Bankruptcy Ethics: Addressing Tough Clients

Hon. Martin R. Barash is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California in Woodland Hills, sworn in on March 26, 2015. He brings more than 20 years of legal experience to the bench.

Prior to his appointment, Judge Barash had served as a partner at Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP in Los Angeles since 2001, where he counseled parties in chapter 11 cases and litigated chapter 7 and chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Procter R. Hug, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1992-93. Judge Barash is a member of ABI’s Board of Directors. He also serves as a director of the Judicial Leadership Development Council and is a member of the NCBJ Committee on Judicial Security. He previously was a member of the board of directors for the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum.

Judge Barash is a frequent panelist on bankruptcy law issues and has been a guest lecturer at the UCLA School of Law. He has also been involved in the local legal community as a pro bono attorney with the Public Counsel Chapter 7 Reaffirmation Hearing Clinic, and has been a volunteer judge for a course on negotiating and confirming chapter 11 plans at the UCLA School of Law and with UCLA’s Mock Trial Competition. He currently serves as a director and immediate past president of the Junior Statesmen Foundation, a national, nonpartisan organization sponsoring civics education programs for high school students.

Judge Barash received his A.B. magna cum laude in 1989 from Princeton University and his J.D. in 1992 from the UCLA School of Law, where he served as member, editor, business manager and symposium editor of the UCLA Law Review.

An insightful writer known for his authoritative take on legal developments affecting bankruptcy practice, Rochelle published for Bloomberg every day from 2007 until this fall.

Prior to his second career in journalism, he practiced bankruptcy law for 35 years, including 17 years as a partner in the New York office of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.

He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Columbia University, where he won Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar awards in the law school.

Hon. Mary Grace Diehl is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, appointed in February 2004.

Prior to taking the bench, she was a partner in the litigation section of Troutman Sanders LLP and chaired its Bankruptcy Practice Group. During her years in private practice, she was consistently named in The Best Lawyers in America and Chambers US: America’s Leading Business Lawyers. Judge Diehl is the immediate past president of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, and serves on the Boards of Directors of ABI and the Turnaround Management Association. She is also a Fellow and vice president of the American College of Bankruptcy and a former president of the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute.

Judge Diehl received the Woman of the Year in Restructuring Award in 2008 from IWIRC (International Women in Restructuring Confederation) and is a regular speaker at CLE programs. She served as a trustee of Canisius College from 2008-14 and has been an adjunct professor of law at Emory Law School.

Judge Diehl received her B.A. summa cum laude from Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.