law school

First female bankruptcy judge focused on opportunity, not adversity

First female bankruptcy judge focused on opportunity, not adversity

Expectations didn’t hold Robyn Moberly back from doing what she wanted.

The recently retired bankruptcy judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana was encouraged to pursue two traditional career paths for women when she entered college in the 1970s.

“I grew up in a different era than today, and most people anticipated that women would become nurses or teachers because it blended so well with having a family. And certainly my parents had that expectation for me, and so they insisted that I major in elementary education,” Moberly said.

She graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 1975 with a degree in elementary education and economics.

Moberly said she couldn’t really get a job with an economics major without also going to graduate school.

As she was considering graduate school, she was surrounded by high-achieving women in a sorority house.

“Since a lot of the women were going to law school, and many are now physicians, surgeons, I kind of started thinking outside the box, and that’s what pushed me to go to law school, was the women I was around,” Moberly, who received her J.D. from the Robert H. McKinney School of Law in

… Read the rest
July 5, 2024 by ATTORNEY

Giuliani Seeks to Alter Bankruptcy to Speed Asset Sale but Keep Future Income

Rudolph W. Giuliani told a bankruptcy court on Monday that he would like to have his assets sold to pay his creditors, including two Georgia election workers he defamed in his efforts to keep former President Donald J. Trump in office after the 2020 election.

Mr. Giuliani asked the bankruptcy court to convert his case from what is known as Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, which would put an independent trustee in charge of his assets, similar to what the creditors requested.

Mr. Giuliani, who filed for bankruptcy in December, has listed about $11 million in assets, most of which come from two properties he owns in New York and Palm Beach, Fla. In court filings, he has disclosed that he owes about 20 people and businesses about $153 million, including $148 million to the two election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.

After months of absent, late and incomplete filings, lawyers for his creditors recently asked the court to hold the former New York City mayor in contempt and to impose penalties. They have previously expressed concerns that he is hiding income. Last month, they asked the court to appoint an independent trustee to take over Mr. Giuliani’s

… Read the rest
July 2, 2024 by ATTORNEY

Judge Who Axed J&J Bankruptcy Move Handed Biden a Vacancy

Judge Who Axed J&J Bankruptcy Move Handed Biden a Vacancy

When Tom Ambro got a call from a friend in 1990 who mentioned “eleven-ten,” he thought it was a reference to the time rather than the section of the bankruptcy code that covers airplanes.

Ambro, then a transactional lawyer at Richards Layton & Finger in Wilmington, Del. agreed to represent aircraft financiers in Continental Airlines’ second bankruptcy.

That case, which he later argued before the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, altered the trajectory of Ambro’s career, pivoting his focus to bankruptcy. He ultimately returned to the Third Circuit as a judge, where he is perhaps the foremost authority on bankruptcy law sitting on any federal appeals court.

“He’s probably forgotten more bankruptcy than many circuit judges will hope to learn,” said Bruce Markell, a former bankruptcy judge who now teaches at Northwestern University.

Ambro, 73, is still making a mark even after recently taking senior status, penning the decision that struck down a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary’s bankruptcy earlier this year.

He may not have semi-retired at all if not for the election of fellow Delawarean Joe Biden, who had shepherded Ambro’s nomination through the Senate 20 years ago. By taking senior status, Ambro handed his

… Read the rest
July 22, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Exeter attorney makes first-ever SCOTUS appearance: ‘Every lawyer’s dream’

Exeter attorney makes first-ever SCOTUS appearance: ‘Every lawyer’s dream’

For Exeter attorney Terrie Harman, appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time on April 24 was exhilarating.

It’s a great privilege and a rare opportunity to appear before SCOTUS, and that is not lost on Harman.

“It’s every lawyer’s dream to go to the U.S. Supreme Court,” she says. “It was incredibly exciting. I can hardly believe that I went.”

Exeter attorney makes first-ever SCOTUS appearance: ‘Every lawyer’s dream’

Terrie Harman holding the brief for the case of Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, et al v. Brian W. Coughlin, her first appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Harman graduated from Franklin Pierce Law School in 1978 and began working at Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Bangor, Maine. There, she learned about bankruptcy law while representing indigents and developed a passion for the Bankruptcy Code. In the 1980s, she started her own firm, Harman Law Offices, where she was heavily involved in bankruptcy litigation and later became a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee.

Nowadays, her practice is mostly focused on probate litigation, estate planning, and general civil litigation, but it was one of her old bankruptcy cases that caught the eye of Boston lawyer, Richard Gottlieb, leading to a phone call that would place

… Read the rest
June 2, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Tamara F. Lawson named dean of the School of Law

News releases

July 5, 2022

Tamara F. Lawson has been named to the next Toni Rembe Endowed Deanship of the University of Washington’s School of Law, Provost Mark A. Richards announced today. Her appointment, set to begin Aug. 16, is subject to approval by the UW Board of Regents.

Lawson will replace UW Professor Elizabeth Porter, who has served as interim dean since the beginning of the calendar year.

Lawson comes to the UW from her position as dean and professor at St. Thomas University College of Law in Miami. Prior to becoming dean, she was the associate dean for academic affairs and associate dean for faculty development. She is the chair of the Law Professors Division of the National Bar Association and a board member of the Law School Admission Council. In addition, she is a member of the Board of Governors for the Society of American Law Teachers.

“Dean Lawson brings a wealth of experience and expertise in enrollment and student success, financial management, fundraising, and diversity and inclusion in the field of law, as well as impressive scholarship in criminal law,” Richards said. “We expect that, under Dean Lawson’s leadership, the UW School of Law will

… Read the rest
July 12, 2022 by LAW
July 2024
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031