Diane Finkle

Hon. Diane Finkle is a retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Rhode Island in Providence, appointed on Sept. 6, 2012, and to the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel in 2013. She retired as a full-time judge on Sept. 9, 2025, after 13 years on the bench. She currently is on recall to assist the current sitting bankruptcy judge, Judge Dorsey, and she continues as a judge on the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. Prior to her appointment, Judge Finkle was an attorney for 30 years with Winograd, Shine and Zacks PC in Providence, R.I., where she represented debtors, secured creditors and creditors’ committees in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, and served as counsel to bankruptcy trustees, also having served as a court-appointed receiver for various manufacturing, service and retail businesses, and commercial and residential real estate developments in numerous state court receivership proceedings. Judge Finkle had been continually listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Rhode Island Bankruptcy and Insolvency practitioners since 2007, and was named a Super Lawyer in 2008. She is a member of ABI and formerly a member of the Committee on Debtor and Creditor Rights of the Rhode Island Bar Association. She also has served on numerous education panels for ABI, the Rhode Island Bar Association and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. Judge Finkle received her B.A. from Colorado University and the University of Rhode Island, and her J.D. from George Washington National Law Center at George Washington University.