affected individuals one year of free credit monitoring.
Cort was born and raised near Yakima, Wash., and received a degree in Biblical Studies from Grace College in Indiana. He then went to Grace Theological Seminary and moved to Johnstown, Pa., with his wife, Katrina, where he served as a pastor for four years before deciding he wanted to become a lawyer.
He enrolled at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., where he served as managing editor of the Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. He then moved to North Carolina to clerk for Justice Brady and later met Travis Sasser and joined the Sasser Law Firm.
Cort’s work has earned him a designation as a board-certified specialist in consumer bankruptcy law in North Carolina. He is also active in the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.
He and his family live in Cary, and he is active in his church, where he is a small-group leader and Sunday School teacher. He is also active in F3 Carpex, the Cary and Apex chapter of F3, an organization devoted to developing male community leadership.
