Hon. Steven W. Rhodes

Bio

Hon. Steven W. Rhodes is a retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan inDetroit, where he served for nearly 30 years until his retirement on Feb. 18, 2015. He served as chief judge from 2002-09, and from 1997-2004 and 2008-11, he also served on the Bankruptcy AppellatePanel of the Sixth Circuit, serving as its chief judge from 2002-04. He joined the Ann Arbor, Mich.,office of JAMS, the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, and has experience in the resolution of complex disputes in bankruptcy, business/commercial, class action/mass tort, employment and fraud/Ponzi schemes. Judge Rhodes served as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Detroit Law School, and he is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy.He is also co-author of The Ponzi Book: A Legal Resource for Unraveling Ponzi Schemes and oversaw the City of Detroit?s municipal bankruptcy case. On March 1, 2016, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointed him to be the emergency manager for the Detroit Public Schools, serving until Dec. 31, 2016.Judge Rhodes has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars on bankruptcy law and practice. From1994-96, he was an associate editor for the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, and from 2005-09, hewas ABI?s Vice President-Research. On April 3, 2009, ABI awarded him its 2009 Distinguished ServiceAward. From 2002-04, Judge Rhodes was the chair of the National Conference of Bankruptcy JudgesEndowment for Education. Crain?s Detroit Business honored him as one of its 2014 Newsmakers of the Year, and Michigan Lawyers? Weekly named him 2014 ?Lawyer of the Year.? In September 2015, the Commercial Law League of America awarded him the Lawrence P. King Award for Excellence in the Field of Bankruptcy. Goodwill Industries awarded him its Barbara R. Smith Lifetime AchievementAward, and Walsh College awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws. Judge Rhodes received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served as an editor of the Michigan Law Review.

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