This Month's Speaker:
JUDGE CATHERINE PEEK MCEWEN
will be speaking on the topic of:
"Takeaways on Trial Practice for
Non-Bankruptcy Litigators"
1 CLE Credit (General)
Judge McEwen will cover the following in her presentation:
- Core and non-core jurisdiction (and why it matters)
- Rules of Procedure
- Motion hearings, discovery, and trials
- Automatic stay and obtaining comfort order or stay relief to finish up state court case (including family law exceptions to the stay)
- Keeping your PI case when client files
- Removal and remand
- Sanctions for stay and discharge violations
- Q&A's
SPEAKER'S BIOGRAPHY:
Catherine Peek McEwen is a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Florida (appointed August, 2005). She is also an adjunct professor at the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. Prior to becoming a judge, she was in private practice, concentrating on commercial litigation with an emphasis on representing parties in bankruptcy cases.
Judge McEwen was graduated from Stetson University College of Law cum laude in 1982 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida (Political Science) in 1979 after obtaining an Associate of Arts degree from Hillsborough Community College in 1975.
She was elected into the American Law Institute in 2012. Among her other honors are the Stetson University College of Law Distinguished Alumnus Award (2007), Hillsborough County Bar Association Jimmy Kynes Pro Bono Service Award (2008), the Stetson University College of Law J. Ben Watkins Award (2009), the Florida Association for Women Lawyers Leaders in the Law inaugural class designation (2010), the Tampa Bay Hispanic Bar Association’s Luis “Tony” Cabassa Award (2012), the Hillsborough Community College Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012), the George Edgecomb Bar Association’s Delano S. Stewart Diversity Award (2015), the inaugural Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice’s Distinguished Federal Judicial Service Award (2016), the Stetson Lawyers Alumni Association Ben C. Willard Award (2016), the University of South Florida Distinguished Alumna Award (2016), and the Bay Area Legal Services, Inc. Judge Don Castor Justice Award (2016). In 2017, she was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. to be the non-voting bankruptcy judge Observer at the Judicial Conference of the United States for a two-year term ending September 30, 2019. In 2020, she was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules for a term beginning January 1, 2021 and ending October 1, 2023.
She is the judicial chair of The Florida Bar Business Law Section Bankruptcy/UCC Committee and a member of The Florida Bar Business Law Section Executive Council as well as part chair of The Florida Bar Federal Court Practice Committee. She is co-chair of The Florida Bar Pro Bono Legal Services Committee. She is co-chair of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges' Future of the Conference Committee and Future of the Annual Meeting Subcommittee and a member of the Legislative Committee and the National Bar Association Liaison Committee. She is a Past Editor in Chief of the NCBJ Conference News, and past member of the NCBJ Endowment for Education Board, Public Outreach Committee, Ethics Committee, and the Newsletter Committee. She is a past chair and a member of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (of Florida) Pro Bono Committee. She is on the Advisory Board of Directors of the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers. She is a committee member of the Eleventh Circuit History Committee.
