Barnes & Thornburg Partner Appointed Bankruptcy Judge

INDIANAPOLIS – Barnes & Thornburg is pleased to announce that Chicago partner, Deborah Thorne, has been appointed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to become a federal judge with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She will take the bench on October 22, with a formal investiture ceremony to follow on December 9, in the Dirksen Federal Building. 

“It is an honor that Deborah has been selected for this important role as she is a talented lawyer with a career built on professional excellence,” said Mark Rust, Chicago Managing Partner. “With more than 30 years of experience in bankruptcy and restructuring, she’ll be a tremendous asset to the Northern District Federal Bankruptcy Court.”

Thorne joined Barnes & Thornburg in 2002 and has been a member of the Finance, Insolvency and Restructuring Department. With a practice focused on bankruptcy, corporate restructuring, secured lending and insolvency law, she has represented parties in some of the largest and most complex restructuring matters. She also served as a federal equity receiver in CFTC v. Edward R. Velazquez, CFTC v. Raleigh Capital Management, Inc. and U.S. CFTC v. AlphaMetrix LLC and has represented other federal court appointed receivers in matters involving securities and commodity fraud.

As an active member of the community and profession, Thorne is vice president of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) and serves on the board of governors of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association. She previously served as chair of the Chicago Bar Association Bankruptcy and Reorganization Committee, the Seventh Circuit Bar Association Bankruptcy Committee, and the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) Unsecured Trade Creditors’ Committee and served on the board of governors of the Chicago Council of Lawyers. Thorne is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and a member of the Federal Bar Association, International Women’s Insolvency Confederation and the Decalogue Society of Lawyers.  She is past chair of the Board of Women Employed and continues to serve as co-chair of the Governance Committee.

View the press release issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit here.

With more than 600 attorneys and other legal professionals, Barnes & Thornburg is one of the largest law firms in the country. The firm serves clients worldwide from 13 offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Delaware, Indiana, Los Angeles, Michigan, Minneapolis, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit us online at www.btlaw.com or on Twitter @BTLawNews