Sherrie Melissa Boutwell enjoys unraveling the mysteries of ERISA with her clients with a clear focus on truly understanding each client’s issues while carefully and clearly defining the best options for each situation. She has represented clients before the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Department of Labor, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, arbitrators from the American Arbitration Association and the United States District Court, with respect to employee benefits issues.

Sherrie takes pride in bringing a practical and down-to-earth approach to resolving complex benefits issues involving qualified plans, non-qualified plans and health and welfare plans.

Meredith Jury is a retired bankruptcy judge, having served in the Central District of California, Riverside Division from 1997-2018 and also as a member of the Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel from 2007-2018, chief judge of the BAP from 2015-2017. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Colorado, B.A. in English. She has two Masters Degrees from the University of Wisconsin and her JD from UCLA in 1976. She was an associate, then partner at Best Best & Krieger, Riverside, CA from 1976-1997, where she was a litigator doing complex civil litigation, including in the bankruptcy court. Her bankruptcy experience primarily was representing public entities, small companies and individual secured creditors in chapter 11’s, but she did represent the debtors in a few chapter 11 cases early in her bankruptcy practice. The highlights of her judicial career were the ten years on the BAP and being the presiding judge over the City of San Bernardino chapter 9 case, where a plan was confirmed in 2017.

While on the bench and since retiring she has mediated (pro bono) over a 1000 bankruptcy cases, an endeavor that uses an entirely different skill set from her other judicial activities. Also while on the bench and since retiring she has done dozens of educational programs for bankruptcy practitioners, with an emphasis on educating consumer bankruptcy lawyers. Since retiring, she has written numerous appellate briefs on consumer cases, some directly for the debtor where she is co- counsel with the debtor’s attorney and others amicus for consumer organizations. In her spare time she works out and trains, reads, watches women’s sports on TV and in person, and takes science classes at the local community college.

Dustin I. Nichols is the Managing Attorney at The Law Office of Dustin I. Nichols, A PC in Newport Beach, California. For over 30 years, Dustin has worked in the areas of entity formation, estate planning, transactional, risk mitigation and creditor exemption planning, as well as trust administration and litigation.

Dustin counsels California resident business owners on Integrated Exemption Planning structures and strategies, including the California Private Retirement Trust (PRT®) solution. Dustin and his Team are also often called upon by bankruptcy and litigation attorneys to review and opine on the legal efficacy and validity of various asset protection structures and plans possessed by clients.

Dustin is a former Partner with the Orange County, California law firm of Brown & Streza, LLP, where he ran their Integrated Exemption Planning Division.

Dustin has been published in such professional publications as The Orange County Lawyer, Bloomberg Tax and First American Trust Quarterly. Dustin provides private workshops and lunch-n-learns for large CPA Firms, R.I.A.’s, life insurance advisors and financial professionals on the PRT®.

Dustin often conducts continuing legal seminars and speaks on the topic of Integrated Exemption Planning and the PRT®.