Ninth Circuit Judges Reappoint Judge Bluebond

Thursday, December 18, 2014

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Ninth Circuit Judges Reappoint Judge Bluebond

By a MetNews Staff Writer

Judges of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have appointed Bankruptcy Judge Sheri A. Bluebond of the Central District of California to a second 14-year term, Chief Judge Sidney A. Thomas said yesterday.

The Office of the Ninth Circuit Executive explained in a release that the reappointment process involved a performance evaluation as well as consideration of public comments.

Bluebond, 53, who maintains chambers in Los Angeles, came onto the bankruptcy bench in February 2001. Her reappointment will extend her tenure on the court through Jan. 31, 2029.

Prior to her appointment, Bluebond had engaged in private practice as a partner at the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella LLP, where she had specialized in bankruptcy law since 1995. She was associated previously with the Los Angeles law firms of Murphy, Weir & Butler from 1991 to 1995 and Gendel, Raskoff, Shapiro & Quittner from 1983 to 1991.

Bluebond graduated with honors from UCLA in 1982 and was first in her class at UCLA School of Law, where she worked on the law review and graduated in 1985.

Bluebond is a fellow of the American Bankruptcy College and serves on the Executive and Bankruptcy committees of the Commercial Law and Bankruptcy Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. She serves as a frequent lecturer and panelist on various topics of bankruptcy law, on behalf of groups such as the American Bar Association, Practicing Law Institute and the Federal Bar Association.

She was inducted into the American College of Bankruptcy.

Bluebond was one of 19 judges who joined Judge Thomas Donovan’s 2011 opinion holding that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional to the extent it prevented a same-sex couple whose marriage was recognized under state law from filing a joint petition in bankruptcy. She explained to the New York Times at the time that bankruptcy judges signed on to their colleagues’ decisions when “threshold questions” were brought before one judge and others in that district chose to join in “so the bar would know where we stand.”

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, which is authorized 24 bankruptcy judges, reported 60,545 new filings in fiscal year 2014.