Hon. Caryl E. Delano

Hon. Caryl E. Delano is Chief Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, initially appointed on June 25, 2008, and named Chief Judge on October 1, 2019. She also was appointed Presiding Judge of the Fort Myers Division in July 2012. In 2022, Judge Delano was appointed by the Eleventh Circuit to a second 14-year term as a bankruptcy judge. In 2022, she was appointed to the Bankruptcy Judges Advisory Committee to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts for a three-year term beginning in 2023. On July 6, 2023, the district court reappointed her as Chief Judge for another four-year term beginning on Oct. 1, 2023. Previously, Judge Delano practiced before the bankruptcy courts of the Central District of California for 14 years. In 1994, she returned to Tampa and most recently practiced law with the firm of Addison & Delano, P.A., where she concentrated her practice on bankruptcy and commercial litigation. Judge Delano has represented debtors and creditors in numerous chapter 11 cases and related adversary proceedings. She served as the liaison judge to the Middle District of Florida?s Local Rules Lawyers? Advisory Committee from 2011-20 and is a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges Federal Rules Advisory Committee. In 2017, Judge Delano received the Southwest Florida Bankruptcy Professionals Association?s Alexander L. Paskay Professionalism Award. In addition, she is a former executive director and past-president of the J. Clifford Cheatwood American Inn of Court. Judge Delano received her B.A. in English cum laude in 1976 from the University of South Florida and her J.D. in 1979 from Indiana University School of Law, having completed her final year of law school at Emory University School of Law.