ATexasBankruptcyLawyersBlog

Shad Robinson took the bench as the twelfth bankruptcy judge to serve in the Western District of Texas on February 21, 2023. Judge Robinson, by his own telling, took an unlikely path to law school and practicing bankruptcy law. He is fairly unique among his bankruptcy colleagues in that he practiced in a small firm in a small city and practiced both consumer and business bankruptcy. However, he does possess one credential common among the current judiciary in that he clerked for one the Western District Bankruptcy Judges.

In the program Who Killed the Company? Tips and Trends in Claims and Defenses, Judge Marvin Isgur and his fellow panelists confronted issues such as in pari delicto, insurance coverage and waiver of fiduciary duties. However, one discussion led by Judge Isgur focused on whether solvency should be determined based on what was known at the time of the valuation or what was known at a later date. The discussion highlighted that valuation can be a moving target based on what is known at a given point in time. 

The Western District of Texas crosses two time zones, has a population of 7.6 million and contains 93,000 square miles.  It is larger than the State of Oklahoma but smaller than the State of New Mexico. It contains the 7th, 11th and 24th largest cities in the United States (San Antonio, Austin and El Paso respectively). Since the Bankruptcy Code was adopted, the Western District has been served by 12 judges.  The judges of the Western District have come from San Antonio, Houston, Waco and El Paso.

 At the ABI Winter Leadership Conference, I attended a diversity and inclusion workshop put on by Elton Ndoma-Ogar of Alix Partners and Peter S. Salib of Perkins Coie, LLP. I wasn't sure that writing about an interactive workshop would be useful, but a friend encouraged me to try. At the end of the article, I have included a link to their materials, which you can access if you are an ABI member. If you are not an ABI member, contact me and I can send them to you.