Professionalism! Competence! Certification! Best Practices! Bankruptcy Judges Sound Off on the Best (and Worst) Behavior of Our Bankruptcy Brothers and Sisters

Hon. Mary F. Walrath is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Delaware in Wilmington, appointed in 1998. She served as Chief Bankruptcy Judge from 2003-08.

Judge Walrath previously clerked for Hon. Emil F. Goldhaber, Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and was an attorney at Clark Ladner Fortenbaugh & Young in Philadelphia, concentrating in the areas of debtor/creditor rights and commercial litigation.

In addition to speaking at numerous bankruptcy educational programs and panels throughout the country, Judge Walrath is a founding member and co-president of the Delaware Bankruptcy American Inn of Court, a member of the Delaware Chapter of the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC), a member of ABI and a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. She is also an editor of the Rutter Group Bankruptcy Practice Guide. Judge Walrath is active in the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ), having served on its Board of Governors from 2007-12, as secretary from 2013-14, as chair of its Education Committee from 2014-15 and as president from 2016-17.

She is currently NCBJ’s immediate past president. Judge Walrath served as an associate editor and then business manager of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal from 2009-15. She also testified before the House Judiciary Committee on H.R. 1667, the Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act of 2017.

Judge Walrath received her A.B. in history from Princeton University and earned her J.D. cum laude from Villanova University, where she was a member of the Villanova Law Review and was awarded the Order of the Coif.

Hon. James J. Tancredi is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Connecticut in Hartford, sworn in on Sept. 1, 2016.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was a commercial litigation and business restructuring partner at Day Pitney, LLP (f/k/a Day Berry & Howard), where he cultivated a diverse and challenging practice that crossed major industries, moved from regional to national scope and secured material roles in prominent restructuring and bankruptcies. During his 37-year career at Day Pitney, he tried dozens of cases, represented a full range of constituents, and assembled and led innumerbale teams in often highly contested, first-impression financial reorganizations.

Judge Tancredi frequently lectured at the University of Connecticut School of Law and at bar association CLE programs. His professional activities included service as president and director of the Hartford County Bar Association and the Connecticut Turnaround Management Association. Judge Tancredi has been an active member of the Connecticut Bar Association, American Bar Association and the American Trial Lawyers Association, and he was a director of the Hartford County Bar Foundation and Connecticut Mental Health Association. He is also a Connecticut Bar Foundation James W. Cooper fellow.

In practice, he wrote widely about business restructuring issues and co-authored the Connecticut chapter in Strategic Alternatives for and Against Distressed Businesses, 2016 Edition (Thomson Reuters).

Judge Tancredi received his B.A. in urban studies and political science from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and his J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Hon. Jerry C. Oldshue, Jr. is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile.

Prior to taking the bench in October 2015, he was a shareholder in the firm of Rosen Harwood, P.A in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where he served as the managing shareholder of the firm’s creditor’s rights department. While in practice, Judge Oldshue was admitted to practice before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, all U.S. District Courts in Alabama, and all Alabama state courts. His memberships included the Alabama State Bar, where he served six years on the Executive Committee of the Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section, serving as chairman in 2011. He is also a member of ABI and the Conference on Consumer Finance Law.

In 2001, Judge Oldshue became one of only seven attorneys in the state to achieve board certification as a specialist in creditors’ rights law.

He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama, and his J.D. and M.B.A., also from the University of Alabama, as one of only two people invited to participate in the school’s joint degree program.

Hon. David W. Hercher is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge in the District of Oregon in Portland.

Prior to taking the bench in 2017, he was an attorney and partner at Miller Nash LLP in both their Portland and Seattle offices.

Judge Hercher received his B.A. from the University of Oregon and his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

Hon. James M. Carr is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis, appointed in 2013.

Previously, he was a partner at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP and had been in private practice for 38 years, focusing on the representation of business debtors and creditors in chapter 11 cases, financial restructurings and commercial litigation. Judge Carr is Board Certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification and is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy and the American Bar Foundation.

Judge Carr was named in The Best Lawyers in America from 1987-2012 in Bankruptcy and Creditor Rights, Insolvency and Reorganization Law and Bankruptcy Litigation, and has been a panelist and chair of many seminars on bankruptcy, reorganization, creditor rights and lender liability sponsored by the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum, Federal Bar Association and Indiana Bankers Association. He is also an adjunct professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, served on the law school’s Board of Visitors, and is a past member and president of its Alumni Board.

Judge Carr received his B.A. in English from Indiana University in 1972 and his J.D. magna cum laude in 1975 from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif.