Judges' Hot Topics

Deborah L. Thorne is a judge for the United States bankruptcy court, Northern District of Illinois. She was appointed for a fourteen-year term beginning on October 22, 2015, and her current term will expire on October 21, 2029. Thorne was admitted to practice in Illinois in 1983.

Prior to her appointment, she was a partner at the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a member of the Finance, Insolvency and Restructuring Department. Thorne focused her practice on the areas of bankruptcy, corporate restructuring, secured lending and insolvency law.

Judge Thorne attended Macalester College, where she earned her B.A. in 1975. She then earned her Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Duke University in 1976. She later earned her law degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago Kent College of Law, graduating in 1983.

Hannah L. Blumenstiel is a judge on the United States bankruptcy court, Northern District of California. She was appointed to the court on February 11, 2013.

From 1997 to 1998, Blumenstiel was an Assistant Attorney General with the Revenue Recovery Section of the Ohio Attorney General's Office where she "represented the State of Ohio's interests in bankruptcy cases." She was also a Law Clerk to Charles M. Caldwell from the United States bankruptcy court, Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division from 1998 to 2001. She worked as an associate with Winston & Strawn LLP from 2001 to 2008, until she became a partner from 2008 to 2012. In 2013, she was appointed a bankruptcy judge. She also lectures on bankruptcy, commercial litigation and receivership.

Blumensteil received her undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University in 1992 and her J.D. from Capital University Law School in 1997.

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.