Rebecca Earl

Rebecca Earl is career law clerk to Hon. Michael B. Kaplan of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey in Trenton. As Judge Kaplan’s career clerk, she assists in overseeing more than 3,000 consumer and commercial bankruptcy cases. Ms. Earl has drafted numerous judicial opinions addressing complex and cutting-edge legal issues — several of which have received nationwide attention. Following law school, she clerked for a Superior Court judge in Burlington County, N.J., then moved to California, where she took odd jobs performing legal research and writing before teaming up with a local attorney handling high-volume mass tort litigation cases, eventually turning his small operation into a lucrative practice. Returning to New Jersey in 2011, Ms. Earl served as a term law clerk for a magistrate judge in the District of New Jersey, then transitioned to bankruptcy as a term law clerk for Judge Kaplan. Upon completion of her term in the bankruptcy court, she moved to the South Pacific to serve as court counsel to the Supreme Court of Palau in Micronesia, where she assisted Supreme Court justices with their respective dockets, helped with the second jury trial held in Palauan history, and contributed toward the implementation of the nation’s Family Protection Act. Upon returning to the U.S., she worked as a staff attorney for the Prison Litigation Office in Trenton, N.J., where she addressed habeas corpus, civil rights and constitutional law claims filed by prisoners. Ms. Earl speaks on CLE panels and has given several district-wide presentations on bankruptcy and other topics. She has written articles relating to bankruptcy issues and has served as editor-in-chief of the Bankruptcy Service Awareness Alert, a monthly newsletter published by Thomson Reuters that provides updates and insights into recent appellate decisions and developments in bankruptcy law. Ms. Earl received her B.A. in history from Lehigh University and her J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law.