Hon. Frank J. Bailey

Hon. Frank J. Bailey is a retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Massachusetts in Boston. He was appointed on Jan. 30, 2009, and served as Chief Judge from December 2010 until December 2014. He also served on the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. Previously, Judge Bailey clerked for Hon. Herbert P. Wilkins of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1980-81 and was an associate at the Boston office of Sullivan & Worcester LLP until 1987, where he practiced in its litigation and bankruptcy departments. He spent the next 22 years as a partner at Sherin and Lodgen LLP, where he chaired its litigation department and was a member of its management committee. His practice focused on complex business litigation and creditors? rights, and he often represented clients in medical device, pharmaceutical and high-technology businesses. Judge Bailey served as the consul for the Republic of Bulgaria in Boston before his appointment to the bench, and he has participated in many international judicial programs. In 2013, he taught at the Astrakhan State University School of Law in south central Russia, and he has also taught courses in Sofia, Bulgaria and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In addition, he taught legal writing and research at Boston University School of Law from 1981-93 and currently teaches a business bankruptcy course at Suffolk University School of Law in Boston. Judge Bailey was appointed by the First Circuit to oversee the financial restructuring of the City of Central Falls, R.I. He has served on the Board of Governors of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and was its Education Committee Chair in 2017. Judge Bailey served as the president of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges from 2020-21 and as the chair of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges of the American Bar Association from 2016-17. He also served as the Judicial Member at Large of the ABA Board of Governors, a member of the ABA Executive Committee, a member of the ABA House of Delegates, and recently as the chair of the board Committee on the Profession, Public Service and Diversity. Judge Bailey received his B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University?s School of Foreign Service and his J.D. from Suffolk University School of Law.