Panelists│Roadways to the Federal Bench: Who Me? A Bankruptcy Judge?

The Honorable Andre M. Davis

City Solicitor, Baltimore City Department of Law

Andre M. Davis served for thirty years as a judge on four courts: the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, from 2009 through 2017; the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, from 1995 through 2009; the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, from 1990 through 1995; and the state District Court from 1987 through 1990. Upon graduating from law school, Davis served as law clerk to Judge Frank A. Kaufman of the federal district court and then to Judge Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., of the Fourth Circuit. Before his appointment as a judge, he served as an appellate attorney for the Civil Rights Division for the U.S. Department of Justice, as an Assistant United States Attorney in Baltimore, and as an Assistant Law Professor.

Davis received a BA in American history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971, and graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1978. He has received numerous commendations and awards for his leadership of community-based non-profits and attorney organizations.  In September 2017, Davis retired from the bench and was appointed by the Mayor Pugh as Baltimore City Solicitor.  In that role, he heads the City Law Department, comprised of more than one hundred lawyers and support personnel, and serves as one of five members of the City’s Board of Estimates, the municipal spending authority.

The Honorable Frank J. Bailey

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, District of Massachusetts

Frank J. Bailey was appointed on January 30, 2009 and he served as Chief Judge from 2010 until 2014.  His chambers are in Boston and he is assigned to the Eastern Division.  He was born in Kingston, New York, received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service (BSFS) in 1977 and his JD from Suffolk University School of Law (Boston) in 1980.  He also serves on the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.  Judge Bailey taught legal writing and research at Boston University School of Law from 1981 to 1993.  He currently teaches Business Reorganizations at Suffolk University School of Law.  He has also taught courses on a variety of legal subjects in Astrakhan, Russia, Sofia, Bulgaria and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Judge Bailey served as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Herbert P. Wilkins of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1980-81.  He was an associate at the Boston office of Sullivan & Worcester LLP, where he practiced in the litigation and corporate restructuring departments, until 1987.  He spent the next twenty-two years as a partner at the firm of Sherin and Lodgen LLP where he was the Chairman of the Litigation Department and a member of the firm’s management committee.  His practice focused on complex business litigation and business bankruptcy.  He often represented clients in the real estate, medical device, pharmaceutical and high technology businesses.

Judge Bailey was appointed by the First Circuit to oversee the financial restructuring of the City of Central Falls, Rhode Island, a rare Chapter 9 case.  The City of Central Falls filed a contested plan of readjustment that was confirmed in a little more than a year.

Judge Bailey has served on the Board of Governors of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and was its Education Committee Chair in 2017.  Beginning in October 2019 he will serve as president–elect of the NCBJ.  He is past chair of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges of the American Bar Association and currently serves as the Judicial Member at Large on the ABA Board of Governors.  Judge Bailey is passionate about diversity on the bench and has worked to ensure that the federal bench reflects the populations that it serves.

The Honorable Tanya S. Chutkan

U.S. District Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Judge Tanya Chutkan was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in June 2014.  Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she received her B.A. in Economics from George Washington University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was an Associate Editor of the Law Review and a Legal Writing Fellow. 

After law school, she worked in private practice for three years, then joined the District of Columbia Public Defender Service (“PDS”), where she worked as a trial attorney and supervisor.  During her tenure at PDS, she argued several appellate cases and tried over 30 cases, including numerous serious felony matters.  Eleven years later, she left PDS to join Boies, Schiller, & Flexner LLP, where she specialized in litigation and white collar criminal defense.  During her 12 years at the firm, her clients included antitrust class action plaintiffs, as well as individual and corporate defendants involved in complex state and federal litigation.

From 1996 – 2000 Judge Chutkan was a member of the Steering Committee for the Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section of the District of Columbia Bar.  She is a frequent lecturer on trial techniques and she has served as a faculty member at the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop.

The Honorable Robert A. Gordon

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, District of Maryland (Baltimore)

Hon. Robert A. Gordon has been a Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Maryland since 2006. Before coming to the bench, he was a partner at Tydings & Rosenberg LLP in Baltimore. He frequently participates in educational programs as a panelist and is active in community service organizations throughout Maryland. Presently, he is a Treasurer of the Maryland State Bar Association’s Bates/Vincent Foundation, an entity dedicated to aiding lawyers with substance abuse and mental health problems. Judge Gordon has three children that he adores and is a lifelong New York Yankees fan, music lover, amateur musician and aspiring novelist.