9th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel Holds Official Hearings at the School of Law

On January 25, 2008, the School of Law hosted the 9th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (“BAP”) for official hearings in the school’s Appellate Courtroom. This is the second year in a row that the BAP has held hearings at the law school. The BAP is composed of three bankruptcy judges who hear appeals from bankruptcy cases arising in the federal 9th Circuit. Any appeals from the BAP go directly to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. This year’s BAP judges included Judge Dennis Montali, Judge Jim Pappas and Judge Randall Dunn. Litigants and their attorneys appeared and their attorneys made oral arguments during the morning session. Judge Albert, bankruptcy judge for the Central District of California, and an adjunct bankruptcy professor at the School of Law, was also present. The presence of an actual federal court at the law school gives students an easily accessible and important glimpse into legal practice. Chapman hosted a lunch for the judges, their clerks, students and faculty immediately after the proceedings. Members of the law school's Duberstein Moot Court Team attended both the hearings and the special luncheon with the judges, and saw first hand the advocacy process in bankruptcy courts. 

Dean Timothy Canova, Dean Celestine McConville, Professor Daniel Bogart, Judge
Theodore Albert, Judge Dennis Montali, Judge Jim Pappas and Judge Randall Dunn.

Chapman moot court students had a unique opportunity to network
with the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel judges at the luncheon.