Attorneys
John C. Bircher III
jbircher@whiteandallen.com | vCard
John C. Bircher III was born in Columbia, S.C., on September 23, 1970. At the age of seven, he moved with his family to Craven County, N.C. He later entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice. He attended the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University and received his Juris Doctor in 1997.
John is licensed to practice before all state and federal courts in North Carolina, in the Northern District of Georgia and the state courts of Tennessee. He is also a member of the Panel of Chapter 7 Trustees for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He is a member of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees, the Bankruptcy Sections of the North Carolina and Tennessee Bar Associations, The Eastern North Carolina Inn of Court and the Eastern Bankruptcy Institute. John was also recently appointed as co-editor of the North Carolina Bar Association Bankruptcy Section newsletter, The Disclosure Statement. He practices in our New Bern, N.C., office.
John has successfully completed the American Board of Certification’s Specialization Examinations in both Business and Consumer Bankruptcy. This certifies John as a Specialist in Consumer and Bankrupty Law by the N.C. State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.
In 2010 he was named to Business North Carolina's Legal Elite in the area of Bankruptcy.
John is the chairman of the Neuse River Development Authority, board member of the Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corporation and member of Garber United Methodist Church, where he is on the Finance Committee.
John loves music, performing as the drummer of a blues band, and as a lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist at Garber Church. John and his family spend as much time as possible on their boats on the waterways around New Bern.
John lives on the Trent River in New Bern with his wife Georgiana, his two daughters, Madelyn and Evelyn, and their dog, Tigger. He is an avid runner with two half-marathons under his belt.
In cases of note:
- In re Hitt, represented a debtor after discharge against a creditor attempting to collect a debt even though the debtor received a discharge; the court found that the debt was indeed discharged.
- In re Sledge, represented debtors against a former attorney who was later removed from the bankruptcy bar for failing to properly represent his clients' interests in their case.
- Represented a major secured creditor against a Chapter 11 debtor in an attempt to have the debtor's case converted to one under Chapter 7 because of the debtor's gross mismanagement of the estate.
- Represents a major banking institution in a number of bankruptcy actions to protect the bank's interest in property securing their debt to a number of debtors throughout the State of North Carolina.
- As trustee, administered hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of assets for the benefit of unsecured creditors in a number of Chapter 7 liquidation cases in Eastern North Carolina.
- Represents creditors in non-bankruptcy collection matters to obtain judgments, then follows the debtors into the bankruptcy process for seamless representation.
