Paul W. Bonapfel

Hon. Paul W. Bonapfel is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta and Rome, Ga., appointed in 2002. Prior to his appointment, he practiced law in Atlanta with Lamberth, Bonapfel, Cifelli & Stokes, P.A., now known as Lamberth, Cifelli, Ellis & Nason, P.A. As an attorney, Judge Bonapfel represented all types of parties in bankruptcy cases, including consumer and business debtors in liquidation cases, business debtors in reorganization cases, chapter 7 and 11 bankruptcy trustees, creditors’ committees, and creditors in both consumer and business cases. Judge Bonapfel is a co-author of Chapter 13 Practice and Procedure (Thomson Reuters). A Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, he has served as chairperson of the Bankruptcy Sections of the State Bar of Georgia and the Atlanta Bar Association and was a director and president of the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute, which presents an annual seminar on bankruptcy law and procedure. He also was a member of ABI’s Subchapter V Task Force from 2023-24, and he taught a course at Mercer Law School in Macon, Ga., on consumer bankruptcy practice. Judge Bonapfel received his B.A. cum laude from Florida State University in 1972 and his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1975, where he was a notes editor of the Georgia Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Wilbur D. Owens, Jr., in Macon.