Hon. Heather Zubke Cooper

Hon. Heather Zubke Cooper is the Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Vermont in Burlington. Prior to her appointment on March 14, 2022, she was a partner at Facey Goss & McPhee, P.C., a Vermont-based law firm, which she joined in 2006 as an associate and later became a partner. Judge Cooper has more than 20 years of experience in the financial and restructuring industry, having represented individual and corporate debtors and creditors in loan workouts and restructurings, liquidations, foreclosures, litigation, seizures and receiverships. During her partnership at Facey Goss & McPhee, P.C., she served as managing partner and became Board Certified in Consumer Bankruptcy Law by the American Board of Certification. She also served as the Bankruptcy Law Section chair of the Vermont Bar Association from 2014-18 and has served on various task forces for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Vermont since 2011. Judge Cooper is a member of the Texas, Massachusetts and Vermont Bar Associations, the Federal Bar Council, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, ABI and the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees. She serves as a member of the Human Resources Advisory Council of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and various Second Circuit committees, and is a frequent lecturer at national conferences on bankruptcy-related issues. Judge Cooper previously clerked for former bankruptcy judge Colleen A. Brown and practiced with Murphy & King, P.C. and Dunn, Kacal, Adams, Pappas & Law, P.C. Before entering private practice, she served as briefing attorney to Justice David L. Richards of the Texas Court of Appeals, Second District. Judge Cooper received her B.A. from the University of Houston in 1993 and her J.D. magna cum laude from South Texas College of Law in 1998.