Hon. Catherine Peek McEwen

Hon. Catherine Peek McEwen is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, appointed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 22, 2005, and an adjunct professor at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. She is the first female judge appointed in her district. Prior to becoming a judge, she was in private practice for almost 23 years in Tampa, concentrating on commercial litigation with an emphasis on representing parties in bankruptcy cases, and was a solo practitioner from 2001 until she was appointed to the bench. Judge McEwen was elected into the American Law Institute in 2012. In recent years, she was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to be the Bankruptcy Observer to the Judicial Conference of the United State (JCUS), the policy-making body for federal judiciary, for a two-year term (2017-19). She is a member of the JCUS Advisory Committee on the Bankruptcy Rules (2020-26) and, most recently, a member of the Committee on the Judicial Branch (indefinite term). Judge McEwen is a past Eleventh Circuit Governor on National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges? Board of Governors and is currently a member of the NCBJ?s Legislative Committee and Centennial Celebration Committee. She also is a member of The Florida Bar?s Business Law Section (BLS) Executive Council and the immediate past judicial chair of the section?s Bankruptcy/UCC Committee. Judge McEwen is currently co-chair of The Florida Bar?s Pro Bono Legal Services Committee and judicial chair of the BLS Scholars & Fellows Retention Task Force. She also is a past chair of The Florida Bar?s Federal Court Practice Committee. Judge McEwen is a past chair/president of the Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association, was a court-appointed bankruptcy mediator from 1989-2005, is a past chair of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida?s Local Bankruptcy Rules Advisory Committee, and is a past chair of a Florida Bar Grievance Committee. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Judge McEwen was a sportswriter from 1975-79 for the Tampa Tribune and the Tampa Times. She received her B.A. in political science from the University of South Florida in 1979 and her J.D. cum laude from Stetson University in 1982.

Catherine Peek McEwen