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Thomas H. Allen: A Court-Appointed Chapter 11 Trustee Who Still Takes Consumer Cases

Tom Allen has spent nearly four decades in Arizona bankruptcy practice — serving as a court-appointed Chapter 11 trustee on complex corporate cases while holding a dual specialist certification that also covers ordinary consumer bankruptcy.

Thomas H. Allen — At a Glance

Sources: bkfirmaz.com (firm website), State Bar of Arizona Board of Legal Specialization, American Board of Certification, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Martindale-Hubbell. Compiled August 2026.

Origin

Nearly Four Decades, Both Sides of the Docket

Thomas H. Allen earned his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1986 and was admitted to the State Bar of Arizona the same year. He co-founded Allen, Jones & Giles, PLC, a Phoenix bankruptcy boutique that has grown to offices in Phoenix, Yuma, Prescott, and Columbus. He holds a genuine dual credential: Certified Specialist in Bankruptcy Law from the State Bar of Arizona’s Board of Legal Specialization, and Certified Consumer Bankruptcy Specialist from the American Board of Certification — the latter specifically covering individual, not just business, bankruptcy.

Allen has served as a court-appointed Chapter 11 trustee and as counsel for plan administrators and disbursing agents in confirmed reorganization cases, per the firm — a role courts extend only to attorneys they trust to administer someone else’s estate fairly, not just advocate for a paying client.

Practice

A Firm That Represents Both Sides

This is worth stating plainly: Allen, Jones & Giles represents both debtors and creditors. Per the firm’s own materials, they regularly represent closely-held businesses and high-net-worth individuals in Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 reorganizations, as well as creditors and lenders in loan workouts and bankruptcy proceedings. Allen personally holds a consumer-bankruptcy specialist credential alongside his business-bankruptcy trustee work, meaning his individual caseload can include ordinary consumer Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings as well as complex corporate reorganizations. Readers should ask directly which side of a specific matter the firm would represent.

The Other Two Name Partners: Michael Jones and Philip Giles

Allen is not the firm’s only Bar-certified bankruptcy specialist. This platform independently confirmed via the State Bar of Arizona’s own published roster that both other name partners hold the same credential: Michael A. Jones, certified since 2016, and Philip Jon Giles, certified since 2020. A firm with three Bar-certified bankruptcy specialists among its named partners is a genuinely unusual concentration — the Bar’s roster lists only about two dozen certified bankruptcy specialists statewide, meaning this one firm employs roughly one in eight of them.

Track Record

What’s Documented

Bankruptcy outcomes are case-specific and the firm does not publish a dollar-figure results table. What’s independently verifiable is Allen’s trustee appointments — a matter of court record, not a marketing claim — and 16 consecutive years of Best Lawyers recognition, a sustained record rather than a single good year.

Client Voice

Real, Named Reviews

A Lawyers.com reviewer wrote: “I would highly recommend Tom Allen. From the first day we walked into his office we were treated with the utmost respect. Every step of our process was explained in detail.” A separate Martindale peer review called him knowledgeable about “bankruptcies and the system.” We found no negative reviews to weigh against these in a public search.

Community

Documented Pro Bono Work

Allen was named to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona’s 2017 Honor Roll of Pro Bono Volunteers, and has served on the Bankruptcy Pro Bono Panel, the Bankruptcy Court Self Help Center in Yuma, and the Volunteer Lawyers Program in Phoenix, where he was named Attorney of the Month in December 2013 — documented volunteer service, not a self-reported claim.

Recognition

Genuinely Peer-Reviewed, Two Specialist Credentials

Allen holds two genuine specialist certifications — Arizona’s state Board of Legal Specialization and the American Board of Certification’s consumer-bankruptcy credential — the basis for this profile’s use of the word “specialist.” He has been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 2010 and is a Super Lawyers “Top 50” Arizona selectee, both peer-driven distinctions.

Arizona Legal Backdrop

Bankruptcy Basics in Arizona

Bankruptcy is exclusively federal law (11 U.S.C.), filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona, but Arizona’s own property exemption statutes (A.R.S. § 33-1101 et seq.) determine what a filer can keep — homestead, vehicle, and personal-property exemptions that vary significantly from other states. Before filing, Arizona filers (like filers nationwide) must complete credit counseling from an approved agency, and a debtor-education course before receiving a discharge, under 11 U.S.C. § 109 and § 727. None of this is legal advice; whether Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 fits a given situation, and which assets stay protected, are fact-specific questions.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Allen’s trustee appointments and dual specialist certifications reflect genuine, court-level trust in his judgment on both sides of a bankruptcy case — a real differentiator in a field where many practitioners work exclusively one side or the other. The trade-off to name plainly: because the firm represents both debtors and creditors, someone who wants an advocate with no possible institutional sympathy toward creditors should ask directly about the firm’s current client mix before retaining. For a complex case — corporate reorganization, or a consumer case with unusual wrinkles — the trustee-level experience is a genuine asset.

Methodology & Sourcing

Compiled from Allen, Jones & Giles’s website, the State Bar of Arizona Board of Legal Specialization, the American Board of Certification, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Martindale-Hubbell, and Lawyers.com client reviews. No claim was taken from firm marketing without a second-source check where one existed. Compiled and verified August 2026.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by the firm prior to publication, and inclusion in this directory is not an endorsement of any outcome. Firms are added or excluded based on our own editorial verification process, not advertising relationships.