NCBJ 2021: Awards Edition

 One of the celebratory aspects of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges is the recognition of judges, attorneys and others receiving awards from various groups. I went to as many programs I could. Congratulations to the following honorees!

The Bankruptcy Inn Alliance of the American Inns of Court recognized two judges, making up for the lost year of Covid. There are currently fourteen Bankruptcy Alliance Inns, including a new one in North Carolina. I am a member of the Larry E. Kelly Inn of Court in Austin-San Antonio, Texas.

Judge Judy Fitzgerald (retired) from Pittsburgh was the 2020 award recipient. She has her own Inn of Court named for her. I got to know Judge Fitzgerald from the Commercial Law League of America where she was very active.

Judge Harlan "Cooter" Hale from Dallas was the 2021 award recipient. Judge Hale will be retiring next year among what he described to me as a generational shift in the bankruptcy judiciary. Judge Hale is a member of the John C. Ford Inn of Court in Dallas. He said that when he took the bench, one of his duty stations was in Wichita Falls, Texas. When he traveled there, Judge Ford's robes were still hanging there and he wore them in honor of his predecessor.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain (S.D. N.Y.) received the Lawrence P. King Award for Excellence in Bankruptcy. Judge Swain is one of a select group of bankruptcy judges to be appointed to an Article III bench. She was appointed as a Bankruptcy Judge in the Southern District of New York in 1996 despite not having practiced bankruptcy. In 2000, President Clinton appointed her to the District Court bench. In 2017, she was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts to preside over the PROMESA debt restructuring cases in Puerto Rico. She will become chief judge of the Southern District of New York later this year. 

Judge Randolph Haines (retired) received the William Norton Judicial Excellence Award. While serving on the bankruptcy bench in Arizona, he wrote the opinion in Bliemeister v. Industrial Commission (In re Bliemeister), 251 B.R. 383 (Bankr. D. Ariz. 2000) which held that sovereign immunity did not preclude the Bankruptcy Court from determining that a debt owing to a state agency had been discharged. The Supreme Court relied upon his analysis in Tennessee Student Assistance Corp. v. Hood, 124 S.Ct. 1905 (2004).

The American Bankruptcy Institute presented its Annual Service Award to the ABI staff in recognition for their heroic service during the year of Covid.

The ABI also recognized John Penn of Perkins Coie and Bob Keach of Bernstein Shur. Both men are former Presidents of the ABI. Mr. Penn was praised for his Zelig-like presence at many important times during the life of the ABI while Mr. Keach was recognized as the co-chair of the ABI’s Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 and his work on legislative reform.