Holly B. Guelich: The Two-Attorney Dallas Firm With a Perfect Fifth Circuit Record

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At a Glance

Origin & Founder History

Holly B. Guelich earned her J.D. from SMU Dedman School of Law and was licensed by the Texas Supreme Court to practice in state courts in 1984. She has practiced almost exclusively in consumer bankruptcy for close to four decades and was board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in both Consumer and Business Bankruptcy Law in 1989 — a credential she has maintained continuously since. Her associate, Kelsey Ann Kemp, graduated from UNT Dallas College of Law in May 2019, passed the State Bar exam on her first attempt, and was licensed that November after an undergraduate year spent teaching English in Spain.

Practice Concentration

Guelich’s practice is narrowly and deliberately focused: Chapter 7 liquidation and Chapter 13 reorganization for individual consumers, with particular attention to mortgage-related filings. She is candid on her own site about a 2016 procedural change in the Northern District of Texas (Dallas and Fort Worth): filers more than 60 days behind on their mortgage must now pay both ongoing payments and mortgage arrears through the Chapter 13 Trustee, who collects a 10% commission on both amounts — a distinction she flags because the Eastern District of Texas (Collin, Denton, Grayson counties) has not adopted the same requirement, meaning where a case is filed can materially change a client’s monthly Chapter 13 obligation.

Track Record

Guelich has appeared before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on bankruptcy matters on two occasions and won both — an appellate track record notable for a practice this size, since few consumer bankruptcy attorneys handle Fifth Circuit appellate work directly rather than referring it out. No specific case names or docket numbers were located in public sources for these appeals as of this profile’s research.

Client Voice

Guelich’s Avvo profile shows 12 reviews, 11 of them five-star and one four-star — an unusually strong and consistent rating for a bankruptcy practice. Third-party review aggregation describes a recurring theme in client feedback: responsiveness, warmth, and patience during what reviewers describe as a distressing life moment, along with clients specifically noting that Guelich took time to explain bankruptcy alternatives rather than moving straight to a filing recommendation.

Beyond the Courtroom

Guelich runs a deliberately small practice — by her own description, she and her associate are “the only attorneys in the office,” and she personally often replies to client emails after hours and on weekends, forwarding office calls to personal cell phones during and after business hours. This is a genuinely different operating model from a high-volume consumer bankruptcy firm running through several offices.

Recognition

Holly B. Guelich’s dual Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification, held continuously since 1989, is independently verified and genuine — she is, by her own accurate description, one of a relatively small number of Texas attorneys (roughly 175 statewide, per TBLS figures she cites) certified in Consumer Bankruptcy specifically. No Super Lawyers or Best Lawyers recognition was independently confirmed for this profile.

Texas Legal Backdrop

The Northern District of Texas’s post-2016 Chapter 13 mortgage-payment procedure — routing both ongoing payments and arrears through the trustee for filers more than 60 days delinquent — reflects a local bankruptcy court rule rather than a statewide statute, which is why the Eastern District of Texas handles the same situation differently. This is a useful illustration of how bankruptcy procedure can vary meaningfully by federal district even within the same state. Chapter 13 plan confirmation more broadly is governed by 11 U.S.C. § 1325, which sets the feasibility and good-faith standards a proposed repayment plan must meet. None of this is legal advice; which federal district a case falls into depends on the debtor’s county of residence, and a filer should confirm the applicable local procedures with counsel.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Holly Guelich’s differentiator is a genuinely rare combination for a two-attorney practice: 36 years of continuous dual TBLS certification, a strong and consistent independent review record, and confirmed Fifth Circuit appellate wins — depth that a much larger firm doesn’t automatically have simply by virtue of size, and personal availability (after-hours calls, direct email access) that a larger firm structurally can’t offer in the same way.

The honest trade-off is capacity: a two-attorney office has a hard ceiling on how many active cases it can carry at once compared to a multi-office consumer bankruptcy firm, and a filer facing an extremely time-sensitive matter should confirm current intake availability directly. For a filer who wants sustained, personal attorney access through a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 case rather than being one file among thousands, that trade-off runs clearly in Guelich’s favor.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from Holly B. Guelich’s own website (holly-guelich.com), her attorney profile page, State Bar of Texas licensing and certification records, Avvo client reviews, Lawyer Legion and Martindale-Hubbell listings, and a third-party review aggregator. The Fifth Circuit appellate win claims are the attorney’s own stated record; Awesome Attorneys did not independently locate the underlying case citations.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

This profile is an independent editorial article published by Awesome Attorneys. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any lawyer or law firm profiled on this site, and inclusion in this series is not paid placement. Facts in this profile were researched from public sources as described in the Methodology & Sourcing section and are current only as of the research date.